From Counsel Connect, published by American Lawyer Media. This service is password protected, but members can find the article as well as a number of helpful immigration resources by going to www.counsel.com.

Immigration

by Jesse Londin

March 27, 1996

Everyone and anyone can become a citizen of our proud cybernation. No visa, no
passport, no nonvirtual documentation required. Get a wire, modem and a funny
box with a keyboard attached, and you can wave a digital flag with the rest.

Offline, however, governments require somewhat more of non-nationals seeking a
permanent place in a new country. And if certain legislators have their way, U.S.
law will become extremely restrictive in embracing immigrants. Immigration lawyers
know how this all works. These knowledgable counselors are on the Web each day
offering their services.

Where do immigration lawyers hang out on the Net? Let's take a look at a few
hotspots.

Tennessee cyberfirm Siskind and Susser host a regularly updated site they call,
"Immigration and Nationality Law." This is a grand old website, to be celebrating its
two-year anniversary in June, and according to owners Gregory Siskind and Lynn
Susser, in February 1996 alone, the site received 400,000 "hits" from visitors in 60
countries. (With traffic like that, the webmasters should post a site usage stats
page. And they do.)

http://www.visalaw.com

The highlight of this homepage is Siskind's Immigration Bulletin. Here's a free,
monthly e-newsletter covering developments in immigration law along with practice
tips and insights. Along with a legislative update and visa spotlight, this month's
issue (March 1996) looks at J-1 waivers for physicians, INS Service Center
processing times, a consular focus on Bonn, more. Back issues of the Bulletin are
archived onsite from October, 1994.

Siskind also posts a "Documents Center" featuring a selection of important
immigration documents such as President Clinton's recent executive order banning
companies found to employ illegal aliens from receiving government contracts, and
text of pending immigration legislation.

From Siskind's homepage, cut across the Web to the website of the American
Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).

http://aila.org/

Founded in 1946, AILA is an organization for 3,900 attorneys who practice in the
rarefied air of immigration law, offering its members CLE, professional services and
expertise. On its website you'll find membership information, a searchable member
index, a 1996 conference calendar and other resources.

For instance, click on "Fact Sheets" for interesting backgrounders on the benefits
of lawful immigration (one perk of owning a website is a platform from which to
broadcast your perspective on anything), and common myths about immigrants. I
learned legal immigration to the U.S. totals approximately 800,000 per year. Big
country.

Click, "Recent Legislative Affairs" for summaries and analysis of pending bills
affecting immigration (particularly Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson's controversial
measure).

Follow the link to the AILA's cousin site, "Immigration Lawyers on the Web", a
service that posts webpages for immigration firms, and includes its own collection
of law links.

Next stop, a webpage titled, "Immigration Central." The name is catchy, but
you'll have to pirouette around a splattering of ads and promo links to find the
substance. This site is posted by Information Technology Associates (ITA), a
maker of computer software for U.S. immigration. (ITA is apparently based in
Medford, Oregon, although its site appears to live on a server in the U.K.)

http://nw.demon.co.uk/immigration.usa/index.html

You don't have to buy any software to follow the links at Immigration Central. Scroll
to the homepage section labeled, Main Menu. (You'll pass a link to a Dictionary of
Occupational Titles, as well as a pointer to the excellent news service called
NewsPage, both useful offerings in their own right.)

Among goodies nestled under the Main Menu you'll discover a link to Immigration
and Naturalization Service materials (however these are brought to you by a gopher
menu at the Department of Justice, which tends to raise the question, where is the
INS website? But don't ask me: Send e-mail to INS Commissioner Doris
Meissner.)

Also here, Immigration Central links to browsable and searchable text versions of
the Immigration and Nationalities Act (8 U.S. Code) and related CFR provisions.
Read or search NAFTA. Jump to websites of the Federation for American
Immigration (FAIR), Minority Affairs Forum, Yahoo's immigration listings, and a
hodgepodge of links titled Basic Immigration Resources, put together by Autonomy
Publishing.

Some say in this great e-country, the streets are paved with digital gold. Which
may be why the Internet goes that extra mile for immigration clients and their
counsel. Here's to the Web of the brave and Net of the free.