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| Lawyers Immigrate To the
Net Web expands practice, offers visa information Carrie Kirby, Chronicle Staff Writer |
Monday, April 3, 2000
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San Jose attorney Bruce W. Burns used to have a small practice helping immigrants get visas, green cards and other documents from the Immigration and Naturalization Service. He worked mostly with people already living in the Bay Area. Then he put up a Web page, http://www.burnslaw.com/, a simple site that explains the basic kinds of visas available and prominently displays his e-mail address. In the five years since he brought his practice online, his client base has tripled and diversified. ``Because of the Internet, our practice has expanded so that it now includes the entire world. We get e-mails from every country, even obscure countries in Africa and Asia,'' Burns said. Burns is one of hundreds of immigration attorneys who have Web sites. While Burns' online activity is limited to communicating with clients via e-mail, many of his colleagues conduct major parts of their practice online. San Francisco immigration law firm Berry, Appleman & Leiden allows clients to check the status of their case on the firm's Web site by entering a password, the same way one would track a package sent by Federal Express. Warren Leiden, one of the partners at the firm, said that by using Web-based forms that they've created, he can prepare applications in several hours that once would have taken a week. In other areas of law, attorneys are just starting to incorporate the Internet into their practices, but immigration lawyers have been flourishing on the Web for several years. One reason that Burns and his ilk are ahead of the curve is that unlike most legal areas, immigration is governed nationally. Immigration rules don't vary from state to state. So while a San Mateo criminal lawyer can help clients only in California, Burns can help anyone who sees his Web site, no matter what state or country the client lives in. And since the Web can reach those potential clients in Kathmandu, it's a more sensible advertising vehicle for Burns than the San Jose Yellow Pages. Ironically, just as lawyers are using technology to speed up the preparation of visa applications, the INS is backing away from plans to speed up its processing by accepting applications electronically. Receiving forms online instead of on paper would save the INS time because it wouldn't need to type data from paper forms into the INS computer system. The government agency originally hoped to accept electronic applications by 2002 or 2003. But spokeswoman Eyleen Schmidt said funds needed to switch to electronic forms will probably be used instead to hire more processors and pay them overtime to reduce huge backlogs in applications for naturalization and green cards. And a national pilot program meant to speed up the processing of naturalization applications by letting applicants enter some information on Web-based forms has been all but abandoned because the system doesn't work well, Schmidt said. The INS does provide useful information online at http://www.ins/. usdoj.gov, such as updates on its complex rules and answers to frequently asked questions. But several lawyers have dwarfed the INS' official page with their own sites, which have become virtual libraries of immigration law. At http://www.visalaw.com/, Tennessee lawyer Greg Siskind has posted 3,000 articles explaining everything from how to adopt a child from another country to which kind of visa is ideal for doing graduate work in an American university. If potential clients -- or browsers -- can't find the information they need from the articles posted, there are other options. On the discussion board at Siskind's Web site, one can post visa questions and get advice from other visa applicants or from Siskind himself. Carl Shusterman, an attorney who practices in Los Angeles, answers questions during live chats on his site, http://www.shusterman.com/. While being online brings in new clients, it also means spending many hours of unbillable time building up the Web site and answering e-mails. Siskind, along with one other lawyer at his firm, spends most of his time writing articles for the site and answering the 200 to 300 e-mail messages he gets every day. He has learned to code HTML (the language for Web pages) and spends many late nights uploading news updates to the site. All of this casual interaction is unusual in law. In the past, attorneys have usually offered their opinions only when they have entered into a binding contract with a client. To avoid being held responsible for any bad advice someone might get on a discussion board or in a chat, the sites prominently post disclaimers such as this one found on Siskind's site: ``Nothing included in these pages should be construed as creating an attorney-client relationship.'' Robin Railson of Berkeley was impressed by the amount of information she found on lawyers' sites when she researched ways to prevent her husband, Sani, an Israeli national, from being deported. Sani had overstayed his visa and is now being held in detention. Without the articles and message boards, ``I wouldn't have known there were so many other people in my situation,'' Railson said. She also used the Internet to locate a lawyer. She searched the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory at http://www.lawyers.com/ for attorneys who specialize in visa law and e-mailed a description of her husband's case to about 35 Bay Area lawyers. Within 24 hours, she had heard back from nearly all of them, although only a handful were interested in the case. She found that many of the immigration lawyers on the Internet -- including San Francisco's Berry, Appleman & Leiden -- focus solely on getting visas for prospective employees of high-tech companies. The attorneys get paid by the employers, who sometimes hire them to handle paperwork for thousands of foreign employees. Refugees and poor immigrants, on the other hand, wouldn't find as many online resources targeted at them. ``Most of our clients are low-income, working families, who do not have access to the Internet,'' said Laura Wolff, a program director at the International Institute of San Francisco, a nonprofit organization that helps immigrants and refugees. Some organizations use the Internet on behalf of low-income immigrants who can't get Internet access themselves. Sara Campos, staff attorney for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, said that when her organization defends a refugee asking for asylum in the United States, they research the conditions of the refugee's home country using the Internet. Siskind says a few refugee cases have come to him through his Web site. He has also started hearing from would-be immigrants in countries that in the past were too poor to get wired. In fact, his e-mail newsletter has subscribers in most of the world's nations, including Iran and Mongolia. Siskind says the only populous countries he doesn't get subscribers from are North Korea, Cuba, Libya and Iraq. Doing business with people from less-developed countries brings new challenges. A major problem, San Jose's Burns said, is getting people from such countries to understand that he has to operate by American business practices and get paid at U.S.-level prices. ``If the person is living in the Ukraine, their concept of what a lawyer should be paid is different from our concept in Silicon Valley,'' said Burns, who often receives requests for creative payment arrangements. Some entrepreneurs promise to pay him once they've set up a successful business in the United States. While such an arrangement is out of the question, ``sometimes we can reduce the fees somewhat,'' Burns said.
IMMIGRATION RESOURCESYou can't apply online to the Immigration and Naturalization Service for a visa, but foreign nationals hoping to move to the United States or remain here can find any other help they need on the Internet. Here are a few of the English-language sites available, but there are lots of sites in other languages, too. Attorneys' Sites Siskind, Susser, Haas & Devine, http://www.visalaw.com/ The law firm in Nashville, Tenn., hosts a discussion group and sends an e-mail bulletin with immigration news. The site has 3,000 immigration articles and offers INS forms for download. Berry, Appleman & Leiden, http://www.usabal.com/ The San Francisco firm caters to companies that want to hire foreign nationals. Clients can fill out forms online, then track their case status using a password. Bruce W. Burns, http://www.burnslaw.com/ The San Jose lawyer offers basic visa information. Burns responds to general questions by e-mail. Carl Shusterman's Guide to Immigrating to the U.S., http://www.shusterman.com/ The Los Angeles lawyer holds live chats, sends an e-mail newsletter and offers instructions on all aspects of immigration and visa law. Does not answer e-mail questions. Immigration Lawyers on the Web, http://www.ilw.com/ A searchable database of 200 immigration lawyers, it includes nationwide information. Other Sites Immigration and Naturalization Service, http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/ The government agency posts news and answers frequently asked questions about its regulations. It also offers its forms for download. Immihelp.com After collecting information to get his own work visa, Narendra Khatri posted his findings here. He also used his programming skills to create new versions of INS forms that can be filled in on a computer using Acrobat Reader. Lifeintheusa.com The guide for newcomers covers everything from buying a used car to American attitudes about death. About.com Immigration Issues page immigration.about.com/newsissues/immigration It hosts a chat room and discussion forum and provides links to most of the immigration resources on the Internet. American Immigration Center, http://www.us-immigration.com/ The commercial service offers translation and help preparing forms, as well as information about all kinds of visas, in several languages. It sells books, videos and software for those studying English or preparing for the citizenship exam. Visajobs.com Like a Monster.com for those who want to work in the United States, this site matches foreign nationals with employers willing to help them get work visas. The cost is $99 for a three-year membership. Immigrants Support Network, http://www.isn.org/ The nonprofit support group is run by and for people working in the U.S. and trying to get permanent residency. Besides hosting message boards, the site helps members send e-mail to Congress. E-mail Carrie Kirby at ckirby@sfgate.com. |
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