Dear Readers:

There were several long-awaited announcements that were released this week on various immigration issues. First, the July 26^th deadline for health care workers in non-immigrant status to comply with VisaScreen was reached today. A modest extension of that deadline was approved. Basically, any Canadians or Mexicans who held TN or TC status and worked in the US prior to September 23, 2003 with a US license are eligible for an additional year without having to have the credentialing certificate in place. Everyone else must have the credentialing in hand prior to entering the US or prior to their next status extension.

F-1 and J-1 students got a break as USCIS issued a blanket extension of their status if they request an H-1B change of status with an October 1^st start date. Note that J-1s in other categories (such as physicians in graduate medical training) and J-1s subject to the 212(e) home residency requirement are not covered by the extension.

People waiting on notification that they have won the lottery can now get on with their lives. The State Department confirmed that all winners of the DV-2005 green card lottery have been notified.

Finally, there are more signs that the Labor Department is getting ready to roll out the PERM e-filing system for labor certifications. This week they proposed a rule centralizing labor certification processing for backlogged cases, something that is an important part of the planned switchover to the new program.

*****

This summer, our firm turns 10 years old and that means this publication is also about to have its tenth anniversary. In all of that time, I’ve never taken a vacation of more than a week. So I decided it was about time I turned off the email and treated my family (and me!) to a little time off without the disruptions of the office.

In 1994, I was a solo lawyer and the idea of leaving the office for more than a few days was simply impractical. Now we have many lawyers here and lots of competent professionals working on this newsletter. So I feel comfortable leaving for 2+ weeks knowing that clients will be services, the newsletters will go out, the site will be updated, etc. without my presence. For clients reading this column who might need to contact someone about their case, you should feel free to call our office at 800-748-3819 and ask for my very able assistant Felicia Chappell.

*****

Finally, as always, we remind readers that we're lawyers who make our living representing immigration clients and employers seeking to comply with immigration laws. We would love to discuss becoming your law firm. Just go to http://www.visalaw.com/intake.html to request an appointment or call us at 800-748-3819 or 901-682-6455.

Regards,

Greg Siskind