The application period for the Legal Immigration Family Equity (LIFE) ACT ends on June 4, 2003. Applications are filed at the Missouri Service Center, through the Chicago P.O. Box. To benefit from the provisions of LIFE Legalization, an alien must properly file an application for adjustment of status, Form I-485, with appropriate fee, before the end of the application period. All applications, whether filed in the United States or filed from abroad, must be postmarked on or before June 4, 2003, to be considered timely filed. If the postmark is illegible or missing, and the application was mailed from within the United States, the Service will consider the

application to be timely filed if it is received on or before June 9, 2003.

The LIFE Act was signed into law on December 21, 2000. It made a number of changes to immigration law, including a temporary restoration of section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and the creation of the V visa for spouses and minor children of legal permanent residents. The LIFE Act also provided another opportunity for applicants of the 1986 Amnesty to file for their green cards.

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The Department of State has amended the restriction on the use of US passports for travel to and from Iraq. Secretary Powell decided to broaden the exemptions to allow for those involved in reconstruction and humanitarian efforts in Iraq. The amendment will expire at midnight on February 25, 2004. With the amendment, passports must be validated by the Secretary of State for anyone not belonging to the following categories: those resident in Iraq since February 1, 1991; reporters and journalists on assignment; those conducting humanitarian activities; contract workers involved in government reconstruction efforts; United Nations personnel; and US government officials, including members of Congress and their staff.

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The BCIS has released the second of two memoranda issuing guidance to interim area directors on fingerprinting procedures for the adjudication of the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition, Form I-600A. The previous memo suggested that offices should schedule PAPs and all qualifying household members for fingerprinting after the home study had been received, but the new memorandum stresses that the guidance was not meant to limit the adjudicating officer's discretion to schedule the fingerprint at the time of filing the I-600A, even without the home study accompanying the submission.

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Hundreds of Chinese children on the verge of being adopted by American families are in limbo after Beijing's decision to suspend all foreign adoptions. Citing the dangers posed by an outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs said it has put a temporary stop on sending documents authorizing parents to come to China. Officials said families who have already been authorized for travel and have made plans would be allowed to pick up the children. About 5,000 Chinese children are adopted by Americans each year. State Department information on Chinese adoption policy, as well as travel warnings, can be accessed online at http://travel.state.gov/adoption_china.html.

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An immigration lawyer in Los Angeles has reported that an L.A. Asylum Office spent several minutes asking his client seemingly inappropriate questions during his asylum interview, including how much he paid the attorney to represent him and what the attorney promised to do for him. The Asylum Officer also asked the client how he found the attorney's office. Unable to get the AO to explain the reasoning behind this line of questioning, the attorney then spoke to a supervisor, who also refused to tell him why they were asking such questions. The attorney then terminated the interview, saying the information was not relevant to the asylum claim and the attorney-client relationship was not a valid area of inquiry.

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Investigators with the General Accounting Office has said the Justice Department's interviews with 7,600 foreign nationals after the 9-11 terrorist attacks were conducted haphazardly and that the results were inconclusive and incomplete. The GAO said the voluntary interview process was complicated by duplicate names and government systems errors as officials attempted to thwart terrorist activity. The interviews were scheduled with foreign nationals, mostly young men  from Middle Eastern countries where Al-Qaida was known to have a presence. Because the Justice Department refused to provide examples of useful leads gathered in the interviews, citing security concerns, and because no analysis has been done on the results, the GAO said it could not measure their success.

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The Department Of Homeland Security issued a press release Friday detailing a reorganization plan for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The plan creates a headquarters structure for the agency's operations and a field structure with an integrated chain of command designed to streamline operations and cut costs. The DHS said the plan would be made effective on June 9.

ICE is the investigative arm of the DHS, combining the detention, removal and intelligence functions of the former INS with similar functions of the former Customs Service.

The headquarters structure will support five operational divisions of ICE: Investigations, Detention & Removal, Intelligence, Air & Marine Interdiction, and Federal Protective Service. At the field level, a Special Agent in Charge structure following the model of other law enforcement agencies will be put into place. Twenty-five officers will be designated as ICE Interim Special Agents in Charge, each responsible for a geographic area of the U.S. These Special Agents in Charge will be named next week.

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The May 16th issue of the Wall Street Journal reported that the US Department of State is planning on requiring all non-immigrant visa applicants be interviewed. Currently, US consulates in many countries with low visa denial rates allow applicants to submit applications by mail, drop box or travel agent without the need to appear for an interview. The report is not being confirmed by the Department of State, but if it is true, it could lead to substantial application delays at consulates around the world.

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Department of Labor counsel Harry Sheinfeld has advised the American Immigration Lawyers Association that the expected June release of the PERM labor certification regulation has now been delayed until September and that the PERM electronic filing system will not be in place until early next year.