According to the Bureau of Public Affairs, all visa waiver travelers from all 27 Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries must present either a machine-readable passport (which allows data in the passport to be scanned automatically by a machine) or a valid U.S. visa, effective Oct. 26, 2004. However, travelers with a valid U.S. visa will not be required to have machine-readable passports.

In addition, as of September 30, 2004, all VWP travelers arriving at a U.S. port of entry will be required to enroll in U.S Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT), a program involving digital photograph and finger scans.

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The Philadelphia Bar Association’s Professional guidance Committee recently published an opinion that a lawyer who was not admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania could still maintain an in-state office for the practice of immigration law so long as the out-of-state lawyer did not claim to be a Pennsylvania lawyer.  Additionally, said attorney would have to focus all activities exclusively on immigration matters and would need to reveal the limitation in his practice in any advertisements, stationery or business cards.  The committee made this conclusion based on a new Pennsylvania Rule of Professional Conduct 5.5(d)(2).

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The U.S. Senate last week narrowly rejected President Bush’s attempt to privatize 1,000 federal jobs nationwide, saving the jobs of about 115 immigration information officers at the Nebraska Service Center who were targeted under Bush’s plan.  The Senate voted 49-47 last week to keep the President from contracting the jobs to private workers.

Nebraska senators Ben Nelson and Chuck Hagel split their votes as Democratic Senator Nelson opposed the President, and Republican Senator Hagel supported him.  Sen. Nelson was a co-sponsor of the measure to block Bush’s plan, and supported the opinion that the current officers should remain because the workers have frequent access to confidential information that pertains to national security.  The President has threatened to veto the Homeland Security bill if the prohibition of private workers is included in the final proposal.