Dear Readers:
This week we report on the proposed health care worker regulation that will implement Section 343 of the 1996 Immigration Act. 343 states that health care workers are inadmissible unless they have a certificate from a credentialing organization verifying that they have the professional and English-language skills necessary to do their jobs well. The statute has been partially implemented through three interim regulations over the past several years. The main change from the current rules is the extension of the credentialing requirements to all non-immigrant applicants as well as immigrant applicants. We have an extensive article this week reviewing the entire proposed regulation.
We also report on an important decision from the Administrative Appeals Office that states that an O-1 job applicant need only show that he or she has extraordinary ability in their field and not that their job requires someone with extraordinary ability. Until recently, that was generally understood to be the rule. But in recent years, the INS has been denying cases stating that the job did not require an O-1 caliber applicant. We report on this decision and we are also re-running our ABCs of Immigration article on O-1 revised to include mention of the decision.
This week we are pleased to run a guest article by Dan Kowalski, an Austin, Texas based lawyer who also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the excellent Bender’s Immigration Bulletin. Dan writes this week on the immigration impact of DWI convictions.
Finally, as I mentioned last week, House Minority Leader Dick Gephart has introduced an important amnesty bill. While the bill is not likely to pass this session, it is nonetheless important and we cover it in this week’s issue.
Finally, as always, we remind readers that we’re lawyers who make our living representing immigration clients. We would love to discuss becoming your law firm. Just go to http://visalaw.wpengine.com/intake.html to request an appointment or call us at 800-748-3819 or 901-682-6455.
Kind regards,
Greg Siskind
Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided as a public service and not intended to establish an attorney client relationship. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk. The information provided in this article has not been updated since its original posting and you should not rely on it until you consult counsel to determine if the content is still valid. We keep older articles online because it helps in the understanding of the development of immigration law.