As 1995 comes to an end, Congress continues to advance in its efforts to dramatically reform the US immigration system. While the House awaits a final vote on the Smith Bill, its major immigration overhaul bill, the Senate has begun moving again. Last summer, the Senate approve a bill which increases enforcement of provisions barring illegal immigration. The Senate Subcommittee on Immigration has now approved a legal immigration reform bill introduced by Senator Alan Simpsonand combined it with the bill passed last summer. The next stop is the Senate Judiciary Committee. As we have mentioned in previous newsletters, now is the time to act if you want to contribute to the effort to defeat legislation that will drastically curb immigration to the US. We are providing sample letters to Congress and e-mail links to Congressional offices at our web site (http://visalaw.wpengine.com/~gsiskind).
One of the questions we are asked most frequently is when will the next DV lottery take place. We are told the lottery will occur in early 1996, but specific details have not been released. The State Department is proposing to impose photograph and fee requirements on DV applicants. We describe those proposals in this issue. We also will be distributing our free question and answer guide to entering the lottery to subscribers of this newsletter and at our web site as soon as information on the next lottery becomes available. While we believe that most people can enter the lottery without the help of an attorney, we will be making an online lottery registration form available at our web site for those who either don’t want to chance messing up their application or who don’t want to bother figuring out how to enter alone. The fee to have us prepare the application will be plus per each additional family member.
In this issue, we also include our regular features including a discussion of procedures at the Rio de Janeiro US Consulate, an overview of treaty trader visas, processing times and more.
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.