Learn how to benefit from United States immigration
laws and procedures from a former INS Attorney (1976-82) with over
30 years of experience.
SHUSTERMAN'S
IMMIGRATION UPDATE is must reading for potential
immigrants, employers, human resources managers,
immigration attorneys, reporters and policy makers.
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SHUSTERMAN'S IMMIGRATION UPDATE is the most popular e-mail newsletter
regarding U.S. immigration laws and procedures with over 40,000
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Published by the Law Offices of Carl Shusterman,
600 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1550, Los Angeles, California, 90017.
Phone: (213) 623-4592
Disclaimer: This newsletter is not intended to establish an attorney-
client relationship. All information contained in this newsletter is
generalized. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at
your own risk.
Biometric Passports - On August 9, President Bush signed legislation
(H.R.4417) which will delay by one year the requirement that persons who enter
the U.S. under the Visa Waiver Program do so using biometric passports. The
new deadline is October 26, 2005. We link to the State Department Press
Release at
Business Immigration Newsletter - Periodically, the American Immigration
Lawyers Association (AILA) publishes "Connect!" a newsletter devoted to
business-related immigration developments. We link to this newsletter from
Expedited Removal Expanded - Back in 1996, a new immigration law (IIRAIRA)
was enacted which provides that certain "arriving aliens", persons at ports of
entry, who could not demonstrate that they were admissible to the U.S. could be
summarily removed from the country without all that fuss and bother which comes
from having a hearing in front of an Immigration Judge. It was a little like
allowing a cop on the beat to make the arrest, find the person guilty and carry
out the sentence. The law also delegated to the Executive Branch of
government, the authority to expand who is subject to expedited removal.
On August 11, DHS's bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) did just
that. Instead of limiting expedited removal to those folks at a port of entry,
hearings before a Judge will no longer be required for persons apprehended
within 100 miles of a land border (e.g., San Diego and Buffalo) who cannot
prove to the CBP agent that they have been continuously present in the U.S. for
a minimum of 14 days, and who the agent believes are not in possession of
proper immigration papers or have misrepresented a material fact.
Although the regulation provides for a 60-day comment period, it became
effective immediately.
There are some exemptions: persons who express a "credible fear" of persecution
in their countries, U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, refugees and
asylees. Also, to the great consternation of the restrictionist lobby, the
expanded version of expedited removal will not apply to Mexicans and Canadians.
The DHS's rationale for expanded expedited removal is that most persons who are
apprehended and released on bond fail to appear for their court hearings.
We link to the new regulations at
and to a practice advisory about the new regulations issued by the American
Immigration Law Foundation (AILF) entitled "DHS Announces Unprecedented
Expansion of Expedited Removal to the Interior" from our "Deportation" page at
Family-Based Immigration - On July 15, the USCIS issued a "Notice to All
Customers with a Pending I-130 Petition." The notice announced that the agency
would only approve (or deny) a family-based petition when a visa number becomes
available. For example, if you are a U.S. citizen and have submitted a
petition for your brother, under existing quotas, his visa number will not
become available until around the year 2016 (2026 if your brother was born in
the Philippines). See the latest Visa Bulletin at
The USCIS will, however, accept your petition, cash your check and issue a
receipt. The agency will concentrate its energies on more urgent matters.
Does this sound like some kind of scam? Probably, but before you e-mail a
complaint to your Member of Congress, we wish to inform you that in many cases,
the new system could actually work in your, and your brother's, best interests.
We will explain why in an upcoming newsletter. In the meantime, read the USCIS
notice which we link to from our "Green Card" page at
Labor Department Issues Backlog Reduction Rule - On July 21, the DOL
published an interim rule to reduce the backlog of 310,000 pending applications
for Alien Labor Certifications over the next two years. The rule, which is
scheduled to become effective on August 20 would centralize the processing of
existing applications. We link to the interim rule from our "Labor Department"
page at
Mexican Border Crossing Cards (BCC's) - In lieu of a visa, Mexican citizens
who wish to visit an area close to the U.S.-Mexican border are permitted to
apply for a BCC which allows them to visit the U.S. for a maximum of 72 hours.
In an interim regulation published on August 13, the Department of Homeland
Security has lengthened the maximum duration of stay to 30 days. These
visitors must stay within 25 miles of the border if they are visiting
California, New Mexico or Texas, or 75 miles if they are visiting Arizona. We
link to the rule from our "Temporary Visas" page at
Photo Requirements - The Immigration Service requires photographs to be
submitted to obtain a variety of immigration benefits. New photograph
requirements became effective on August 2, and will become mandatory on
September 1, 2004. We link to the USCIS Press Release at
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) - On August 6, the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) announced that it would extend TPS for nationals of Somalia to
September 17, 2005. The re-registration period began on August 6 and ends on
October 5, 2004. We link to the DHS Press Release at
Visa Waiver Program - Persons visiting the U.S. from any of 27 (mostly
European) countries where a visitor's visa is not required are permitted to
remain in the country for a maximum of 90 days. Sometimes, a person overstays
this period for a week or two. Whenever he or she returns to the U.S.,
sometimes he or she could be handcuffed, detained and deported. To some,
this seems a bit nasty for such a small infraction. On August 12, Customs and
Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Robert Bonner ordered his port directors
and supervisors to lighten up ("enforcement must be tempered by common sense"),
and where the person has only one violation and is not a threat to the U.S. to
grant them a one-time parole. We link to the CBP's August 12th press release
from our "Department of Homeland Security" page at
Washington Update - Every few weeks, the American Immigration Lawyers
Association (AILA) publishes its "Washington Update" which brings readers the
most up-to-date news about legislation, regulations, congressional hearings and
other immigration-related developments from inside the Beltway. We link to
"Washington Update" from
The Immigration Service (USCIS) lists its processing times for immigration
petitions and applications on their web site.
Most immigration applications and petitions must be submitted to one of the
following USCIS Service Centers: (1) Laguna Niguel, California; (2) Lincoln,
Nebraska; (3) Mesquite, Texas; and (4) St. Albans, Vermont and (5) the National
Benefits Center in Missouri.
These service centers periodically issue lists of their processing times for
various types of petitions and applications. We link to the latest list issued
by each service center.
Warning: Processing times may appear faster on the official lists than they are
in reality.
To see how fast (or slow) your service center is processing a particular type
of petition or application, see our Government Processing Times Page at
and scroll down to "Labor Certification and LCA Processing Times".
Administrative appeals of most types of petitions denied by the USCIS are
adjudicated by agency's Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) in Washington, DC.
The AAO's most recent published processing times (July 19, 2004) may be found
at
The Immigration Service (USCIS) has announced the implementation of three new
benefits for would-be immigrants: (1) The elimination of the one-year maximum
validity period of work permits (EADs); (2) A regulation permitting certain F-1
students and J-1 exchange visitors to remain in status while they request that
their status be changed to H-1B on October 1; and (3) The expansion of the
InfoPass online appointment system nationwide.
EAD Rule: On July 30, the DHS issued an interim final regulation which
removes the maximum one-year validity period for most Employment Authorization
Documents (EADs). Instead, the rule gives the USCIS a list of criteria from
which to determine the duration of an EAD. Suffice to say that these criteria
would allow the agency to issue a 3-year EAD for an applicant for adjustment of
status pending at a Service Center. Assuming that the applicant's spouse and
three teen-aged children were also applying for adjustment of status, the old
system would have required each person to apply for an EAD on three separate
occasions, for a total of 15 applications. Each application would require
submission of filing fees, issuance of receipts, possible RFEs, security
checks, and ultimately the issuance of an EAD. The new rule would allow the
Service Center to rid themselves of the necessity of adjudicating these extra
10 applications, and instead devote their energies to reducing the three-year
backlog of pending adjustment applications.
The rule specifies that EADs based on pending asylum applications be issued for
a maximum of five years "unless otherwise appropriate." The USCIS web site
indicates that 160,000 adjustment applications based on asylum were pending as
of March 1, 2004. Since only 10,000 asylees may be granted adjustment of
status annually, the 5-year limitation is clearly inadequate.
We have posted the complete text of the new EAD regulations online on our
"Green Card" page at
Comments on the rule must be submitted on or before September 30. They may be
submitted electronically to rfs.regs@dhs.gov Be sure to include "CIS No. 2152-01"
in the subject box.
"Cap Gap" Regulation for F's and J's Changing Status to H-1B: On July
23, the DHS posted a notice in the Federal Register permitting certain F
students and J exchange visitors whose status was due to expire prior to
October 1, 2004 and who filed timely applications for a change of status to
H-1B by July 30, 2004 to be deemed to remain in status until their applications
were approved, assuming that they did not otherwise violate their nonimmigrant
status.
The notice applies equally to F-2 and J-2 dependents. However, it is not
applicable to J exchange visitors who are not students or who are subject to
the two-year home residency requirement.
One wonders why the DHS waited until late July to issue this notice when the H-1B
cap was reached in February 2004? Also, why did the notice only give
students and exchange visitors five days to submit the change of status
applications? How about change of status applications which were submitted and
denied by the USCIS on behalf of F and J visa holders prior to the issuance of
the rule? A government memo issued on August 8 gives employers until August 23
to submit Motions to Reopen (or forever hold their peace).
We have posted a Summary of the CIS Cap Gap Notice prepared by Professor
Stephen Yale-Loehr and the AILA Business Visa Committee, the August 8th USCIS
memo and the complete text of the notice on our "H-1B" page at
InfoPass To Go National - In 2003, in order to eliminate the lines of persons
seeking information that have traditionally snaked around Immigration Service
offices, the USCIS introduced the InfoPass online appointment system in Miami.
In 2004, the system was expanded to Los Angeles, Dallas, New York City, on
August 5 to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and on August 9 to New Jersey and
Buffalo, New York. Now the agency has announced plans to expand InfoPass to
all its District Offices by September.
We link to recent government news releases concerning InfoPass from our "USCIS"
page on
We also link to the InfoPass system which is available in over a dozen
languages. Simply click the blue button entitled "InfoPass" near the top of
homepage.
Kudos to the USCIS for this significant improvement in customer service.
When the State Department announced, on August 18, 2003, that the next Green
Card Lottery would be exclusively online, we did not mince any words in
criticizing this decision as elitist. See our article entitled "DV-2005 Green
Card Lottery: You Must File Online" in the September 2004 issue of SHUSTERMAN'S
IMMIGRATION UPDATE at
In fact, we regarded this as an evil plot to all-but-eliminate lottery
applications from persons residing in third-world countries.
On July 25, 2004, the State Department announced the "winners" of the DV-2005
Visa Lottery. The number of applicants fell as we had predicted from 11
million to 5.9 million.
However, the countries with the largest number of "winners" were pretty
much the same as for the DV-2004 lottery: Nigeria (6,725), Poland (6,211),
Egypt (6,070), Ethiopia (6,060), the Ukraine (5,861), Morocco (5,298), Bulgaria
(4,068), and Ghana (3,974).
While the names of the lottery winners are strictly confidential, we link to
the State Department's official results of the DV-2005 Visa Lottery from our
"Green Card "Lottery" page at
We continue to believe that it is a waste of your money to pay someone to
submit a lottery application on your behalf. See our free, online chat
entitled "How to Enter the Green Card Lottery... Without Paying an Attorney"
which we link to from our "Lottery" page.
However, the situation completely changes when you are notified that you are a
"winner". The State Department mails out 100,000 letters to "winners" even
though only 50,000 persons may obtain permanent residents through the lottery
during the year.
If you obtained a "winner" letter, this is the time to hire the best attorney
you can find to make sure that your letter turns into a green card!
As the Olympic Games return to their original home in Athens, Greece, some of
America's premier athletes are immigrants, or are the proud sons and daughters
of immigrants.
This month's Immigration Trivia Quiz is entitled "America's Immigrant
Olympians."
Access the quiz at
As we predicted in the July 2004 issue of SHUSTERMAN'S IMMIGRATION UPDATE, the
government postponed the healthcare certificate ("VisaScreen") requirement for
certain foreign-born workers.
On July 22, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published an "interim
final" regulation in the Federal Register. The rule postpones the VisaScreen
requirement for Canadian and Mexican nurses, occupational therapists, physical
therapists, medical technicians and technologists, physicians assistants,
speech language pathologists and audiologists who were licensed and working in
the U.S. in Trade NAFTA (TN) status prior to September 23, 2003. They are
allowed to work in the U.S., enter and reenter the U.S. and obtain extensions
of stay, change their employers and status until July 25, 2005.
We commend the DHS for the timely issuance of this rule. Without this
extension, several thousand nurses who cross the Canadian border daily to work
in hospitals in Michigan, New York, Washington and a number of other border
states would be lost to the American healthcare system, much to the detriment
of U.S. patients.
Written comments regarding the regulations may be submitted to DHS at
rfs.regs@dhs.gov on or before September 20, 2004. Be sure to include "BCIS No.
2320-04" in the subject line of your e-mail.
We have some suggestions: Why limit the postponement to Canadians and Mexicans?
What about healthcare workers born in other countries? Also, why limit the
rule solely to TNs? Persons in H-1B and H-1C status could also benefit from an
extension. And why not end the ridiculous requirement that workers educated
and licensed in the U.S. obtain healthcare certificates?
We link to the complete text of the rule and to the government's press release
from our "Nurse" page at
As we have been saying for the past eight years, Congress needs to reevaluate
the VisaScreen requirement. Our country is in dire need of more nurses and
other healthcare professionals. Having both a private agency and 50 state
license boards certifying the credentials of foreign-born workers is a waste
of time and resources.
We hope that the next Congress will revisit this issue. And while they are at
it, they should restore a temporary visa category for RNs. See our testimony
before the Senate Immigration Subcommittee at
On August 5, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released its Consumer Fraud
Study. It showed that 25 million persons in the U.S. were victims of scams
during the past year.
"We found that American Indians and Alaskan Natives, African Americans, and
Hispanics are more likely to be victims of fraud than non-Hispanic whites,"
said Howard Beales, Director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection. "These
findings will help us fine-tune our Hispanic Law Enforcement and Outreach
Initiative, and explore additional opportunities to target frauds aimed at
communities which are at risk."
Persons seeking immigration benefits including work cards and permanent
residences are particularly vulnerable to scam artists. Even sophisticated
employers are often ill-informed about U.S. immigration laws.
Notaries and so-called "immigration consultants" often engage in a variety of
fraudulent activity including submitting sham asylum, family-based and
employment-based petitions and applications. Some team up with sleazy
attorneys to represent their victims in front of Immigration Judges and the
Board of Immigration Appeals.
Desperate people do desperate things. Millions of persons risk their lives to
enter the U.S. in pursuit of the American dream. Over the years, immigration
attorneys have helped many of these people to become permanent residents, but
legal restrictions permit most illegal immigrants from obtaining green cards.
Now, there is a Spanish-language television show which capitalizes on the hopes
of persons seeking permanent residence in order to make a buck. The
contestants eat live worms and scorpions and perform dangerous feats in the
hope of legalizing their status. The winner gets an immigration attorney's
services for one year to assist them in obtaining their goals.
How twisted and sad! As I told a reporter for the Los Angeles Times who
interviewed me about the show, persons qualify for permanent residence because
they have either strong family ties in the U.S. or possess scarce job skills.
There is no way to get a green card by eating worms. We link to the newspaper
story in the Times at
The next week, I was interviewed by CNN about the TV show.
It is disappointing to me that after a lifetime of trying to educate the public
about U.S. immigration laws and procedures, so many persons still waste their
hard-earned money and risk life and limb on immigration scams.
Here are a few tips for those wishing to obtain a green card without the
necessity of eating a single worm ;-)
Read our web site, particularly our page entitled "How to Obtain a
Green Card" at
Several states (California, Florida, North Carolina and Texas) have
lawyers take examinations and give references before designating them
as Certified Immigration Specialists. For example, the State of
California allows you to search for a Certified Specialist in
Immigration and Nationality Law, by county, at
Since 1999, we have served as the official immigration experts for
About.com. We have participated in dozens of free chats since then.
Our chats always focus on a particular subject.
Links to the transcripts of all of our chats are posted online on our
"Chat" page at
Are your eyes getting tired from reading all of our information about
immigration laws and procedures? Then sit back, close your eyes, and
listen to any (or all!) of the following immigration audios:
How Does This Relate to The Immigration Trivia Quiz:
In this show, directed by Tony Taccone, Sarah Jones speeds through 14
characters, introducing audiences to a collection of immigrants who have come
together for a poetry slam. Ms. Jones gives off the impression of a crowded
room of lively loudmouths dying to get something off their chests. With a dry
sense of humor and a deep sense of empathy, she creates her own self-contained
world of eccentrics who riff on pop culture, often make bad jokes and serve up
unsentimental personal confessions. Many New Yorkers use the term "bridge and
tunnel" as a slur, but in this show it refers to the connective tissue between
people of wildly different backgrounds. Ms. Jones has been working on this project
for about three years, conducting discussions with members of the Border Patrol,
illegal aliens and random people on the subway, among others. While her
monologues are not taken verbatim from interviews - they do come from her
subjects' personal experience.
About Myself: My name is Kay Tanapongtham. I am from Bangkok, Thailand. I
moved to the United States in 1995 as a student. I currently live in Los
Angeles, CA and work as a Tax Accountant in a firm located in downtown LA. I
am still holding an H-1B visa and hope to change my status to permanent
resident soon. I enjoy many activities mostly outdoors. I have subscribed to
your newsletter and visited your website regularly for as long as I remember,
which might very well be in 1995! I use your website for everything related to
immigration laws and updates. As a potential immigrant, I use this website to
keep track of the current development in immigration laws and what it would
impact me. Your website is by far the best!!
How I Solved the Quiz: With help from many friends who want me to win this
trivia quiz so I would receive a consultation with Mr. Shusterman!!!
Best regards,
Kay Tanapongtham
-- Congratulations, Kay! I look forward to speaking with you,
August 22, 2004
Carl Shusterman
Certified Specialist in Immigration Law, State Bar of California
Former U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service Trial Attorney (1976-82)
Board of Governors, American Immigration Lawyers Association (1988-97)
Phone: (213) 623-4592 Fax: (213) 623-3720
Law Offices of Carl Shusterman, 600 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1550
Los Angeles, California 90017
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to
stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile,
but is morally treasonable to the American public."
