• Finding Information on 245(i) by Nina Manchanda
• Becoming a United States Citizen from INSGreenCard
• Reforming Immigration: Helping Meet America's Need for a Skilled Workforce from Committee for Economic Development
• Gary Endelman Reviews CED Statementby Gary Endelman
• The Slowing Progress of Immigrants: An Examination of Income, Home Ownership, and Citizenship, 1970-2000 from Center for Immigration Studies
• INS Implements Section 245(i) Provision of the LIFE Act
• Q & A Section 245(i) Provision of the LIFE Act
• ILW Highlight: Share This Page With a Friend
• Letters to the Editor

A Note from the Editors:

April Fools Day

In France the start of the New Year was observed on April first until 1582 when King Charles IX introduced the Gregorian Calendar and New Year's Day was changed to January 1. People who did not hear of the change in the date and others who refused to accept the new calendar continued to celebrate the New Year on the first day of April. These people were referred to as "fools" by the general populace and became subject of ridicule and were targeted for practical jokes.

The harassment developed over time into a tradition of playing practical pranks on April first. The tradition spread from France to England and Scotland and was introduced in the American colonies by both the French and the English. Today, April Fools Day continues to be celebrated by both children and adults and pranks can range from elaborate tricks to simple practical jokes on both friends and strangers.

Gary Endelman Reviews CED Statement
Gary Endelman highlights key points of the Committee for Economic Development's Reforming Immigration: Helping Meet America's Need for a Skilled Workforce, and opines that the paper's proposals are not the end of the debate, but the end of the beginning.

The Slowing Progress of Immigrants: An Examination of Income, Home Ownership, and Citizenship, 1970-2000
[You will need Acrobat to read this file]
Steven A. Camarota, Research Director of the Center for Immigration Studies, writes that over the last thirty years each successive wave of immigrants has fared worse than the one that preceded it. As a result, today's established immigrants (those who have lived in the country between 10 and 20 years), are much poorer, less likely to be homeowners, and less likely to have become citizens than established immigrants in the past.

INS Implements Section 245(i) Provision of the LIFE Act
The INS announces that an interim rule for adjustment-of-status application procedures under Section 245(i) will be published in the Federal Register on Monday, March 26. (El INS Aplica la Disposición de la Ley LIFE Relativa a la Sección 245 versión espanol).

Dear Editor,

As for a 10 day "grace period" following termination of employment-based nonimmigrant employment, there is none. Although the H-1B alien can extend 10 days before or after the approved period, for the purpose of making personal arrangements in anticipation of or following the approved H-1B employment, that "grace period" must be included within the approved stay in the US, as indicated on the Form I-94, or it does not exist. An H-1B (or any other) alien may not simply tack it onto the expiration date on the I-94.

Since H-1B classification derives from the approved employment, the status ends if and when the employment ends. No grace period. Accordingly, if an H-1B or other employment-based nonimmigrant is laid off, his only chance for getting INS to approve a request for change of status or change in approved H-1B employment after that time is to include a letter with the petition asking the Service Center director to exercise his/her discretion to approve the change in spite of the status lapse. Whether this is done by a SC director or not depends largely on the facts of the case, typically that the lapse was short and the reason for it beyond the alien's control.

If the SC director does not exercise the requested discretion to "forgive" the status lapse, in the case of an H-1b alien, the case will be treated as a new H-1B case, needing a new H-1B number (subject to the cap). The alien will not receive a replacement I-94 from the SC and will have to leave the US, obtain a new visa (if necessary), and re-enter the US, receiving a new Form I-94 that can be used for employment eligibility verification purposes for the new (approved) employer/employment.

Linda Dodd-Major
Acting Director of DOJ/INS Office of Business Liaison

Dear Editor:

For several months and years, I have kept silent on the face of increasing acts of wickedness, frustration and unfairness heaped out on H-1B holders. I will attempt to lay out my points clearly without showing any hints of the enormous anger I feel at all these unguarded and wicked bills that seem to get passed one after the other....(Click here to read the whole letter).

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