1. October 2000 State Department Visa Bulletin

2. Latest INS/State Dept/Labor Dept Processing Times

3. Physicians: INS's NIW Regulations Rewrite Physician Law

4. Labor Department Issues H-1C Nurse Regulations

5. National Visa Center: General Information and FAQ

NEWS FLASHES:

• EOIR: The agency, using its recently-issued regulations (6-27-00) suspended five attorneys from practice. See http://www.aheckler.com/pages/dpt.php and scroll down to "Board of Immigration Appeals" and then to "EOIR Takes First Disciplinary Actions Against Immigration Practitioners (8-18-00)".
  

• Expedited Removal Studies -

  The Expedited Removal Study has posted its third annual report on how expedited removal is working and its effect on asylum seekers. The 2000 study may be downloaded as a PDF file at http://www.uchastings.edu/ers/reports/2000/2000%20Report.pdf

  The General Accounting Office (GAO) has posted their study (all 112 pages) regarding how to make expedited removal a more efficient law enforcement tool as a PDF file at http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GGD-00-176
  

• Form I-485: The INS will only accept the latest Application for Permanent Residence (form I-485) after September 30, 2000. The most recent version of form I-485 may be downloaded (as a PDF file) from http://www.aheckler.com/pages/immforms.php
  

• H-1B Cap: Although Congress has not acted upon any major immigration issues since it returned from its August recess, ComputerWorld magazine has published a number of informative stories about the shortage of H-1B visas for the new fiscal year, including one which predicts that the cap may be reached before the end of the calendar year. See

http://www.aheckler.com/pages/it.php

• Lottery: The DV-2002 Green Card Lottery begins on noon, October 2, 2000. See http://www.aheckler.com/pages/lottery.php
  

• Refugees: Imagine that war breaks out in Los Angeles or New York... With few possessions and little warning, you flee to escape danger. Soon you could find yourself in a refugee camp. Find out how 39 million people are forced to live together by clicking on http://www.refugeecamp.org
  

• State Department To Charge $50 For Reviewing Form I-864: Remember that old Graham Nash lyric, "immigration form, big enough to keep me warm"? Well, whether you do or not, the forms do seem to keep getting bigger and bigger. The biggest is the Affidavit of Support form (I-864) which must be submitted with every family-based application for an immigrant visa and for adjustment of status. The State Department has announced that as of October 1, both they and the National Visa Center (See topic #5.)

1. October 2000 State Department Visa Bulletin

For the Family categories, the movement of priority dates was slow, but contained no regressions. Worldwide numbers advanced between two and four weeks. India 4th (brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens) failed to advance even one day.

On the Employment side of the ledger, all worldwide numbers, with the exception of unskilled workers, remained current. The major disappointment was the lack of any forward movement whatsoever in the Indian EB-2 and EB-3 categories. To us, this signifies a growing problem which requires immediate legislative attention.

The priority date for unskilled workers advanced three months to November 1, 1995.

The October Visa Numbers can be found at http://www.aheckler.com/pages/vb.php

For an explanation of what the categories, dates and symbols listed below mean, see http://www.aheckler.com/pages/family.php and http://www.aheckler.com/pages/employmt.php

Check the State Department's official version to see complete information about the movement of family, employment and lottery numbers, at http://travel.state.gov/visa_bulletin.phpl

2. Latest INS/State Dept/Labor Dept Processing Times

Most immigration applications and petitions must be submitted to one of the following INS Regional Service Centers: (1) Laguna Niguel, California; (2) Lincoln, Nebraska; (3) Mesquite, Texas; and (4) St. Albans, Vermont.

Our web site contains the waiting times of each center and enumerates each state served by the center and any foreign offices within the center's jurisdiction.

The service centers periodically issue lists of their processing times for various types of applications. Our web site contains 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 http://www.aheckler.com/pages/sc.php

Processing times at INS District Offices may be accessed at http://www.aheckler.com/pages/aos.php. See http://aheckler.com/labortimes.php to check the latest processing times of your Department of Labor Regional Office and your State Employment Service Agency.

We list selected Consular Post Processing Times at http://www.aheckler.com/pages/dostimes.php

3. Physicians: INS's NIW Regulations Rewrite Physician Law

On September 6, the INS published harsh new regulations to implement the law enacted on November 12, 1999 which compels the agency to grant National Interest Waivers to certain physicians who are employed either by the Veterans' Administration or in medically underserved areas for an aggregate of five years.

The regulations make the following significant changes in the law:

A. They limit the law's coverage to primary care physicians;

B. They prohibit a letter for a municipal, county or regional health department from serving as a basis for finding that a physician's employment is in the public interest; and

C. They provide that a physician must, in all cases, satisfy the five-year requirement within six years after his or her National Interest Waiver is approved.

The regulations were issued in "interim" form, and will become effective on October 6, 2000. Written comments must be submitted on or before November 6, 2000, in triplicate, to the Director, Policy Directives and Instructions Branch, Immigration and Naturalization Service, 425 I Street, NW, Room 5307, Washington, DC, 20536. To ensure proper handling, please reference the INS number 2048-00 on your correspondence.

4. Labor Department Issues H-1C Nurse Regulations

On August 22, 2000, the Labor Department issued interim final regulations to implement the "Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Act of 1999". This law was originally introduced two years earlier as "The Health Professional Shortage Area Nursing Relief Act of 1997".

When the legislation was introduced in 1997, there was general agreement among the witnesses testifying before the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims that no national shortage of registered nurses existed. The last press release based on a national survey of 388 acute care hospitals conducted in November 1998 by the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE), a subsidiary of the American Hospital Association (AHA) in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Division of Nursing, the American Nurses Association, and the AHA's American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA).

Yes, things have changed since 1997. For example, the August 29, 2000 issue of AHA News reports that "Maryland is facing its most serious nursing shortage crisis in more than a decade, according to a new study by MHA, An Association of Maryland Hospitals and Health Systems. The average vacancy rate for hospital nurses fell to 14.7% in the first quarter this year. Hospitals would need to hire 1,629 full-time registered nurses to remedy the situation. Rising dramatically since 1997's 3.3% vacancy rate, the last time numbers approached the current level was in the late 1980s. Compounding the problem, say those who conducted the study, is that the shortage hits harder today due to patients being older, sicker and requiring more intense nursing care. For more information, see the MHA Web site at http://www.mdhospitals.org"

Especially timely and troubling is reporter Michael Berens' front-page article in the Chicago Tribune dated September 10, 2000 entitled "Nursing Mistakes Kill, Injure Thousands". Mr. Berens details how the nurse shortage has contributed to the accidental deaths of at least 1,720 hospital patients and 9,584 injuries since 1995. This article should be required reading for all members of Congress.

In light of today's national shortage of nurses, the enactment of the recycled 1997 law in 1999, now due to be implemented on September 21, 2000, will do little to alleviate the program. The law allows only 14 of the hundreds of nurse-starved hospitals across the U.S. to obtain temporary "H-1C" visas for up to 500 nurses annually. It's our view that this is tantamount to telling a cancer patient to "take two aspirins and see me in the morning".

A more realistic approach to the problem would be to add a few words to the H-1B legislation currently pending before Congress to restore the ability of hospitals to obtain temporary visas for registered nurses. This was a widely utilized safety valve for U.S. hospitals until 1997. To do less shows contempt for the health of the American people.

5. National Visa Center: General Information and FAQ

Prior to 1991, when a visa petition (I-130, I-140, etc.) was approved by the INS, it was sent to the U.S. consulate abroad designated by the petitioner.

In October 1991, the State Department established the Transitional Immigrant Visa Processing Center (TIVPC) near Washington, D.C. to handle approved visa petitions and to assist U.S. consulates abroad in processing immigrant visa applications

Then, in 1994, the State Department replaced TIVPC with the National Visa Center (NVC) in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The NVC is located on the site of an Air Force base which was closed down by the Pentagon. It is operated by a private contractor.

To the public, and to new immigration practitioners, the operations of the NVC are somewhat of a mystery.

The following information on the operations of the NVC is provided by Donna Kane of INS's Vermont Service Center in order to help demystify the process and to assist persons who need to make inquiries regarding their cases.

GENERAL INFORMATION:

The National Visa Center (NVC) processes all approved immigrant visa petitions after they are received from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and retains them until the cases are ready for adjudication by a consular officer abroad. Petitions may remain at NVC for several weeks or for many years depending on the visa category and country of birth of the visa applicant. When an applicant's case is about to become current (a visa number is likely to be available within the year) the petition is forwarded to the appropriate U.S. embassy or consulate overseas. If an applicant is adjusting status in the U.S. the case will be forwarded to the appropriate INS office upon request by that office. NVC receives thousands of telephone and written inquiries from applicants, congressional offices, U.S. embassies and consulates, INS offices, and the White House. An automated recorded message can answer many of these inquiries 24 hours a day, seven days a week (603) 334-0700. Status of case information can only be accessed by entering your NVC case number or INS receipt number on a touch-tone telephone. NVC only has information on petitions it has received. If our automated service does not recognize the INS file or receipt numbers you entered, most likely we have not yet received your petition.

Operators are available to respond to more difficult inquiries from 8:00 AM to 3:45 PM (EST) Monday through Thursday. NVC also holds a customer service feedback day so that the public can talk to operators about the information we provide.

The telephone number and customer service dates are provided at the end of some of the messages.

Written inquiries, changes of address and requests to upgrade petitions due to naturalization of the petitioner should be sent to: The National Visa Center, 32 Rochester Avenue, Portsmouth NH 03801-2909. Please note that NVC is not open to the public. Unfortunately, some people have traveled long distances to inquire about their case in person, only to discover that we are not able to meet with them.

When an applicant's priority date is close to becoming current NVC will mail a packet of forms and information (Packet 3) to the beneficiary (applicant). If requested to do so we will send this Packet 3 to the applicant's lawyer or to the petitioner instead of the beneficiary. The exact contents of the Packet 3 will depend on where the applicant will be interviewed for a visa. For instance, the Packet 3 we send to people applying in China is different from the one we send to applicants in France.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

A. Why don't you have my case at NVC yet?

When you complete a petition (I-130, I-140, etc.) for an immigrant visa you send it to the Immigration and Naturalization for approval. If the INS approves the petition they will send you a Notice of Approval (I-797) and then they will send the petition to NVC. Sometimes there is a delay between when you get the Notice of Receipt and the Notice of Approval from the INS and also between when you get the Notice of Approval and when NVC receives the petition. After NVC receives the petition, it will send a letter to the principal applicant (your beneficiary) regarding the status of the case. We recommend that you wait at least three weeks after you get your Notice of Approval before calling NVC if you have not heard from the Center by that time. Please remember that unless instructed to do otherwise, we notify the beneficiary (the applicant) - NOT the petitioner – regarding the status of the case.

B. I am the beneficiary (applicant) and my case is at NVC. Now what happens?

This depends on whether or not your case is current. If your visa category is an immediate relative category (spouse, parent or child of a U.S. citizen) then your case is automatically current. If your visa category is one of the family preference or employment categories, there are legal limits on the numbers of visas that can be issued in each category and in most categories, the demand is higher than those limits. In these categories, waiting lists have been established based on your priority date, which is the date your sponsor filed your petition with the INS. Cutoff dates established by the Visa Office determine when your petition will be reached for processing. Your petition can only become current and thus ready to further processing when the cutoff date in your visa category has advanced up to your priority date.

If your case is about to become current we will send you, the beneficiary, a Packet 3 containing information and forms. You should complete all the necessary forms and follow the instructions to continue with the visa application process. Your sponsor (petitioner) should complete the Affidavit of Support (I-864) form, which will be sent directly to the petitioner by NVC.