HORITSU.COM :: The US Immigration Laws

On June 23, 2000, the United States Department of State, National Visa Center announced that it had notified all of the winners of the DV-2001 immigrant visa lottery program, which will award 50,000 green cards beginning October 1, 2000. Losers are not notified. Those selected need to apply for their green cards as soon as possible, since approximately 90,000 semi-finalists were notified for only 50,000 green cards. For your information only 408 people were selected from Japan. Nigeria was the big winner this year with 6,017 winners.

The dates for the mail-in period for the DV-2002 lottery were also announced. It is from October 2, 2000 until November 1, 2000. Contact our office if you want to take advantage of our lottery- registration service which assists you with registration and notifies you of the next lottery.

E-1 AND E-2 PROCESSING BACKLOG PROBLEM

The California Service Center has failed to process extension of stay applications for E-1 and E-2 workers for several months. The most recent processing report indicates that it is still working on extensions filed on January 4, 2000.

The immigration regulations states that aliens whose status has expired but who has filed a timely application for an extension of such stay may continue employment with the same employer for a period not to exceed 240
days beginning on the date of the expiration of the authorized period of stay. Therefore, if the application is pending longer than that your employment is unlawful. If you continue to work that would be a violation of status which kicks into play other legal problems. This is just another example of odd and unforseen consequences resulting from INS unreasonable delays.

Aliens in this situation should discuss this matter with their attorneys to make necessary plans to make sure employment can continue without interruption. Also, people should contact Senator Feinstein (D-CA) to express support of Senate Bill 2586 entitled ``Immigration Services and Infrastructure Improvements Act of 2000'' This bill which was introduced on May 18, 2000 is an effort to signal the need to reduce the backlog in the processing of US Immigration benefit applications and to make necessary improvements to the INS infrastructure to enable the agency to effectively provide services.

Senator Feinstein's email address is senator@feinstein.senate.gov. Or you can send a postal mail to Senator Dianne Feinstein, United States Senate, 331 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510.