AILA Teleconference in January 2001 with INS Headquarters
Posted Jan 19, 2001

From time to time, we report in the MurthyBulletin on matters discussed in meetings between representatives of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and INS officials. On January 4, 2001, there was a teleconference between the Immigration Services Division (ISD) at INS headquarters and the AILA ISD Liaison Committee. We provide below a brief summary of some of the items discussed.

Duplicate Approval Notices

To recap, the issue of how to conveniently obtain a duplicate approval notice was discussed in prior meetings. INS had expressed concern that some employers or attorneys were routinely asking for duplicate approval notices for their own convenience. Therefore, unless there was INS error involved (for example the notice was not sent out or was sent to the wrong address), then the required procedure for requesting another notice was to file a Form I-824, with fee. Unfortunately, however, the processing time for the Form I-824 is generally several months.

In the January 4, 2001 teleconference, AILA again addressed this matter. For cases in which the notice was not received even though INS records indicate that the notice was sent out, AILA would like to have a system for obtaining the duplicate without filing an I-824. Since INS does not appear to be in favor of such a system, AILA is looking at the possibility of requesting INS to expedite the I-824 in this type of case.

New Laws : LIFE and ACTA/AC21

On the Legal Immigration and Family Equity (LIFE) Act passed on Dec. 21, 2000, INS is in the process of establishing requirements and criteria for implementing the new provisions such as the extension of 245(i), the V visa and the K spouse visa. The LIFE Act has been addressed in prior issues of the MurthyBulletin in December 2000 and in January 2001. On the American Competitiveness in the Twenty First Century Act or ACTA, various sections of INS are circulating memos to come up with a consensus on the issues. AILA will obtain further information as it becomes available. Keep checking in with MurthyDotCom for more updates on INS interpretations. In several prior issues of the MurthyBulletin, we have mentioned some of the important sections of ACTA (also known as AC21) on which we await INS guidance.

H1B Processing Times at Service Centers

According to ISD, both TSC and NSC are processing H1B petitions within 60 days, and the CSC has almost reached that goal. The largest case volume is at VSC, and overtime funds have been allocated to VSC. VSC has still not reached the 60-day processing goal overall, though we at The Law Office of Sheela Murthy have seen some cases recently that were processed within that time. We certainly hope these cases are indicative of an overall trend, but it may be some time before the majority of cases at VSC can also be processed within the 60-day timeframe.