Dec. 2000 Brief Overview on LIFE and ACWIA Regulations
Posted Jan 01, 2001

President Clinton signed the "Legal Immigration and Family Equity Act (LIFE)" into law on Thursday, December 21, 2000. We included a brief outline of the major provisions of LIFE in the December 15, 2000 MurthyBulletin, followed by a detailed explanation of the limited extension to section 245(i), in our December 22, 2000 issue. As more information becomes available on these measures and on INS implementation guidelines relating to them, we will provide detailed descriptions of the other sections of the LIFE bills, focusing on the new "V" visa for relatives of permanent residents who have already begun their Green Card process and have been waiting three years or longer; the expansion of the K visa category to include not only fiance(e)s but spouses of U.S. citizens for whom the I-130 (immigrant petition) has been filed; relief for certain late legalization applicants (not a new legalization program, but rather relating to the earlier program from 1986 and related lawsuits); and some technical amendments to the Nicaraguan / Central American (NACARA) and Haitian (HRIFA) programs.

In another important development, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has finally issued its regulations for the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvements Act of 1998 (ACWIA). As MurthyBulletin readers may recall, ACWIA was the 1998 H1B law that introduced the concept of "H1B dependent employer." Employers who have a high percentage of H1B employees in their workforce have additional responsibilities with respect to efforts to recruit U.S. workers and restrictions on layoffs of U.S. workers. The Labor Condition Application (LCA), a DOL form required for all H1B filings, already contains certain promises, known as attestations, for example that the employer must pay a competitive wage and offer similar working conditions to H1B workers. The additional attestations for H1B dependent employers will require a different version of the LCA specifically for use by such H1B dependent employers. We provided an overview on ACWIA around the time that law was passed in the autumn of 1998. We will be posting additional information about the DOL's regulations on ACWIA in an early 2001 issue of the MurthyBulletin. The new regulation addresses not only ACWIA but also some of the more recent changes to the H1B process. See also the article below on the new LCA.
 
AILA, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, intends to convene teleconferences on LIFE and ACWIA in January of 2001, and attorneys from The Law Office of Sheela Murthy, P.C. plan to participate, as is customary, to keep abreast of the latest changes and discuss with fellow colleagues the varying viewpoints on cutting-edge, legal issues.