October 1999 Editorial Comments
Attorney Sheela Murthy
Posted Oct 27, 1999

Another month rolls along and the holidays are fast approaching. On the immigration law front, there have been a few developments, none of them dramatic.

Many of the clients of the Law Office of Sheela Murthy, P.C., have asked us to opine on how long we believe the visa numbers will remain current. Although no one can accurately predict, we expect the visa numbers to continue to remain current for Indians and Chinese in the employment based categories, since the INS is taking so long to process the I-485s. Until the INS starts processing its backlog of I-485s, there is no likelihood of the visa numbers retrogressing, at least in the near future according to several estimates. See item 1 below for the immigrant visa dates for November 1999 in our October 1999 Bulletin of the Law Office of Sheela Murthy, P.C.

We have the recent news story of the Bill reinstating the national interest waiver (NIW) for providing the green card for medical doctors who work in health professional shortage areas (HPSAs). Although the rules are not yet available as of the date that this Bulletin is released, the details should be published shortly. See items 2 and 3 below dealing with waivers for J1 medical doctors and the recent news on the Bill pertaining to reversal of the NYSDOT decision with respect to medical doctors working in HPSAs.

For many of you who have been complaining about the INS delays in processing petitions and applications after having raised the filing fees, in some cases over 100% within the last year, and the processing seems to have worsened, here is your opportunity to provide information to your AILA attorney, who can provide the information to the organization that is preparing to sue the INS over processing delays. Sometimes, we have to enforce the laws against those whose duty it is to serve us. See item 4 below in our October 1999 LOSM Law Bulletin on the details regarding this possible class adied optimism on filing NIW Petitions. We, like others, have been finding that the INS is starting to ask more questions to ensure compliance with the NYSDOT criteria, which have serious constitutional concerns since they are being applied retroactively. See item 6 below in our October 1999 Bulletin regarding case summaries of our NIW approvals.

The burning issue with many of you is the question pertaining to consular processing or adjustment of status. We had addressed this issue in our September 1999 Bulletin in one of the items. We now provide the guidance and clarifications of the INS on when does an I-824 need to be filed in item 7 below.

The Nebraska Service Center (NSC) has agreed that it will allow the substitution of one I-140 approval in one category with another I-140 approval in a different category or even with a different employer during the pendency of the I-485 adjustment application. We do not have details from the INS but we thought it was important enough for our employment based clients that we need to mention it in item 8 below. In item 9 below we have an update from the Consulate at Chennai (Madras), India as distributed by them in a News Release and provided by our India Desk at Chennai We have mentioned some possible improvements by the INS which may benefit all of us as customers of their services in item 10 of our October 1999 Bulletin below. In item 11 we discuss the inordinate delays by the NSC in issuing the receipt notices for the I-485 Adjustment of Status applications. We do not know how delayed the processing will be but issuing the receipts is taking too long! Our items 12 through 15 mention the dates as provided by the INS to AILA for all of the 4 INS Service Centers so that you may have some idea of the dates being processed according to the INS. As always, we are delighted to have the opportunity to present another edition of our Immigration Law Bulletin for all of you to learn and enjoy! Happy Halloween to those who go trick or treating and Happy Dasera to those who celebrate this holiday!