LEGAL LANGUAGE SERVICES

Immigration News: Deadline Looming for Illegal Immigrants

April 2001

Immigrants, attorneys and employers are rushing to meet a Monday, April 30 deadline for employers to file on behalf of illegal immigrants for green cards without the aliens having to leave the country to receive them.

This window of opportunity was made possible by the enactment of the Life Immigration Family Equity Act (LIFE) on December 21, 2000. The Act added a new regulation to Section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Some immigration attorneys have already stopped taking new cases. The Labor Department has 100,000 cases pending now, while during a similar four month period in 1998 Labor had 40,000 cases.

The chairwoman of the New York chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Jacqueline Baronian, suggested most employers should file anyway. Ms. Baronian  warns that the Labor Department will be checking on whether the applicants who apply as skilled help (such as cooks) can prove it, and are not really unskilled workers (such as nannies).