Washington Update
January 2000

Congress Passes
Significant Immigration Legislation
By Merrill Smith, LIRS Washington Representative

In the midst of the intense focus on the proposed cuts to the U.S. refugee program and our resounding victory on that matter, several important legislative developments have gone unreported in FYI. Following is an update of what else has been going on in Washington over the past several months.

Temporary Visas
The cap on the number of temporary professional-level visas, also known as H-1Bs, was raised to 195,000 in fiscal years 2001 through 2003. The religious worker visa program was extended to September 30, 2003. The Immigration and Naturalization Service will be required to integrate the data they already collect from visitors but not the new documentary requirements of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, Section 110. The pilot visa waiver program, under which visitors from 29 countries whose nationals have low visa overstay rates do not have to apply for visas, was made permanent.

Up to 5,000 new nonimmigrant visas were created for victims of sex-trafficking and forced labor and up to 10,000 visas for victims of certain crimes or persons who can provide prosecution information, allowing for permanent status after three years. Battered immigrant women may self-petition for permanent status in the United States, no longer must show "extreme hardship" and may reopen suspension of deportation/cancellation of removal cases.

Permanent Residence
Jewish Syrian asylum winners were permitted to adjust outside of the 10,000 adjustment cap for such persons. Five-thousand Indochinese who had been paroled into the country in the public interest, or PIPs, were permitted to adjust their status. Future appropriations were authorized to reduce adjustment and naturalization backlogs.

Naturalization
Hmong and other Laotian refugees and their spouses or widows were exempted from the English language requirement for naturalization and get special consideration on the government and history exam. Automatic citizenship was conferred on foreign-born children adopted by U.S. citizens with whom they are residing in the United States. Implementation of the Hague adoption convention also increased the number of people able to adopt children and bring them to the United States. Adoptees are no longer subject to bad moral character findings for, mistakenly but in good faith, making false claims of citizenship or registering to vote. The oath of naturalization was waived for mentally incapacitated persons.

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