Three weeks ago, we were first to tell you about the temporary restoration of an old provision of U.S. Immigration Law that could help hundreds of illegal workers here get legal. This is an important Key West story because hundreds of employers here are having trouble filling many jobs with Americans.
After our story appeared, one immigration attorney called to tell us that our article— which quoted another immigration attorney— wasn't true. We checked it out and we now suspect that he was just trying to protect his turf. And right at press time last week, an official of the U.S. Dept. of Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) called us and intimated that it might not be necessary for an illegal worker to pay a lawyer thousands of dollars to handle the paperwork under the new law. INS would help, he said.
"Fax us something," we asked. He did. And it was a typical response from a government agency. Here's a quote from that document's first paragraph: "INS is advising the public that the agency is moving as quickly as possible to develop application procedures for immigration benefits created by the Legal Immigration and Family Equity (LIFE) Act. The agency will immediately inform the public as procedures are finalized."
Well, duh! The window of opportunity to apply closes on April 30, 2001.
If you're an illegal worker or the employer of one or more illegal workers, you may want to explore the options available to you. Here are the basics:
1. Illegal workers can't apply individually. They need to have a sponsor— a legal family member or an employer.
2. The process may take several years and it isn't cheap.
3. But, we're told, the odds are good that applications for many, if not most illegal workers who can show that they were this country on Dec. 21, 2000, could be approved if presented and managed competently.
Our advice is this: If you're interested, attend one of the free informational seminars offered by the Andersen Firm. (Info: 295-6802.) We recommend that particular law firm only because we know that they have a good reputation— and we don't know of any other firm offering free advice in this area of the law. It seems to us that it can't hurt. The alternative is to do nothing. And the window of opportunity does absolutely close in 66 days.
See Attorney Thomas Dean's guest commentary on page 10.