The Legal Immigration and Family Equity Act (LIFE)

Although the LIFE act was passed in December 2000, its various provisions can not be implemented until regulations have been drafted, approved by various agencies, and published.

To that effect, regulations for 245(i) were reviewed by the Office of Business and Management (OMB) three times and were published in the Federal Register on March 26. The INS also reported that it has drafted regulations for the Late Amnesty section of LIFE and the agency is currently reviewing them internally. The INS has also drafted the rules for the ‘V’ and ‘K’ visas and the Department of State is currently reviewing them.

The INS also says it is planning to process case work for LIFE Act applicants in such a way as to minimize the impact the additional cases would have on current Service Center and District Office application processing. The INS is contracting with a bank in Chicago to serve as a central location for data entry and as a “lock box” for fee capture. All applications will then be forwarded to Lee Summit, Missouri, which will be adopted as the LIFE processing center since many Late Amnesty ‘A’ files are already stored there.

The INS is also considering implementing a nationwide automated 1-800 number that will allow applicants to schedule their own employment authorization interview appointments at the nearest Application Support Center (ASC). The INS predicts 1.3 million LIFE applications will be filed from now until the end of the fiscal year.

This article is news from the INS - reported by the National Citizenship Network. INS headquarters holds a monthly meeting for members of community-based organizations at which it responds to a number of previously specified questions. The information above is taken from the minutes of the March 6, 2001 meeting.