Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1993 15:25:58 -0400 Reply-To: IFCSS HQ Sender: Univ of Buffalo Chinese Students and Scholars Communication List From: IFCSS HQ Subject: An Open Letter to Our Fellow Students Who Came After April 11, 1990 ************************************************************** IFCSS Headquarters News Release No.5017 July 16, 1993 ************************************************************** Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars (IFCSS) 733 15th Street, N.W., Suite 440, Washington, D.C.20005 Tel. (202)347-0017 Fax: (202)347-0018 Email: ifcss@wam.umd.edu An Open Letter to Our Fellow Students Who Came After April 11, 1990 Dear Fellow Students: Recently, we have received letters from some of you to voice your concern over the IFCSS' approach to late-arriving dependents issue. IFCSS appreciates your comment and is pleased to see that the younger ones are ready to participate in the organization's decision-making. We believe IFCSS owes you an explanation, which is offered below. If you have further comments, please contact IFCSS HQ. First, it should be realized that the CSPA as a whole has not negatively affected your chances of obtaining PR. Had all these CSPA beneficiaries adjusted their status through normal channels, the backlog for China would be tremendous, and you would be far down the waiting line. Now, with all these early-arriving people absorbed into CSPA, for the first time in recent years we are going to have visa numbers immediately available for employment-based 3rd preference in the coming August. Second, starting from next year, 1,000 visa numbers will be deducted from China quota. However, out of this 1,000 only 300 will be actually deducted from employment-based 3rd preference; the rest will come from investment immigration quotas, which will affect no one. Again, if there had been no CSPA, the early-arriving students would take up a lot more than 300 in the coming years. Third, according to the current law, if a person obtains PR through employment-based 3rd preference, his/her dependents will be automatically granted green cards using visa numbers in the same category. Therefore, if there had been no CSPA, the late-arriving dependents would be still using visa numbers under employment-based 3rd preference, since the overwhelming majority of early-arriving students would obtain PR through that channel. But giving these reasons does not mean that IFCSS has not tried to obtain more favorable results. We have explored the possibility of including the late-arriving dependents under the CSPA, but since that requires legislation in the Congress, the difficulties at the moment are insurmountable given the strong anti-immigration sentiment among the law-makers. Frankly, the patience of our friends at the Congress has been worn very thin. If we insisted on the inclusion, we would not succeed, because nobody would support us; on the contrary, we would permanently damage the good relationship we are now enjoying with the Congress. It is certain that IFCSS will seek legislations beneficial to the new- comers when appropriate occasion comes up. A good image and a friendly relationship with the Congress are crucial to any future success. According to the current statistics, the number of potential CSPA applicants is much smaller than what has been estimated. The total number of late-arriving dependents should be from 4,000 to 7,000. Since the number is at least 50% smaller than the previous estimate, we are still seeking ways to let them use worldwide visa numbers. For instance, we have asked that any possible left-overs from the 45,000 available to CSPA principals be used by late- arriving dependents. At the same time, we strongly encourage those late-arriving dependents who can maintain a legal status for an extended period of time (e.g. F-1 holders) to apply under family- based 2nd preference. The immigration policy changes constantly. It would be unrealistic to project beyond two or three years down the road. However, as long as we have a strong organization, we can take advantage of such changes. At the recent IFCSS 5th Congress, the current IFCSS leadership had fairly extensive discussions with new-comer delegates. It is our belief that with the strengthening of the Chinese community as a whole, we will be able to achieve more in the future, which, of course, depends largely on support from you, our younger brothers and sisters. We wish you the very best! ********************************************************************* * IFCSS Headquarters Office * *-------------------------------------------------------------------* * President: Lin Changsheng Vice President: Shi Heping * *-------------------------------------------------------------------* * PBS-L is IFCSS's news distribution list for individuals. To sign * * on or off from the list, please send email to listserv@ifcss.org * * leave the subject line open and put in the mail body: * * (For signing on) sub PBS-L last name first name * * (For signing off) unsub PBS-L last name first name * * For more information about IFCSS, write to ifcss-info@ifcss.org * *********************************************************************