The White House earlier stated its support for a 6-12 month extension. There also is bipartisan legislation in both Houses of Congress for similar extensions. The new proposal of a limited 4-month extension with restrictions is out of the blue. In addition, given this new requirement, INS would have to issue a new regulation. This short window caused delay, panic and confusion among immigrants and created an opportunity for unscrupulous and fraudulent immigration advisors.
Past experience argues for a clean extension of a longer period of time without new provisions.
Please contact the White House and your Representative and Senators NOW and urge them to support a final measure that is closer to the bipartisan Senate legislation, S. 778, sponsored by Senators Hagel and Kennedy. Instead, INS will automatically treat the start date as the date the LCA was signed by the employer. If you have already sent an LCA in to be corrected, do not expect to receive a correction. Again, instead, INS will simply treat the LCA as having the earlier start date. The INS has also agreed to reopen cases denied on this basis on its own motion.