Tag: us visas

On Sept. 29, 2016, a Continuing Resolution was signed into law to extend several important immigration programs, including the Conrad 30 Program, the non-minister special immigrant religious work program (SR visa), and the EB-5 Regional Center Program. The House and the Senate passed the Continuing Resolution on Sept. 28, 2016 and the president signed the […]

Beginning Nov. 1, 2016, the “No Eyeglasses Policy” will go into effect. Under this policy, Consular Affairs will no longer accept photographs of visa and passport applicants wearing eyeglasses, except in rare, medically-documented circumstances. Consular Affairs will implement this policy with a soft one-month enforcement period from Nov. 1 through Nov. 30, 2016, after which […]

The DOS Visa Office has recently instructed consular officers to revoke the visas of visa-holders following a DUI (driving under the influence) arrest. The previous policy simply required a visa applicant with a prior DUI conviction to provide a report from a panel physician. This new policy allows consular posts to revoke nonimmigrant visas and […]

Your passport must be valid for your entire requested period of stay as a nonimmigrant in the United States. It is important to keep your passport up to date in order to avoid any complications with your visa status. If your passport has expired but your visa is still valid, you can travel to the […]

Beginning in November 2016, in accordance with the agreement signed between the United States and China to extend visa validity, Chinese citizens with 10-year B1, B2, or B1/B2 (visitor) visas in Peoples’ Republic of China passports, will be required to periodically update biographical and other information from their visa application. Updates will be required via […]

In an effort to improve the efficiency of the employment-based visa process, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has unveiled a “known employer” pilot program to test a preapproval process for companies seeking to bring foreign workers into the U.S. Under the pilot, nine companies will be preselected to file applications with USCIS requesting a […]

Slated for completion in late 2016, the new U.S. Embassy in the Nine Elms area of Wandsworth is a current project that will produce a modern, welcoming, safe, and energy efficient embassy for the 21st century. The design of the new facility was opened up to competition and Philadelphia-based architects, Kieran Timberlake, earned the winning […]

Last month, the U.S. began implementing changes to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) under the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015. As a result, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have announced enhancements to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) to accommodate these updates. The updated ESTA application form […]

After careful consideration and consultation with the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of State, the Department of Homeland Security has announced that Libya, Somalia, and Yemen will be included as countries of concern, limiting Visa Waiver Program travel for certain individuals who have traveled to these countries since March 1, 2011. For now, […]

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have released draft guidance on how it will consider evidence supporting O-1 immigration applicants, which cover people with extraordinary abilities in science, education, business, athletics, and the arts, by clarifying how it will weigh supporting information for an application. The new guidelines should eliminate some ambiguity on O-1 applications by […]