Foreign nationals who violate their visa status can face serious consequences. Just ask Peter. Who is Peter? Okay, Peter is not a real person. He is a fictional foreign national who, to be clear, is not based on any of our clients (and any resemblance to a real person is entirely coincidental). Let’s say that Peter enters the United States as a B-2 tourist on December 5. The immigration officer processes his entry and Peter now has an I-94 (now electronic) with valid status until June 5.
Read moreBloomberg: “U.S. to Seek Social Media Details From All Visa Applicants”
The State Department wants to require nearly all US visa applicants to provide social media username and account information, a move that would affect approximately 710,000 immigrant visa applicants and fourteen million nonimmigrant visa applicants. If these proposed changes published in the Federal Register are accepted after the sixty-day public comment period ends, the new requirements would ask for social media handles as well as prior email addresses and telephone numbers from the last five years when individuals apply to come to the US. This comes after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced last year its intention to screen social media accounts of all immigrants, including Green Card holders and naturalized US citizens.
Read moreFast Company: “How, Why, And When To Share Your Immigration Status On Job Interviews”
In the current political environment, as politicians and government officials debate the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the H-1B visa, and whether to switch to a “merit-based” immigration system, many immigrants may be afraid to discuss their immigration status with potential employers. Although Ximena Hartsock, an immigrant from Chile and business owner, encourages immigrants to use discretion when talking about their immigration status, at the same time she believes they should “own their immigrant experiences with pride.” Writing in Fast Company, she provides tips for immigrants to navigate the interview process.
Read moreCNN: “United States and Turkey mutually suspend visa services”
The United States has suspended nonimmigrant visa services in Turkey, after last week’s arrest of a US embassy employee in Istanbul. In return, Turkey announced they were also suspending nonimmigrant visa services for American nationals. The US mission in Ankara said in a statement on October 8, 2017 announcing the suspension: “Recent events have forced the United States government to reassess the commitment of government of Turkey to the security of US mission and personnel."
Read moreReuters: “Trump administration red tape tangles up visas for skilled foreigners, data shows”
US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS), under the leadership of the Trump administration, has been challenging a significant number of visa applications for skilled workers since President Trump vowed to investigate the “fraud and abuse” of the H-1B visa program by American-based companies this past April. Although neither the Trump administration nor Congress have instituted any changes to the H-1B program, data provided by USCIS reveals that the agency has issued 85,000 challenges, or “requests for evidence” (RFE’s), regarding H-1B visa petitions between January 1st and August 31st of this year. This is a forty-five percent increase since the same period of time last year. These RFE’s have also been issued at a rate greater than any point during the Obama administration, apart from 2009. RFE's can delay cases by months, and often interfere with hiring plans and business operations for American companies.
Read more5 Misconceptions about the I-94
Hardly a week goes by when a client doesn’t tell us, “I don’t have an I-94. They got rid of I-94s.” And it’s understandable, since there has been a lot of confusion after Customs and Border Protection (CBP) converted from paper I-94s to electronic I-94s in 2013. To recap: the I-94 is an electronic document (formerly paper) issued to foreign nationals that:
- Tracks arrivals and (indirectly) departures to and from the United States; and
- Is evidence of legal status in the US for foreign nationals in their category of admission (for example, H-1, O-1, L-1, F-1, and so on).
The lack of a paper stapled into a passport has led to many misunderstandings. We try to address five of the most common.
Read moreABC News: “US Embassy in Russia suspends issuing nonimmigrant visas”
The US Embassy in Russia announced yesterday that it would temporarily suspend issuing nonimmigrant visas beginning August 23, 2017, after Russia’s decision to reduce embassy and operational staff. On September 1, 2017, visa operations will resume on a “greatly reduced scale,” and only the US Embassy in Moscow will issue visas. The consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and Vladivostok have indefinitely suspended their visa issuance. This decision will affect thousands of Russian tourists and visa applicants. Despite the visa shutdown and staff reduction, the US Embassy in Moscow and the three consulates will continue to provide emergency and routine services to American citizens, although hours may be adjusted.
Read moreO-1 Visas: Not Just For Artists
One of the most common visa types our law firm prepares is the O-1 for individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement. The O-1 is a temporary work visa granted in three-year increments with one-year extensions—allowing individuals of extraordinary ability to work in the United States for a single employer or sponsor. We’ve written a great deal about the O-1, from highlighting common misconceptions to imagining an O-1 consultation with a certain undersea character; however, one common misconception we have not spent a lot of time correcting is the assumption that O-1 visas are only for “artists.” While many artists are covered under this visa category, the defining characteristic of the O-1 is actually “extraordinary ability,” a distinction that can be made in nearly any field or industry.
Read moreHave You Ever Been Arrested?
Whether and how to divulge one’s history of contact with law enforcement is an area of substantial confusion among applicants for admission to the US under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) as well as for applicants for visas, Green Cards, or citizenship. Not only can such a simple question conjure the very worst moments in someone’s life, the appearance of the question alone can portend a potential delay or denial of the benefit foreign nationals are seeking.
Read moreSan Francisco Chronicle: “H-1B visa worries won’t slow applications, experts say”
Beginning next week on April 3 (since April 1 is a Saturday), immigration practitioners and petitioners will be able to file new H-1B petitions for those who have never had H-1Bs, commonly referred to as “cap cases.” Amid the uncertainty over whether President Trump plans to makes dramatic changes to the H-1B program, immigration experts anticipate another record-breaking year of petitions. While some immigration practitioners attribute the expected high amount of petitions to the strong economy and high demand for specialized knowledge positions in hubs such as Silicon Valley, others believe this may be their last shot for an H-1B before it is overhauled. “There are a lot of companies that are saying, ‘Hey, this is my only opportunity to get in under the current H-1B situation,’ because everyone is expecting a change,” Marcine Seid, an immigration attorney in Palo Alto, tells the San Francisco Chronicle. “And they don’t expect it to be for the better.”
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