The State Department announced last week that due to the coronavirus outbreak originating in Wuhan, China, the US Embassy and Consulates in China have canceled all immigrant and nonimmigrant visa appointments from February 3 through February 7 and the Embassy and Consulates are closed to the public to comply with Chinese government restrictions on large gatherings of people. The US Embassy and Consulates will resume routine visa services as soon as they are able but the State Department cannot provide a specific date at this time as to when they will re-open.
Read moreDepartment of State Publishes Final Rule to Prevent Pregnant Women from Traveling to the US under B Visas for “Birth Tourism”
The Department of State (DOS) last week published a final rule effective January 24, 2020, that states consular officers will deny applications for B nonimmigrant visas if the officer believes that the foreign national applicant intends to travel to the US for the primary purpose of obtaining US citizenship for a child by giving birth in the US, commonly referred to as “birth tourism.” The final rule states that the DOS is addressing the issue of “birth tourism” since it “creates a potential long-term vulnerability for national security” and since the “birth tourism” industry is “rife with criminal activity, including international criminal schemes.”
Read moreRestoring Dignity
USCIS: “United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Will Adjust International Footprint to Seven Locations.”
US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will close thirteen international field offices and three district offices between now and August 2020, according to an announcement on August 9, 2019. While eliminating these thirteen international offices, USCIS also announced plans to maintain operations at international field offices in Beijing and Guangzhou, China; Nairobi, Kenya; and New Delhi, India, as well as Guatemala City, Guatemala; Mexico City, Mexico; and San Salvador, El Salvador, “as part of a whole-of-government approach to address the crisis at the southern border.”
Read more5 of the Most Important Federal Agencies Involved with US Immigration
We have previously written about the abundance of acronyms that are used by US immigration attorneys. At our office, some of those acronyms we use most frequently include: USCIS, CBP, DHS, DOS, and DOL, all of which happen to be five of the most important federal agencies involved in US immigration. (Immigration & Customs Enforcement—i.e., ICE—also has a large impact on some US immigrants, but our firm does not often work with this agency.) In this post, we provide a brief introduction to five of the federal agencies we work with most often, explain their areas of oversight, and how they are related.
Read moreNPR: “How A Half-Hour In a U.S. Embassy Changed a Life”
As a child growing up in Sri Lanka, Christopher Francis was fascinated with America. After reading books about America at his local library, his dream was to make it to the United States. "I looked at the pictures or read about it and everything was just fascination about America," he tells NPR. "I knew that…in America, sky's the limit and you are welcomed and you are given every opportunity to succeed in this country." Francis grew up Tamil, a persecuted ethnic minority in Sri Lanka, during a time when there was great tension and deadly encounters between Tamils and the Sinhalese government. “It’s a very tough times we went through. Almost everyone got burnt and killed, they escaped and ran,” Francis says. He knew he had to leave the country.
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 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.
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