A lot goes into applying for a U.S. visitor visa. So, if you are applying for one you want to make sure you have a strong application; to say nothing of preparing for the consular interview.
In the latest installment of the VISANOW Visa Tutorial series, Anne gives an overview of how to apply for a U.S. visitor visa.
We know that a lot of people have questions about immigration visas and the attorneys that work with VISANOW are able to provide answers.
In this video Anne gives an overview of the process for obtaining a K-1 Fiance visa.
The U.S. State Department’s monthly bulletin for green card applicants was just released, and there have been few changes since the January. The F-2B visa category (adult children of U.S. citizens) for Mexican foreign nationals was the only group that saw retrogression: due to high demand, the priority date was pushed back eleven months. Even though the F-2A category has not advanced since last October, the F-2A priority date of September 2013 is still significantly better than normal. Spouses and minor children of green card holders should not be discouraged from applying for their green card just because the priority date hasn’t moved forward
For the work-based visa categories, India’s EB-2 and EB-3 dates did not move forward. While the rest of the world saw limited movement in the EB-3 category.
I visas are for members of the foreign media visiting the United State for journalistic, informational, or educational media activities. This includes the foreign press, film crews, radio outlets, and other types of reporters. Spouses and minor children of I visa holders can accompany them to the U.S. with their own I visa.
To obtain an I visa for a member of the foreign media, proof is required that the media organization paying the visa holder (and providing funding for any media projects) is from outside of the United States. If the I visa holder is reporting on U.S. events, it must be for a foreign audience. I visas are for informational, not commercial, purposes. I visas cannot be used for creating material for commercial entertainment (movies, reality TV, etc.) or advertising.
While some I visa applications fall obviously in the journalism category, there are many informational or educational activities that are in a grey area. The I visa is discretionary and requirements are deliberately vague. It is ultimately up the reviewing officer to determine if they are appropriate and determine visa approval.
Foreign media representatives cannot travel to the U.S. on a visitor (B) visa or as a citizen of the Visa Waiver Program in lieu of applying for an I visa. Historically, this rule was not enforced for citizens of the Visa Waiver Program, but after 9/11, border patrol officers started to crack down.
The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officer determines the length of stay for an I visa at point of entry to the U.S. There are unlimited extensions available on an I visa. I visa holders are also eligible to change visa status while in the U.S. by filing Form I-539. Like all other non-immigrant visa applicants, an I visa applicant must prove
Each week, we look at a different non-immigrant visa by letter, starting with “A” visas. Our intention is to not only help people understand the depth and complexity of U.S. immigration, but also to bring awareness to the enormously diverse pool of immigrants that enter our country every year.
As the H-1B cap season approaches, there is a great deal of information being distributed and shared about the rules, deadlines and restrictions of the H-1B visa. Thousands of high-skilled foreign workers and their U.S. employers are focused on getting this coveted work visa, but it’s important not to forget the thousands more who will be traveling to the United States as dependent family members of H-1B visa holders on the H-4 visa.
H-4 visas are issued to spouses and minor children of H-1B visa holders. H-4 visas are only valid for as long as their H-1B family member is authorized to stay in the United States. If the H-1B visa holder loses his or her job and cannot find new employment, the H-4 visa dependents will ultimately lose their status as well.
Additional information about H-4 work authorization
If the H-1B holder doesn’t have an approved I-140 application, he or she needs a pending PERM labor certification application. Note: It must be pending for at least 365 days and his or her H-1B status must have extended past the six-year limit.
In what could be a game-changing precedent, the California Supreme Court has just ruled that undocumented immigrant Sergio Garcia must be allowed to practice law in the state.
Garcia, who has met all the state’s requirements to practice law, is not scheduled to receive his green card until 2019.
According to NBC News, his father is a naturalized citizen and began the process to naturalize Garcia in 1995, when he was 17. However, since his father didn’t become naturalized until after Garcia turned 21, his green card was being processed as an adult child and has been stuck in the visa backlog for over a decade. This issue of “aging out” of the U.S. visa application process is currently being addressed in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Going into the case before California Supreme Court Garcia had the support of the State Bar of California, but federal immigration law prevented a law license to be given to an undocumented worker.
However, as the San Jose Mercury News reports the California Governor Jerry Brown and the state legislators passed a law allowing undocumented workers to receive a license.
While the California Supreme Court is first to make a ruling on whether or not an undocumented immigrant can practice law, there are two similar cases in both Florida and New York.
Jose Manuel Godinez-Samperio passed the Florida bar exam in 2011 and has been waiting to practice law. Similarly to Garcia, his hold up has been due to the immigration process. He was granted deferred action on December 24, 2012 and therefore may no longer be considered to be here in the United States “illegally.”
In New York, Cesar Vargas has passed the state bar exam, which was the final punctuation on a distinguished education that included making honors in law school and interning with a State Supreme Court judge. Because Vargas has been living here undocumented since he was 5, he has not been given his law license.
The stories of all three individuals highlight the severe problems with our current immigration law and the desperate need to reform it.
This week we’re talking about H visas, some of the most popular (and most difficult to obtain) of the U.S. work vises. The different types of H visas currently being issued by the U.S. government vary greatly, but the unifying quality of H visas is they grant temporary, specific, prearranged employment to a foreign national in the U.S. The burden is also on the U.S. employer to prove that these services are absolutely necessary and unable to be fulfilled by a U.S. resident applicant.
If you’ve ever heard of any of these visas, it’s almost certain to be the H-1B. Over the past few years, H-1B visas have become increasingly popular due to U.S. employers’ high demand for skilled workers from overseas in industries like telecommunications, engineering, medicine, and information technology. H-1B visas are issued in limited amounts each year (a number known as the “H-1B cap”) beginning April 1. If USCIS reaches its H-1B cap of 65,000 within the first week of April, then it holds a lottery to see which of the qualifying applicants will get a visa. Although the demand for H-1B visas (and other H visas) has increased substantially over the years, the H-1B cap has not increased. This is another issue that U.S. employers and immigration advocates want addressed as part of comprehensive immigration reform.
Like almost every other U.S. work visa, a foreign national cannot apply for an H visa on their own. Their employer must petition them (and any dependents) to come to the U.S. before they can ever cross the U.S. border, a complicated process that requires a great deal of paperwork, including certification that the H visa job cannot be filled by an American worker.
Expiration for H visas varies by type, and most can be extended or renewed for limited time. H-1B visas are often used as a stepping stone to permanent residence (green card.) H-1Bs do not lead to a green card technically, but many foreign nationals will obtain an H-1B while they wait for the lengthy, sometimes decade-long process of getting their work-based green card that allows them to stay in the U.S. indefinitely.
H-1B visas allow an individual to stay in the U.S. in H-1B status for up to 6 years if they renew. H-2A and H-2B visa holders have a three year maximum stay even with renewal. The maximum for H-3 trainee visa holders is generally two years. H-4 visa holders are subject to the deadlines of their spouse or parent’s H visa.
H-3 visa holders are officially only allowed to train for a job while inside the U.S., and their training must be intended for a job outside the U.S. once the training program has finished. The proposed training cannot be available in the applicant’s home country and the amount of actual “work” the H-3 visa holder can achieve is extremely limited.
An H-3 visa holder still has much more flexibility than foreign nationals with H-4 visas. Unfortunately, spouses and children of H visa employees have no right to work in the U.S. If an H-4 dependent wishes to pursue work in the U.S., they must apply for a work or student visa of their own.
Each week, we look at a different non-immigrant visa by letter, starting with “A” visas. Our intention is to not only help people understand the depth and complexity of U.S. immigration, but also to bring awareness to the enormously diverse pool of immigrants that enter our country every year.
In case you weren’t keeping up with U.S. immigration news this week, here were the big topics:
On Monday Jeh Johnson (left) was confirmed as the new secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Friday, USCIS director Alejandro Mayorkas was appointed deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Wednesday, Florida’s Miami-Dade county announced it would no longer house detained undocumented immigrants on behalf of the federal government, citing financial and humanitarian issues.
Thursday ICE released its year-end report on deportations, which showed the annual number immigrants removed from the U.S. in 2013 (368,644 to be exact) dropped for the first time since Obama took office. Almost 2 million immigrants have been deported during his administration.
That same day, PewResearch released their survey results showing that Hispanic Americans overwhelmingly favor relief from deportations for undocumented immigrants over a path to citizenship.
New DHS secretary Johnson has already gone on record in one of his first statements on immigration to say he thinks keeping deportation quotas for ICE isn’t “a good idea.”
Thursday evening New Jersey became the newest state to officially grant in-state tuition to its undocumented students.
Today Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a close ally of House Speaker John Boehner, announced that immigration reform has a real possibility of passing in 2014. This continues to build credibility to the case that Boehner is slowly heading towards pushing an immigration reform plan through the House in 2014.
Throughout 2013 we have seen a surge in immigrants requesting special visas to protect them from threats within their home country as well as within the U.S. Last week, several House Republicans voiced their concerns about the exponential growth of asylum requests from undocumented immigrants. From 2012 to 2013, requests for asylum citing “credible fear” of harm in returning to their home country nearly tripled. One lawmaker went so far as to ask, “The world is not twice as dangerous as it was in 2012, so what explains the spike?”
The reason for the ever-increasing flood of U.S. asylum requests has nothing to do with the fact that the world is “twice as dangerous” in 2013, but it does have to do with the fact that many Central American countries (especially Mexico) have become incredibly more dangerous in the last 5-6 years thanks to gang violence and the drug war.
Another important reason for the spike is increased awareness of the “credible fear” claim as a means to avoid deportation. Thanks to social networks, online resources, and the extremely vocal U.S. immigration reform movement, immigrants of all types are more educated about the ins and outs of U.S. immigration policy than ever. The “credible fear” asylum request was brought to the national spotlight this summer when dozens of undocumented Mexican DREAMers crossed the border back into Mexico and returned requesting asylum to gain lawful status. Most of them are still awaiting court dates that will determine whether or not they can stay in the country for good.
In addition to requests for asylum, which can eventually result in a green card after several months or years if approved, the U.S. government has received thousands applications this fiscal year for U visas, a special type of visa for undocumented crime victims that can testify in a U.S. criminal case. USCIS caps U visas at 10,000 per year, and this fiscal year (starting October 1, 2013) the limit was reached just two weeks ago. U visas will not become available again to undocumented immigrant crime victims until October 1, 2014.
Unlike U visas however, asylum requests do not have a cap and the record 36,000+ requests this year are causing some lawmakers to believe that screening is too lax and current policies have become highly vulnerable to fraud. Like many U.S. visas, asylum requests have different approval rates depending on country of origin. Requests from Mexico are almost universally denied while Chinese requests have a fairly successful acceptance rate. The system is far from perfect, and many of its issues would be eliminated with the passage of the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform bill.
Immigrant groups all over the world are notoriously vulnerable to exploitation and crime, and programs like the U visa and asylum are needed to make sure there are ways to prevent these issues in the United States. However, the recent flood of requests point to some serious issues within current U.S. immigration policy. The perceived overabundance of asylum requests is a symptom of a much broader issue: we have too many immigrants in a desperate situation within the U.S. and no proper legal means to address their problems. The fact that U visas have already run out for 2014 points to not only the incredible size of the U.S. undocumented population, but also signals that far too many of them are suffering violence and abuse. It’s a symptom of a broken system that needs to be changed as soon as possible.
Looking to come to the U.S. by applying for a G visa? You’ll have to be a diplomat or other government official working as an employee of an international organization. First, a consular officer determines if you are eligible for an Employee of an International Organization (G) visa. They must find your intended purpose of travel to be in pursuit of carrying out official duties.
If you meet the qualifications, there are certain classifications of the G visa on which you may enter the U.S.:
If you are a dependent or immediate family member of a G visa holder, you will generally take on the same classification as the primary visa applicant/holder.
When applying for a G-1 through G-4 visa abroad, U.S. embassies and consulates generally do not require an interview. That being said, a consular officer may request an interview at their discretion.
If you fall under the “official visa classification” umbrella (e.g. are eligible for an A, G, C-3, NATO visa) or hold a diplomatic passport, you are usually exempt from paying visa fees; however, this can also be up to the determination of a consular officer.
Necessary documentation you must provide for a G visa can include but not be limited to form DS-160 (and DS-1648, if applicable), a diplomatic note, a valid passport, a photograph, and, if an immediate family member, a copy of the visa and form I-94 of the principal visa holder.
Check out our article on the H visa.
Each week, we look at a different non-immigrant visa by letter, starting with “A” visas. Our intention is to not only help people understand the depth and complexity of U.S. immigration, but also to bring awareness to the enormously diverse pool of immigrants that enter our country every year.
