USCIS has announced that the maximum period of time a TN visa holder can remain in the U.S. from one (1) year to three (3) years. The TN initial period is now equal to the three (3) year initial period of admission granted to H-1B holders. About the TN Visa The TN nonimmigrant classification is visa category [...]
About the EB-5 Visa and Regional Centers Under section 203(b)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(5), 10,000 immigrant visas per year are available to qualified individuals seeking permanent resident status on the basis of their engagement in a new commercial enterprise (generally of at least $1 million). Of the 10,000 investor [...]
The annual green card lottery, DV-2010, opens today at noon eastern time. The deadline for submission is noon, eastern time, on Monday, December 1, 2008. Although early application does not increase the chances of being selected, we have seen in the past years the lottery site overloaded with web traffic in the last days or [...]
The Department of Homeland Security has released a report with a number of statistical breakdowns of admissions into the U.S. of nonimmigrants for 2007. According to the DHS, there were 171 million nonimmigrant admissions into the U.S. in 2007. The numbers show entries in the U.S. broken down by visa type, port of entry, age [...]
The Government Accountability Office has released its report on the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) and its implementation and operation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The report seeks to assess the operation of the program and to analyze DHS’s efforts to expand it. The GAO report found, among other things that although the government is [...]
It is election season and many non-U.S. citizens are interested in being involved in the election process. We receive a number of inquiries about what election-related activities are permitted by non-U.S. citizens and we republish an article we wrote in April 2008: Foreigners and the U.S. Political Process - Permitted Activities. In addition, voting unlawfully is [...]
After few weeks, the program entitled “Scheduled Departure” is about to end, according to the Associated Press. The program allowed illegal immigrants who are subject to judicial order to leave the United States and who do not have a criminal record to turn themselves in voluntarily and be allowed to wrap up their departure in [...]
An AAO decision was released recently which commented on whether it is required for a petitioner who has filed a Form I-131, application for re-entry permit to be physically in the country when the application is filed. The answer, according to the AAO decision is that the petitioner must be physically located in the U.S. at the time the I-131 re-entry permit application is filed. While it is true that the AAO decision is based on the old rules which did not require biometrics to be taken for each re-entry permit application, it is important to understand that all re-entry permits should be filed when the petitioner is in the U.S. and that the petitioner must attend the biometric appointment or risk a denial of the application.
The title may not suggest how this post is related to labor immigration, but it is. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the formed Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan suggested that one of the easiest, yet politically difficult, ways to alleviate the housing crisis is by … a major expansion of the quotas [...]
The Department of State rule, known as the "automatic revalidation" of visas is a rule which allows holders of almost all classes of U.S. visas to travel to a "contiguous territory" and return to the U.S. without a current valid stamp in the passport. Persons in F, J, H and O status can travel to Canada or Mexico and return to the U.S. without a valid visa stamp. Persons in F and J status can, in addition to Mexico and Canada, visit the "adjacent islands" (Caribbean islands except Cuba) and return to the U.S. without a valid visa stamp in their passport. Please read the entire article for more details on the automatic visa revalidation program.