As previously reported, international travel to the United States was reopened for vaccinated visitors on Monday, November 8, 2021, as a result of President Biden’s Presidential Proclamation. Previously, tourists and visitors who were physically present in the United Kingdom, Ireland, countries in the European Schengen Area, Brazil, China, India, Iran, and South Africa during the fourteen-day period preceding their entry or attempted entry into US were subject to travel restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. These restrictions, which barred entry for most non-US nationals have been officially lifted, for those who are fully vaccinated. Travel remains restricted for people who were vaccinated with non-WHO-approved vaccines, such as the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, and the Chinese CanSino vaccine.
Read moreThe US Embassy and Consulates in China Have Cancelled All Visa Appointments from February 3 to February 7 and China and the United States Have Issued Travel Restrictions
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 moreThe New York Times: “Trump Recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital and Orders U.S. Embassy to Move”
President Trump reversed seven decades of American foreign policy last week when he formally declared Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced that the US Embassy will move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In making the announcement, President Trump said: “Today we finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. This is nothing more or less than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It’s something that has to be done.” Despite this announcement, Trump signed another six-month waiver to delay the Embassy’s move as part of the Jerusalem Embassy Act, a law put in place in 1995 that initiated the process of moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem but allows presidents to sign a waiver. Trump administration officials explained that the waiver was signed in order to plan for the move. To that end, President Trump directed the State Department to begin preparing for the move by hiring architects, engineers, and planners so that the new embassy in Jerusalem can be a “magnificent tribute to peace” once completed.
Read moreNew York Times: “Trump Administration Orders Tougher Screening of Visa Applicants”
The Trump administration is making it more difficult for millions of visitors to enter the United States by demanding additional security checks before issuing visas to tourists, business travelers, and relatives of American residents, all seemingly in fulfillment of a campaign promise to enact “extreme vetting.” Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson has sent diplomatic cables to US Embassies and Consulates worldwide with these instructions for stricter vetting, basing them off a March 6 presidential memorandum ordering the secretary of state, the attorney general, and the secretary of homeland security to “implement protocols and procedures” to enhance visa screening. The new security checks generally do not apply to citizens of countries in the Visa Waiver Program, which includes thirty-eight member countries. The additional scrutiny, for example, will ask applicants about their background and social media history if a person has ever been in a territory controlled by the Islamic State. “Consular officers should not hesitate to refuse any case presenting security concerns,” Secretary Tillerson writes in the cables. “All visa decisions are national security decisions.”
In 2016, the United States issued more than ten million visas, and this additional scrutiny is likely to lengthen the already bureaucratic process. “This will certainly slow down the screening process and impose a substantial burden on these applicants,” Greg Chen, the director of advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, tells the New York Times. “It will make it much harder and create substantial delays.” Chen questions how a single interviewer who conducts 120 interviews per day—at about five minutes per interview—can improve security. “It’s highly unlikely they could obtain information that demonstrates whether someone is a national security threat in such a brief interview process,” he says.
An Introduction to Medical Ineligibilities for Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Visas
Whether applying for immigrant (Green Card) or nonimmigrant (temporary) visas, foreign nationals must be found “admissible” to the US. There are many legal grounds of “inadmissibility” that make people inadmissible, including criminal and security grounds. A lesser-known basis of inadmissibility relates to health and medical issues, which is what we will focus on in this post.
Read moreThe Nonimmigrant Visa Interview - What to Expect
One of the fastest changing areas of immigration law has been the consular nonimmigrant visa application process. What used to be a one-page application and a fairly routine mail-in process has now become an eight-page online form and a fairly rigorous interview process. Where consular officers used to engage with lawyers about their clients’ visa applications, consular officers are now shielded by layer upon layer of administration. Where consular officers used to review papers presented at the interview as part of their adjudication, they now rely more and more on individual applicants articulating the merits of their cases. Certainly some of the new measures are justified but what it means for individual visa applicants is that they will need to carefully prepare their DS-160 visa application form and be prepared for their interview. We have already addressed some of the idiosyncrasies of the DS-160 form, so in this post we hope to provide some simple tips and guidelines for the interview.
Read moreAll Visa Appointments at the US Embassy in London Are Cancelled October 28
The US Embassy in London have cancelled all the visa appointments and visa processing today (October 28, 2015) due to a “local systems” malfunction. We first received reports this morning that the Embassy sent all applicants home and told them that there would be no appointments today. At the time Embassy staff said that they would either call or email applicants to reschedule the appointments, and the Embassy has now again confirmed on their Twitter feed that all applicants would be contacted by the Visa Appointment Service for appointment rescheduling. The Embassy’s Twitter feed also confirms that the technological systems failure was localized at the London Embassy (compared to the recent global shutdown) and that the Embassy is “confident systems will be fully operational tomorrow.”
5 Hacks to Expediting a Visa Appointment (And Making It Go Smoothly)
A petition has been approved by US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) on behalf of a foreign national and she receives the long-awaited and coveted I-797 Approval Notice. She is brimming with excitement as she logs into the US Embassy/Consulate’s online visa appointment system to schedule the appointment to get the visa stamped in her passport. But the next available appointment is weeks away. And she needs to travel to the US as soon as possible. What to do?
Read more10 Ways to Be Proactive and Avoid Stressful Immigration Situations
Immigration applications and interviews are stressful! As an immigration lawyer and an immigrant, I know the anxiety and pressure firsthand. Collecting information for an application is time consuming; enduring delayed visa applications can be frustrating; and being refused admission at a port of entry or being denied a visa can be disastrous. Most of these can be minimized and some avoided altogether with some advance planning. Here we try to identify some essential things foreign nationals can do to remain in valid immigration status and avoid problems.
Read moreAll US Embassies and Consulates Will Be Closed on October 9
The State Department informed the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) that due to a Department of State consular systems upgrade, consular operations at all US Embassies and Consulates will be closed to the public on Friday, October 9, 2015. Individuals who already have an appointment scheduled for October 9 will be contacted to reschedule. Application Service Centers (ASCs) connected to certain posts may also experience closures. Applicants should review individual consular websites for additional information in the coming week, and also should prepare for possible delays in visa issuance after this date.