Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), certain Canadian and Mexican professionals are allowed to enter the U.S. under the TN nonimmigrant classification to engage in certain TN-eligible occupations. TN Admission Requirements It is important to note that requirements for admission of Canadian and Mexican TN workers vary. A Canadian citizen TN worker may [...]
We have clients and our office handles a number of U.S. visa applications submitted in Canada. Accordingly, we wish to report on a new appointment service for all U.S. visa applicants in Canada, which becomes effective on September 1, 2010. As of September 1, 2010, all services -- including calling for information and scheduling an [...]
Generally, the U.S. Department of State likes to process visas at the consulate located at the applicant's home country. Howevre, U.S. consulates in Mexico and Canada have the practice of allowing third-country nationals (TCN) to apply for a U.S. visa stamp in addition to their home country. However, recent AILA interactions with the Department of [...]
A recent report by Open Doors, a member of the Institute of International Education provides some numbers and statistics about the foreign students currently in the U.S. According to the report, there are more than 670,000 foreign students in the U.S. – an increase of about 8% over the past academic year. This rate of growth [...]
In a report released this month, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) provides some estimates and analysis of the numbers and demographic composition of the legal permanent residents (“LPRS”) in the U.S. as of January 1, 2008 (yes, the data is 22 months old but the analysis is recent and should not have changed much [...]
We have written about the Automatic Visa Revalidation (AVR) program in the past. The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has released a fact sheet which seeks to clarify some of the AVR provisions. We reprint it here in its entirety: Automatic Visa Revalidation Fact Sheet March 9, 2009 Pursuant to 22 CFR 4 1.1 12 and 8 CFR [...]
The Federal Register has published a rule (73 FR 77729, 12/19/08) pursuant to which nationals of the following countries can apply for H-2B visas: Argentina; Australia; Belize; Brazil; Bulgaria; Canada; Chile; Costa Rica; Dominican Republic; El Salvador; Guatemala; Honduras; Indonesia; Israel; Jamaica; Japan; Mexico; Moldova; New Zealand; Peru; Philippines; Poland; Romania; South Africa; South Korea; Turkey; Ukraine; United Kingdom. It should be noted that individuals already holding H-2B visas are not affected by this rule.
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 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.
The Department of Labor has released the PERM processing statistics for the first two quarters of its Fiscal Year 2008. The report indicates that there were 44,090 PERM applications received, there were 12,600 cases certified and, as of March 23, 2008, there were 28,000 cases pending. Read the full article for details.