Category Archives: US Immigration law

Fast Tracked H1-B Visas on Pause

DHS announced that the program will be shut down for 6 months

Image Source: http://www.uscg.mil/

Breitbart reports that the Department of Homeland Security has announced the temporary shut down of the fast track H1-B visa program.

DHS chief John Kelly has been notified by Homeland Security to shut the “premium processing” loophole for six months which will likely delay approval of H-1B visa requests for months.

The decision comes four weeks before the deputies were required by law to quickly distribute roughly 65,000 more H-1B visas and has brought about mixed reactions and.

Employers and companies have slammed the decision because the visa program allowed for U.S. and foreign companies to import cheap white-collar contract-workers into the U.S. labor market.

However many viewed the H1-B program as a measure designed to take jobs away from Americans.

Canceling the H1-B visa program has been one of Trump’s major campaign promises. “I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program,” he said in a March 2016 statement. “No exceptions,” he added.

Read more here

DHS Sued For Illegal Visa Delays

On September 28, 2015, several highly-skilled immigrant workers from India and China filed a federal class action lawsuit in the State of Washington against the U.S. Department of State (“DOS”) and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) over revisions to the October 2015 Visa Bulletin (Revised Visa Bulletin) that impacted them adversely. On September 30, an amended complaint was filed in federal court along with an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order, asking the court to order DHS to accept all Adjustment of Status applications that could have been filed under the Original Visa Bulletin published on September 9.

Read the full article at National Law Review.

US immigration attorneys in Thailand Chaninat and Leeds have decades of experience helping Thai nationals obtain the US visas they require.

Visa Processing Problems Continue at National Visa Center

US visa applicants around the world are reporting frustration at online accessibility errors, despite renewed attempts at fixing issues, reports National Law Review.

System problems include an inability to submit visa applications and make online payments.

The US Department of State (DOS) and National Visa Center (NVC) say they have made steps to resolve the problems with the Consular Electronic Application Center. However, at the time of writing applicants continue to report problems.

US visa lawyers in Thailand Chaninat and Leeds are specialists in US visas and USA Immigration for Thai nationals.

For more on this story, and for information about the issues involved in the process, see here.