News

With long waiting times for visa application processing, the US has been reviewing changes that can be introduced to reduce the length of the waiting times.

Historically, the US has benefitted from attracting some of the highest calibre calibre of skilled workers from around the world.

Following the Russia-Ukraine ongoing war, Western countries against the war have withdrawn from active or passive participation in the war after numerous attempts to stop Russia from going ahead with the attacks.

On the 10th of June, 2021, the US Mission to India revealed that it would open its July and August students visa appointment at various posts across India.

In the United States, every fiscal year, which begins on October 1 and ends on September 30, under United States immigration law, up to 140,000 employment-based immigrant visas are made readily available to qualified candidates.

The United States Customs and Border Protection has declared an addition to the cost of traveling to the United States under the ESTA Visa Waiver scheme.

An ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation) provides authorisation to enter the US for the purposes of business, tourism, medical or transit.

The US ESTA program is an abridged version of the regular US visa application program.

Croatia has now been added to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) after the US has reviewed their acceptance criteria for the country.

Travel ban removal date confirmed, UK and EU citizens will be able to start making plans for visiting the US.

The US President Joe Biden is planning to ease some of the travel restrictions for entering US from early November.

From November, vaccinated people from the EU will be able to enter the US, with the US administration recently announcing that travellers from 33 countries will be able to travel to the US.

If citizens of Romania or Croatia want to travel to the US for business, tourism, medical or transit purposes, they are now able to apply for ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) instead of the much longer and more expensive process of applying for a US visa.

Due to the so-far impressive success of the vaccination program in the US and in several other countries around the world, the US could lift some international travel restrictions as early as May

The new POTUS has wasted no time in making changes to some of the key issues in the US and bringing in tougher measures to combat the COVID-19 health pandemic, is right at the top of his list.

Following the discovery that a new variant of the coronavirus in the UK, with what seems to have a higher transmission rate, the US CDC authorities have made the decision to request proof that air passengers from the UK have had a negative COVID-19 test result pre-departure. The test requirement was introduced on 27 December and must be completed in the three days before the flight to the US.

Today the US opened up more airports for international flights, following the removal of the enhanced screening process that was being carried out at 15 selected airports. Previous to this, international flights were funneled to one of the 15 airports that had been set up for the enhanced screening procedures.

The CDC has just announced that it will stop performing the enhanced screening for international travelers when they arrive in the US. For the last few months, any travelers arriving from what is determined to be a high-risk country would be required to have a screening which included presenting a health declaration.

Reports have emerged that foreign nationals in the US such as H-1B visa holders could soon face regular biometric collections and background screening as the DHS introduces further immigration changes.

Wherever in the world you are, any travel plans must be carefully considered in the current situation of a health pandemic affecting the majority of countries around the world. Whereas a year ago, you might only have needed to worry about getting your passport and other travel documents such as an ESTA for travelling to the US, now it is a very different picture.

For the majority of 2020, travel plans have been put on hold or certain restrictions applied, as part of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the virus first became a worldwide concern after starting in China, countries around the globe have had to react to the rising number of cases by going into lockdown and enforcing international travel restrictions.

Over the last few months, Americans have been living a life they never envisaged, staying at home and under restrictions not to travel has been difficult and there has been some confusion as to the different restrictions across states.

Fee increases for visas and other changes have been steadily introduced over the last few years under Trump and now the cost of online naturalization applications rocket from $640 to $1,160, rising by $500.

Under Presidential Proclamations (PPs) 9993 (Schengen Area) and 9996 (UK and Ireland) certain types of travellers could qualify for national interest exceptions. This would include students, business travellers, investors, academics and treaty traders.

In response to news that the US government is thinking about suspending types of employment visas such as the H-1B, tech giants including Google, IBM and Amazon are calling for the US government to scrap these plans. The tech industry relies heavily on highly skilled immigrants and tech companies say these workers are critical to the recovery of the US economy post COVID-19.

As part of the US Government’s actions to slow down the spread of coronavirus, US visa and immigration offices were closed down, halting the progress of any existing visa applications and preventing the application for any new ones.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic first appeared in the US, there has been a great amount of disruption and uncertainty, as the Government seeks to balance the US economy’s best interests whilst also trying to prevent the wider spread of the virus.

The US government has just announced that foreign workers under the H-1B visa category and green card applicants, who have been asked to submit documents will have 60 days.

Following the initial travel restrictions announced between the United States and Canadian and Mexican borders, the US officials have just announced that they will extend the restrictions by a further 30 days due to the Coronavirus pandemic that has been so devastating in the US.

Donald Trump has just announced that he plans to suspend immigration to the US as part of the country’s approach|to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the Coronavirus first emerged, the travel and tourism industry has been rocked, with hotel lockdowns, travel bans and airlines cancelling flights as different countries have stepped up their measures to try and prevent the spread of the disease.

Over the last week, there have been some significant changes to how countries are approaching their efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The US last week announced that travellers from many countries in the EU had been banned, including Italy, France and Spain.

With the number of coronavirus cases and deaths rising each day in the US, Donald Trump has just announced that all travel from Europe is now banned for 30 days, with the exception of UK and Ireland.

As part of the Trump administration’s approach to making immigration policies stricter, there have been several fee increases affecting different types of US visa. Visas that impact non-immigrant workers have been a big focus of these increase and now it has been announced that Australian citizens face an astronomical visa fee increase of 3000%!

The news channels have been dominated with updates on the fast-spreading coronavirus and the Government has been quick to react to the outbreak in the UK with an emergency Cobra meeting. Huge sports events have been cancelled...

Social media usage is higher than ever and its introduction has changed processes from companies’ marketing campaigns, to following the lifestyles of your favourite celebrity. Given how prominent it is now, it is no surprise that it is being used.

As Trump’s latest travel ban has been brought into effect, immigration communities are growing increasingly concerned about the impact it will have on being reunited with their families. There are many cases where family members of US naturalized citizens were getting close to the position of being able to join their family in the US but the introduction of the travel ban has put their futures on hold.

The latest in a long list of immigration changes have been rolled out this week, as a new office has been set up with a focus on denaturalization of serious criminals. The Justice Departmentclaims that the newly established office to denaturalize immigrants is concentrating on bringing only a certain section of more serious criminals to justice.

Historically, travelling to the US was much more complicated and required attending the US Embassy for an interview to obtain a US visa. The process was very lengthy, with long forms to complete and could take weeks or even longer to get a visa.

It is no secret that Donald Trump has been keen to make it harder for non-US citizens to move to the US, with particular countries targeted for the travel ban.

Donald Trump has been busy making lots of changes to the US immigration policies and travel rules and recently added six countries to his controversial travel ban.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus was first reported in China on 31 December, it has claimed the lives of at least 300 people, with over 14,000 people thought to be infected around the world.

Donald Trump has been busy making lots of changes to the US immigration system over the last few years, in his quest to protect the US with a stricter approach to allowing foreign citizens to enter the US.

US President Donald Trump has announced that he will add seven more countries to his US travel ban during an interview this week with the Wall Street Journal. Trump first introduced the controversial ban in 2017, which banned Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The criteria for countries being eligible to join the Visa Waiver Program is regularly reviewed and we have seen with the recent addition of Poland into the VWP and the US government is continually working with other countries to help get to a position where they can join.

There have been lots of changes to policies involving travel to the US over the last few years, with Donald Trump driving changes to immigration policies and now the ESTA fee looks set to increase too.

Donald Trump promised to introduce stricter immigration policies and he certainly has prioritised this so far in his tenure. His latest proposed rule, as announced by the Department of Homeland Security involves the increase of fees for some of...

Donald Trump has introduced a number of changes to the US immigration process since coming into his role as President and the latest change he tried to introduce was to deny visas for immigrants that are unable to afford health care.

When visiting the US, foreign nationals are required to have either a visa, or an ESTA (if they are eligible). The US operates with a strict security process of screening people who are entering the US and the countries that are in the Visa Waiver Program have to pass a set of criteria before they can become members

The ESTA system that is available to citizens of the Visa Waiver Program can usually be processed very quickly but there are times when this is not possible. Earlier this year, the US government updated their guidance to state that people traveling to the US should apply at least 72 hours before the departure time.

There is good news for Polish citizens who want to enjoy an easier process for visiting the US. Currently, any Polish citizen looking to visit the United States must apply for a visa to grant entry permission...