Flickr Creative Commons Attribution Jeroen Akkermans In the last months, the U.S. Department of State released two significant policy updates that impact both immigrant and nonimmigrant visa applicants. These updates focus on a core change: applicants will now be required to have their visa interviews in their place of residence…
On August 21, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the State Department is temporarily pausing the issuance of work visas for foreign nationals seeking employment as commercial truck drivers in the U.S. “Increasing numbers of foreign drivers behind the wheels of large tractor-trailers on America’s roads are putting…
On February 18, 2025, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) announced new changes to the Visa Interview Waiver program, further adding to the unpredictability of the Trump administration. Among these changes, the State Department has limited the categories of non-immigrants who are eligible to receive waivers of the in-person interview…
As of April 23, 2024, Portugal has joined the coveted list of countries eligible to participate in the E-2 Treaty Investor program via the passage of the Advancing Mutual Interests and Growing Our Success (AMIGOS) Act. E-2 nonimmigrant visas are reserved for investors who are nationals of a treaty country.…
Recently the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced new changes to the International Entrepreneur Rule effective October 1, 2024. What is the International Entrepreneur Rule The International Entrepreneur Rule (IER), was first established by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2017. The program allows noncitizen entrepreneurs to live and work in…
As the new year approaches, we have some unfortunate news to report for certain employment-based applicants who may wish to file their petitions with premium processing service in 2024, including those filing: Form I-129 Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker Form I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, as well as Certain…
It’s a brand-new week full of important updates from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This time for employment authorization documents (EADs). Recently, USCIS announced that certain applicants who have filed to renew their employment authorization cards (EADs) on Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, may qualify for an…
In this blog post, we share with you an important update from the U.S. Embassy in Israel. If you have a pending nonimmigrant or immigrant visa application awaiting an interview at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem or U.S. Embassy Branch Office in Tel Aviv, you should be aware that visa…
Certain types of nonimmigrants will be expected to shell out more money for the nonimmigrant visa process. The State Department has announced that starting June 17, 2023, nonimmigrant visa (NIV) application processing fees for visitor visas for business or tourism (B1/B2s and BCCs), and other non-petition based nonimmigrant visas such…
The Department of State raised eyebrows earlier this month when it released information that it will be reducing the waiting period for 221(G) “administrative processing,” in an effort to process visas more efficiently. While this is welcome news, in practice it may not mean much. Consulates and Embassies have been…