US Immigration News

The UK music industry has assembled a 'taskforce' in a bid to tackle ongoing US work visa issues, according to a report published by the Musicians' Union (MU) – an organisation that represents over 30,000 musicians working across all sectors of the music business. A key focus of the taskforce will be to lobby for 'greater parity between UK and US visa costs and processes.'

The row between India and the US over H-1B and L-1 visa fee increases is unlikely to be discussed when Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, visits the US in June. Modi is due in Washington on a planned visit to address a joint meeting of the Congress and Senate.

According to a report published by ZDNet - an online technology related portal – a discussion with the Obama administration over fee hikes for the temporary, non-immigrant US work visas is not on the agenda.

According to a report published by leading manufacturing publication, Industry Week, US manufacturing needs more highly skilled immigrants on US work visas. Author of the report, Mitch Free, and founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ZYCI CNC Machining – a specialist manufacturing firm based in Atlanta, Georgia said: "It is no secret that America has a shortage of skilled machinists and toolmakers."

US Republican Senator for Arizona, Jeff Flake, has recently introduced legislation that could lead to the setup of a new, US guest worker visa program. Flake says that the scheme will 'fill the gap" that currently exists between the temporary visa schemes for H-2A for agricultural workers and H-2B non-agricultural seasonal workers, and the highly-skilled H-1B specialty worker visa scheme for graduates.

On May 4, 2016, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) gave notice via the Federal Register - the Daily Journal of the United States Government – of its intent to increase certain government filing fees for non-immigrant visas, as well as creating a new fee.

The average increase in fees is 21 percent, however, visas used by US companies to bring skilled workers into the country, immigrant investors creating jobs for US workers and immigrants with extraordinary ability are those that will see the highest increases in visa fees.

Due to a fear (however unlikely it might be) that Donald Trump will become the next US President, tens of thousands of immigrants are racing to become US citizens, according to a report published by the New York Post. Compared with the final months of 2014, US citizenship applications increased by 14 percent in the final six months of 2015, according to data published by the Associated Press.