US Immigration News

The next two years should see the launch of the world's first floating business startup community off the coast of the US.The company responsible for the project, Blueseed, wants to provide office space and accommodation for entrepreneurs aboard the vessel which will be anchored less than 30 minutes off the coast of Silicon Valley. They hope to have the ship open for business before 2014. They already have nearly 150 technology startups from more than 40 nations that have expressed interest in starting their businesses on the ships.

A recent study has found that US immigrants are more likely to start a business than native-born US citizens. The study was conducted by the Office of Advocacy of the US Small Business Administration an independent group that voices concerns from small businesses to the federal government.

US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that, as of 27 April 2012, it has already received 29,200 H-1B cap-subject petitions out of the 65,000 available visas. Additionally, they have already received 12,300 H-1B visa petitions for foreigners with US advanced degrees out of the 20,000 available visas. This means that on 27 April 2012 there were only 35,800 visas left under the H-1B regular visa cap and 7,700 for the H-1B visa advanced degree level visa cap.

The US State Department has announced significant changes to the J-1 Summer Work and Travel Program following an investigation that found widespread abuses in the program. The J-1 Summer Work and Travel Program is a cultural-exchange program that brings more than 100,000 foreign college students to the US each year. It allows foreign college students to spend up to four months living and working in the US.

This week the US has launched their first-ever marketing campaign aimed at increasing tourism to the country. The campaign includes print, web and video ads created by Brand USA, which is a group consisting of government agencies and private companies.

A US visa programme the E-3 visa set up to allow Australian professionals to live and work in America and which can be renewed indefinitely is struggling to make up the numbers with just a quarter of the 10,500 E-3 visas annually available to Australians being used.