US Immigration News

Foreign visitors from 27 countries will have to present machine-readable passports at US borders as of June 26 to enter the United States without a visa, officials said.

Travelers from the so-called visa waiver countries may still enter without a visa only when they have a passport that can be read by Immigration and Customs Enforcement machines, the State Department said in a statement.

Some states are threatening to challenge and even disobey new orders from the US Congress to bring in uniform procedures for obtaining driver's licenses throughout the US which would mean verifying the citizenship or legal status of people applying for a drivers license.

There is concern among some states that they'll have to pay a lot of money to implement the new rules and that getting a driver's license will become a bigger headache for average people.

The United States Congress on 10 May approved major changes to its immigration law, creating a special E-3 visa for Australian citizens only. There will be 10,500 such visas available, allowing Australians to live and work in America for up to two years.

The tourism industry has warned that the US is losing billions of dollars due to bureaucratic visa procedures and tight security after 11 Sept. attacks. International tourists and foreign students, they say, are choosing other locations such as Australia, South Africa, Spain and Asia.

The long-awaited regulation on the 20,000 US H-1B cap exemptions was published in the Federal Register on May 5, 2005, clarifying several issues.

The US Congress has exempted foreign employees retuning to a previous job from the annual cap of 66,000 H2B visas meant for temporary, non-agricultural workers.

This was part of the immigration provisions of the spending bill approved on 3 May by negotiators for the House of Representatives and Senate. This provision had been sought by the summer hospitality industry and seasonable industries.