US Immigration News

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS, announced Aug. 2 it was changing the photo requirements for all visa applicants to the United States. Whereas previously, applicants were required to submit photos of themselves from a three-quarters tilted position, applicants are now required to submit photos of themselves from a full-frontal position where they are looking directly toward the camera.

The change went into effect Aug. 2, 2004.

In an effort to safeguard the U.S. and its airspace, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of State on Aug. 2 suspended two programs that allow certain international air passengers to travel through the United States for transit purposes without first obtaining a visa.

The programs, known as the Transit Without Visa program (TWOV) and the International-to-International transit program (ITI), were suspended as of Saturday, Aug. 2, 2003. This action does not affect U.S. citizens or citizens from visa waiver countries.

The Senate has approved legislation to allow countries whose citizens do not require visas to enter the United States to get an additional year to issue new tamperproof, biometric passports.

The bill also lets US ports of entry an extra year to install new software and equipment that are capable of reading entry and exit documents containing biometric features electronically.

The winners of the United States DV-2005 diversity lottery have already been notified by the Kentucky Consular Center. Approximately 100,000 people from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States have won the DV 2005 lottery and can now lodge an immigrant visa application. The U.S. Department of State estimates that about half the number of these winners will not pursue their cases and therefore the quota of 50,000 immigrant visas will be filled for fiscal year 2005.

The US State Department has recently announced that foreigners working in the US on H-1B visas or other working visas will need to reapply for extensions from overseas once they expire. Previously, foreign employees on working visas could extend their stay from within the United States.

The quota on United States class H-1B work visas for the fiscal year 2005 has already been one-quarter filled.

TheAmerican Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) has just provided anupdate on the H-1B cap for the 2005 fiscal year (FY 2005) on 11 Juneduring the AILA annual conference.

As of the end of May2004, already 16,100 (out of the quota of 65,000) H-1B applicationshave been approved against next year's cap.