VISA2US Blog

The past few years have seen an increase in immigration changes through the COVID-19 pandemic and switching Trump and Biden Administrations. The latest round of federal immigration policies in 2023 focuses on things like immigration activity along the border of US and Mexico, noncitizens in mixed immigration status families, and children with immigrant parents. We cover the evolving immigration policies here and how they’ll affect your visa in 2023.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services filed a petition recently requesting permission to raise its rates. If this proposed rule is approved, certain applications and petitions will see filing fee hikes. As with any fee request, there are advantages and disadvantages to this change, but USCIS and the government aren’t making this decision unilaterally. Those affected by this rule and anyone with an opinion on the proposed rule may be heard, but the public comment period ended on March 13, 2023. What does this mean for you? Read on to learn the details.

Obtaining an H-1B visa as a specialty worker is a competitive process. There are more applicants than available visas, and a random lottery to win before USCIS begins to scrutinize your petition. One of the factors that can make or break your H-1B approval is the company you choose to accept as your sponsor. Large companies are often already in the system at the Department of Labor and USCIS, but small businesses, by nature, use fewer H-1B employees. Should you accept an offer of H-1B sponsorship from a lesser-known company? We’ll explain the pros and cons here.

H-1B nonimmigrant visas have impacted the US economy and the professions and lives of hundreds of thousands of foreign workers over the years. These visas are designed for those with skills that classify as a “specialty occupation,” but that definition has evolved and continues to change depending on the political and social climate of the country. Recent challenges to the H-1B specialty occupation are in process, and if you’re applying for a new or renewed work visa, you should know what these changes mean for you.

The H-1B and certain other categories of visas are designed to bring skilled workers into the United States to fill specialty job positions. However, these workers must meet strict requirements, such as a bachelor’s degree or higher from an accredited university. Those applying for an advanced degree exemption typically have a bachelor’s and a master’s or beyond that must qualify as accredited. Hopeful H-1B petitioners need to verify that their institutions are from an accrediting agency, but recent changes in the US Department of Education have dropped an important one. The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) is no longer recognized, meaning substantial impacts for H-1B and certain F-1 student visa holders.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, H-1B and L visa holders living and working in the United States have had substantial uncertainty about their futures. Between the global shutdown, changing political climates, and the USCIS backlog on processing new and renewed visas, it has been a long few years for these foreign workers. But we’re happy to announce some good news around the corner just released from the State Department regarding their Domestic Renewal Pilot Program. Here, we’ll give you the basic details that have been shared with the public.

Getting the notice from USCIS that your H-1B visa petition was approved is exciting! All that hard work and stress has paid off, and you’re almost on your way to your new career in the United States. But there’s one more important hurdle to get through before you’re officially a US nonimmigrant working and living in the country: the visa stamping process. What does this process involve, and how have the changes in 2023 affected it? Read on to find out!

When you file for an H-1B visa, the process is always high-stress. Will your application get chosen in the lottery? If so, will the petition get approved by USCIS? Your future job position hinges on those yes answers, but lately, many applicants are receiving an “Intent to Deny” instead of a yes or no. What does this mean, and how can you avoid getting this dreaded response? Read on to find out.

The 2023-2024 H-1B season is just beginning, and US employers are ramping up their efforts to get their registrations selected in the lottery. If you’re one of them or the hopeful foreign worker relying on the visa for your next career move, this time is crucial. With hundreds of thousands of applicants and a limited amount of visas, you need to do what you can to give your registration a leg up over the rest. One way to do that is to obtain a master’s degree or higher. We’ll give you the details here on how this advanced degree can increase your chances of an H-1B visa approval.

Before COVID, H-1B levels were significantly higher than the availability of visas. But when the embassies and consulates were shut down, and international borders were limited, so were the visa requests and approvals. This has affected US businesses relying on specialized workers to fill vacancies, but the good news is around the corner. Reports from the Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Visa Issuance organization show that these numbers are almost back to normal.