Visa Lawyer Blog

Articles Posted in Student Visas

by

This is very important notice to all of you international Students out there. Recent NAFSA alert announces that CBP will no longer stamp I-20s at ports of entry (POEs). USCIS is reported to be reaching out to other agencies, such as the DMV, to inform them of the change, since many agencies require the I-20 stamp prior to granting benefits.

On August 15, 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) unofficially confirmed for NAFSA that:

“CBP is no longer stamping I-20s at POEs. Recognizing that some staff at certain benefit granting agencies (for example, motor vehicle agencies) look for a stamp on these documents before granting a benefit, USCIS is conducting extensive outreach to ensure that these agencies are aware of this change.”

Continue reading

by

I have been saying for many years that the visa system is unfair for foreign artists. Take the story of Seny Daffe. Daffe was granted a visa that allows culturally unique artists entry to the U.S. In Burlington, he joined the African dance company Jeh Kulu, where he taught drumming. He held dance classes and ran workshops at local schools. He performed with the National Ballet of Guinea and performed at First Night events across the state.

In November, Daffe returned to Conakry, Guinea, to visit his family and brush up on his skills. But when he tried to come back to Vermont, he learned that he was now barred by State Department officials from returning to the U.S.

Daffe says the State Department told him that his ties to this country were too strong – his ties to his own country too weak. The question was whether he intended to eventually return to Guinea. This is a common reason for denials.

Continue reading

by

Some good news to help speed up the process of getting a Student Visa. On January 19, 2012, President Obama announced an initiative to improve and speed up the visa process for certain categories of travelers. One of the cornerstones of this initiative is the Department of State’s Nonimmigrant Visa Interview Waiver Pilot Program, under which certain foreign visitors who were interviewed in conjunction with a prior visa application may be able to renew their visas without undergoing another interview.

What are the prevailing interview and fingerprint requirements of the U.S. nonimmigrant visa (NIV) application process?

Generally, all Non Immigrant applicants must make a personal appearance and be interviewed by a consular officer. In addition, visa applicants must provide biometric identifiers for verifying their identity (the biometric identifiers currently required are fingerprints and a photo image).

Continue reading

by

With the recent announcement that Illegal immigrants can now apply for state-financed scholarships and aid at state universities after Gov. Jerry Brown announced that he had signed the second half of a legislative package focused on such students, we wanted to share some facts on such students.

This is a guest article by Carol Brown from onlinecollege.org

Families immigrate to the United States constantly, and many of them bring children along with them. Immigrant adults with dubious legal status have it bad enough, but their kids face even more difficulty, unable to achieve their dreams in a country they consider home. About 65,000 undocumented students graduate from U.S. high schools every year, and their presence is not insignificant. Although they are guaranteed a public school education through grade 12, their future in college is much less certain. From federal Financial Aid restrictions to reduced opportunities, students with undocumented status face a lower quality of education and future careers than their legal classmates. Read on, and we’ll explore several important facts about their experiences in the United States.

Continue reading

by

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) published on its website an expanded list of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) degree programs that will qualify eligible foreign national students for extended optional practical training (OPT). All foreign students in F-1 nonimmigrant status who have been enrolled on a full-time basis for at least one full academic year in a college or University certified by the ICE Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVIS) are eligible for up to 12 months of OPT to work for a U.S. employer in a job directly related to the student’s major area of study.

However, under an interim regulation published in 2008, F-1 students who graduate with a degree in one of the approved STEM degree programs are eligible to remain in the U.S. and extend the OPT period for an additional 17 months. The Revised STEM degree list, available on the ICE website at http://www.ice.gov/doclib/sevis/pdf/stem-list-2011.pdf, adds 50 degree programs which will now qualify for the 17 month OPT extension. Degree programs in agricultural and nutrition sciences, neuroscience, mathematics and computer science, psychology, pharmaceutics and drug design, and business statistics are among those that have been added to the list of approved degree programs. The ICE announcement indicates that the expansion of the degree list is part of the administration’s effort to address shortages of scientists and technology experts in certain STEM fields.