The State Department has announced that it is ending the mail-in visa revalidation (renewal) option now available in the United States to certain visa applicants. The rationale for terminating this visa revalidation program in the U.S. is that the State Department lacks the capacity in the U.S. to acquire biometric identifiers (fingerprints) that all visas will be required to contain as of October 26, 2004. For this reason, applications will no longer be accepted after July 16, 2004, in order to allow time for complete processing prior to October 26th. After the cut-off date, all applicants must travel to a U.S. Consulate abroad to renew their visas.
The State Department is in discussions with Citizenship and Immigration Services ("CIS") regarding sharing information currently obtained by the CIS Application Support Centers, which includes photographs and fingerprints. Any hope of reinstituting the U.S. revalidation program lies in such an agreement or future development of State Department technology.
Plan accordingly for delays in your employees' processing for visa renewals abroad.
H-1B CAP FOR FY 2005
Petitions already are being submitted for new H-1B workers starting in the next fiscal year, on October 1, 2004. This means that numbers for the H-1B cap for FY 2005 are already being used. CIS has indicated that, of the 65,000 available H-1B numbers, 16,100 have been accounted for as of the end of May. We take this opportunity to remind employers to act quickly regarding hiring any new H-1B workers for the coming year, as the cap for FY 2005 could be reached as soon as December 2004, if not earlier.
Remember To:
- Notify our office of any change in the corporate structure.
- Have your international employees notify Immigration of address changes within 10 days.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
