U.S. Business Immigration Group Practice Alert - Changes In Reciprocity Schedule

On December 23, 2019, without prior notice and of immediate effect, the Department of State (DOS) updated the reciprocity chart to reflect new visa fees and visa validity periods for Australian citizens. The affected visa types are E, F, H, L, and R. For example, the visa issuance fee for the E-1 and the E-2 was increased to $3,574 and the validity period was reduced to 48 months. It must be noted that there are no changes to the E-3 visa as there is still no separate visa issuance fee, and the validity period remains the same at 24 months.

Among other recent drastic changes implemented by DOS are reduced validity periods for the L-1/L-2 and E-1/E-2 visa stamps for nationals of France and Israel. For French citizens, the maximum validity period of the L-1/L-2 visa stamp is now 17 months, and the E-1/E-2 visa stamps is 25 months. For Israeli citizens, the L-1/L-2 visa validity period has been to reduced to 48 months; and the E-2 visa may only be issued for a maximum of