ESTA Resources

Applicants for US visas must now hand over their social media user names Under the most recent changes to immigration regulations put in place by President Trump’s administration, nearly everyone who applies for a US visa, including temporary visitors, will now need to submit their social media history to the State Department via the DS-160 visa application form, including…

Professionals look set to benefit as President Trump reveals plans to replace existing green cards with the merit-based “Build America” visa. In a shift away from a family-based green card policy, the plan is for a merit-based visa allocation system that will favour those with job offers, post-graduate degrees and high-level skills over applicants with relatives already on the country.…

Introduction Parents and legal guardians should be aware of restrictions when traveling to the United States with a minor or child. In U.S. immigration law, a child is considered an individual that is under 18 years of age. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) requires documentation to be provided so that children entering the U.S. are doing so with the knowledge and / or consent of the…

Introduction A preliminary injunction has been issued by a district court preventing USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) from implementing the ”adverse policy” dating from August 9th, 2018, according to which the “unlawful presence” of foreign students and their dependents is calculated retroactively.  This is a significant action by the…

Trump administration plans to close international immigration offices USCIS has outlined projected target dates for the closure of all its international offices. Last month, USCIS Director Francis Cissna messaged all USCIS employees to say that plans were being drawn up for the duties of the international offices to be transferred to the State Department, with the aim of freeing…

Introduction An ESTA application number is generated once an application is submitted to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The application number is a unique identifier used by CBP to identify traveler profiles. The ESTA application number is an alphanumeric string of 16 characters. The sequence of characters is random and does not represent any attributes of an applicant. The application…

Will April 2019 see the start of the H1B lottery system? In January this year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) approved the so-called “merit-based” H1B lottery draw and this method of allocation looks set to go live on April 1, 2019. Applicants must still file paper applications H1B visas as the online registrations system for HB1 will not start being tested until next…

Introduction The US Department of State Visa Bulletin for March 2019 has just been released and reveals some significant changes in wait times for both the employment-based and family-based categories. If you’re waiting for a green card, we advise you to have all the documents required for your application ready to hand so that you can file it as soon as the visa bulletin shows that an…

Introduction More than 37,000 US visa applications were rejected by the US State Department in 2018 due to President Trump's "travel ban," according to figures released earlier this week.  The State Department confirmed that the 2017 E.O. on immigration had been fully effective since December 2018. The third version of President Trump’s executive order,…

President Trump declares a national emergency to get his border wall built In trying to avoid another Federal government shutdown, President Donald Trump has invoked his emergency powers to bypass Congress. He will divert up to $3.6 billion from Pentagon military funding towards the construction of the border wall with Mexico, a move that he justifies by declaring that the US is…