An informal guidance from the Bureau of Consular Office was released to guide U.S. visa applicants worldwide. This guidance clarifies that students applying for F or M visas may do so and need not qualify for the national interest exception. In India, if a student is within 60 days of the start date of the program,…

A recent notification on the website of U.S. Mission in India indicates that they will resume routine visa services as soon as possible, however, the notification clarifies that they are unable to provide any specific date. All Machine Readable Visa (MRV) fees are valid for one year from the date of payment. Though the consular services…

An attorney from Murthy Immigration Services recently reached out to the Consul General at the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Consul General was kind to share important updates, which we disseminate for the benefit of our readers.  The document collection / delivery centers are operational. However, no new visa applications are accepted at this…

The U.S. President, Donald J. Trump, issued a Presidential Proclamation on June 22, 2020 to impact certain non-immigrant visas (NIVs) specifically those on H-1B, H-2B, L-1 and certain categories of J visas, as well as their family members on dependent status. The Proclamation became effective on June 24, 2020.Extends Prior Ban Against Immigrants Entering the…

Updated on July 7, 2020 One may recall that due to COVID-19, the risk of transmission and infections, the U.S. mission in India stopped accepting visa applications since March 16, 2020. Following the announcement, all the existing visa appointments were automatically cancelled. As of this writing, the bio-metric and visa appointments at the various U.S.…

An update on the White House website indicates that President Donald J. Trump is extending the pause of new immigrant visas till December 31, 2020. Additionally, his administration is working on imposing a pause on H-1Bs, H-2Bs without a nexus to food-supply chain, certain H-4s, Ls and certain Js. The release clarifies this measure is…

The consular exchange rate is revised to INR 76 to a US$ with effect from June 15, 2020. This revision will affect all immigrant and non-immigrant visa related fees payable at any Consular post in India. Applicants who paid the visa application fee on or before June 14, 2020 can use the receipt to schedule…

We earlier reported that special flights and naval ships were arranged for repatriation of Indian Nationals stranded abroad. On May 24, 2020, Indian Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued an updated Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) for Indian Nationals stranded abroad and for other country nationals stranded in India intending to visit U.S. for urgent reasons. This order supersedes previous…

A press release by the Ministry of Home Affairs notifies that the Indian Government is facilitating the return of Indian Nationals stranded abroad in a phased manner, starting May 7, 2020. Another press release on the Indian Embassy’s website notifies that the Government of India is collecting data to facilitate special flights for return of…

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, on April 22, 2020, signed a Proclamation to temporarily suspend the entry of certain immigrants who present risk to the U.S. labor market during the economic recovery following the COVID-19 outbreak. Some salient features of this proclamation are: The Proclamation became effective at 11:59 PM EDT on April…