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…

Our regular readers are aware, that some nonimmigrants may be eligible for Emergency Appointment despite the U.S. consular section closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our earlier update on this can be found here.Over the past several weeks U.S. consular officers, and personnel have assisted over a thousand US citizens and certain lawful permanent residents to…

Earlier we reported that some Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) Card Holders require re-issuance of OCI Card under Indian Law.Earlier we reported that certain Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card holders were required to re-issue their OCI cards under Indian law.A press release on the Indian Government’s Ministry of External Affairs website indicates that this…

In a press release dated March 23, 2020, the Embassy of India, Washington DC has notified that only restricted consular services are available at Indian consular missions in the U.S. following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. Until further notice, the Indian consular missions in the U.S. will not accept: Applications for status as Overseas Citizen…

A recent update on the CEAC website indicates that Immigrant Visa payments which are showing a current status on “In-Process” are taking longer than usual to reflect final payment. This update is available here. Our readers may be aware that the display of various status like “Start Now”, “In-Process” and “Paid” generally indicate the three stages of…