All nonimmigrant visa applicants are subject to the presumption of immigrant intent pursuant to INA §214(b). The applicants must evidence strong family, financial, business and/or employment ties to their home country and demonstrate an intention to return to residence abroad to overcome this presumption. However, H1B and L-1 visa applicants are expressly exempted from this…

Impact of mental health and harmful behavior on U.S. visa application: As our regular readers may be aware, applicants with psychological/mental health issues are subject to a mandatory psychiatrist evaluation by an approved panel physician before the visa can be issued. If the applicant has been found to have both psychological/mental health issues and harmful…

Nonimmigrant visa applicants in India must (1) complete form DS-160 – nonimmigrant visa application, (2) create a profile on www.ustraveldocs.com/in using passport and other personal details and (3) pay the consular/machine readable visa (MRV) fee to either schedule his/her visa interview at one of the consular post or generate the appointment letter for the interview…

With the holiday season fast approaching, we notice that as of this writing, nonimmigrant visa interview appointments are not available until January 2018 across the U.S. consular posts in India. Subscribes to our bulletin and regular readers are aware that the nonimmigrant visa interview dates are generally available within two weeks at any time across…

In general, a non-applying relative or guardian cannot accompany the nonimmigrant visa applicant(s) into a U.S. consulate or embassy in India. However, there may be instances where the applicant is unable to attend the visa interview alone due to medical inability. If the non-applying relative or guardian’s presence is required, s/he must contact the respective…

We at Murthy Immigration Services receive calls regularly to confirm if one has to apply for a new visa when s/he has renewed her/his passport that has a valid U.S. visa. In most cases, one has to apply for a new passport if the previous one is expired or if there are no blank pages…

Reissuance/issuance of duplicate OCI registration certificate and visa is necessary in the following circumstances. A registered OCI may avail these services through OCI Miscellaneous Services, available online: Issuance of new passport; For an applicant who is 20 years of age or younger, OCI documents must be reissued each time a new passport is issued; For…

At Murthy Immigration Services Pvt. Ltd (MISPL), we often get inquiries about how soon a person with a prior visa refusal can qualify to reapply for a visa, in either the same or a different visa category. In general, applicants refused under Sec. 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) can reapply for a…

We have already provided an update on the merger of PIO and OCI effective January 9, 2015, to our readers. In our Murthy India Bulletin of July 2017, we had published an important update on the conversion of PIO Cards to OCI Cards without payment of consular fees. In this article, we bring to the…

A U.S. presidential proclamation issued on September 24, 2017 imposes certain restrictions on the entry of nonimmigrants and immigrants who are nationals of eight countries, namely Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, and Somalia. Based on a global review conducted, the information sharing practices of these seven countries were classified as “inadequate” and…