New US Visa Regulation Changes
During 2017 the US border control changed a lot of visa regulations under the influence of the new US president. Many visa programs has been updated even canceled which caused many scandals and a lot of people were disappointed. A lot of media attention was attracted by the decision to ban citizens from 7 countries to enter the US borders, including people who has been long time traveling to USA before.
H-1B high skilled visa program hold brought also really big media attention as well as many companies raised their voices against that decision. The reason for that decision was to protect the local workforce from being replaced by immigrants and stimulate business to hire American citizens.
Now new visa update decision is planned for 2018. It concerns the H-4 Dependent Spouses visa. The plans are to close this visa which is usually granted to spouses of H-1B visa holders. The H-4 visa is allowing the holders to work while waiting for green card to be granted. This change will affect thousands of families living in the US, big numbers of them are Indian citizens.
New requirements are going to be applied also about 38 countries whose citizens are allowed to enter USA without visa. The travelers are going to pass better screening test for terrorism in their home country prior to the trip. To participate in the Visa Waiver Program the country must screen more precisely the travelers and use intelligence data provided by the US authorities about threats.
Additional requirement will be triggered if a given country has more than 2% of their citizens overstayed their departure date. According to 2016 data 3 countries fall under this rule – Hungary, Greece, Portugal. In this scenario the country must initiate public campaign to educate travelers. If a person brakes that rule the next trip to USA will not be visa-free.