Episode 74: Nonimmigrant visa issuance, healthcare for Dreamers, summer travel tips and reminders

It’s May 16, and this is your BAL Immigration Report.

• The State Department is on pace to issue a record number of nonimmigrant visas this year.
• DACA recipients can apply for federal healthcare coverage this fall.
• BAL’s Tiffany Derentz and Brendan Kinne offer tips and reminders ahead of the busy summer travel season.

“The first one, most importantly for me, was encouraging applicants to check their passport, check their validity of current visa and check the overall underlying status that they are looking to renew at the consulate with their visa application.”

—Brendan Kinne, BAL Senior Director for Global Programs

U.S. news

Record pace for nonimmigrant visa issuance

The U.S. State Department announced this week that a record-breaking 5.2 million nonimmigrant visas were issued globally in the first half of the fiscal year. This is more than any previous year over the same period. The U.S. embassy and consulates in India are among the highest volume offices for issuing visas. On May 12, the U.S. consulate in Mumbai conducted a “Super Saturday” visa drive where 1,700 applicants were screened for first-time student visas.
This drive will be conducted quarterly.

DACA recipients to be eligible for healthcare

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently announced a final rule allowing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, recipients to apply for healthcare coverage effective Nov. 1. During the 60 days following that date, DACA recipients can apply for coverage through the Affordable Care Act Health Insurance Marketplace or through a Basic Health Program. Approximately 100,000 uninsured DACA recipients who were previously ineligible for coverage are expected to enroll.

U.S. news roundup

• The State Department published a final rule expanding third-party access to appointments related to certain services for U.S. citizens.
• The Department of Labor posted updated H-2A and H-2B processing times.
• BAL launched a survey asking employers how they are preparing for a potential change in presidential administrations. Take the survey

Spotlight

A conversation with BAL Senior Counsel Tiffany Derentz and BAL Senior Director for Global Programs Brendan Kinne: consular tips and reminders as we gear up for summer travel.

BAL Immigration Report: As we move through May into June, July and August, many foreign national employees will be taking trips abroad for vacation, to visit family and possibly to renew their visas while outside of the country. We sat in on a conversation between BAL Senior Counsel Tiffany Derentz and BAL Senior Director of Global Programs Brendan Kinne about the advice they have — and what people should expect when they go abroad this summer. Here’s their conversation.

Derentz: Brendan, I’m excited to talk to you today as always because May is already upon us, and that means that the summer travel season is about to be in high gear. One of the great services that BAL provides is U.S. consular support, and a huge benefit of that is that our consular team has real-time visibility into visa appointment calendars around the world, which is huge. So I wanted to ask you, what is the consular team seeing at U.S. embassies and consulates abroad?

Kinne: Tiffany, well, thanks for having us. I’m super excited to be here and having this podcast opportunity for our clients. In general, I’m seeing increased appointments — from where we’ve been over the last couple of years, we’re seeing that appointment availability is there. There are many spots, though, where backlogs exist, and the reason behind that can be anything between the type of visas that are prioritized in that location, it could be a smaller consular staff that is managing the post, or it very well could be priority from the idea of, can that location support the number of visa applicants that are asking for visas to be provided? So when I really look at the options around the globe where people need to file, I focus in on type of visa and what is the current backlog in that location. As we go through travel tips and planning for the future here, it really is variable across posts in what can be successful and how we can go about supporting our clients.

Derentz: That’s great to hear, especially after the last couple of years, where we’ve seen a lot of delays and lack of appointments. But with the summer, we also do see a shift to focus on student visas, so I’ll be curious to see how the calendars play out over the next few months. Now is a great time to revisit some of the top travel tips I know you and I are always telling applicants and foreign nationals. So what tips do you have for foreign nationals that are traveling this summer?

Kinne: It would be easy for me just to say, “Start early and be flexible,” but I know you’re probably looking for a lot more out of me than that. So there’s a few that we wanted to toss out there. First one, most importantly for me, was encouraging applicants to check their passport, check their validity of current visa and check the overall underlying status that they are looking to renew at the consulate with their visa application. It’s hard to catch up on an applicant status if they are in between time frames. I have many clients where they are going for summer travel, but they’re only able to get a very limited amount of time because their underlying status hasn’t been extended. Therefore — for us to help you prepare and really focus on what the benefit of that travel can be besides vacation and time off — to get the most out of your immigration status, making sure that we have the right documentation ready to extend that status. I love for clients to think about it not as just getting a visa, but really thinking about how it extends their overall immigration status for the United States.

Derentz: That’s a really good tip, especially because I think a lot of people forget that the visa has one expiration date, but their underlying status also has an expiration date, and it’s important that both of those are valid. So there’s two different things that you have to track there in addition to making sure your passport is valid. Any other tips for us?

Kinne: Number two for me is going back to what I said was easy to say, but I love for applicants to look at securing the appointment first and then getting the travel plans on the calendar. My idea around that is I feel we can always disappoint somebody if they have a travel plan and I can’t get a date for them at a consulate — very easy for me to not be able to provide good service if that’s it. But if we’re working earlier, if we’re coordinating with them on what their travel dates could be and then helping them before they book the trip to identify where a consulate could accommodate that travel, or maybe if they move the trip a week or two, they can actually get in and out of the preferred consulate that they want because dates can be available — so flexibility in the plans.

It may take longer in the summertime for the overall processing to happen as well. I know you have a lot of insight into what goes on after a successful interview at the consulates, and our clients would love to know more about that timing and detail. But for me on the front end, I just can’t emphasize enough: Let’s get the appointment on the calendar and then plan your travel.

Derentz: That makes so much sense. So many people do it the reverse way and they plan to travel and then are looking for an appointment in a very limited window of time, and it’s really hard to find an appointment in such a limited window, especially when embassies are seeing hundreds and maybe even thousands of people every single day. So that is a really good point to highlight.

I also think that for those traveling to Europe, in particular for Paris, you want to make sure you definitely have some flexibility in your plans because this summer is the Olympic and Paralympic Games. That means that anybody who would normally apply for a visa in Paris or is traveling to Paris and maybe loses their visa or might think about renewing their visa while they’re there — services are going to be very limited this summer in Paris, and in-person appointments might not even be available at all except for life-and-death emergencies. So I think that it is a really great idea to really think about securing your appointment first and then planning that travel.

Kinne: And Tiffany, even beyond Paris, if you’re in Europe, we are finding that third-country national filings throughout Europe continue to be limited just enough to where the calendar availability is not there when you’re not a resident in that location. For people just going there for the Olympics or going there for holiday, any issue that can arise may be impacted by the fact that they’re a third-country national trying to file in a country that’s not their home. We are still seeing that impact at consulates — that appointment availability that I mentioned earlier, I do feel that’s for residents or local nationals in those locations, but we’re still seeing a control in in many posts around third-country national filing.

Derentz: That’s a really good thing to keep in mind because there are still a lot of countries where we are still seeing the backlogs, and the appointments for third-country nationals simply are not there because they can’t handle them yet. I love that you’ve highlighted that. Let’s do one more tip because I know we only have a short time here — so a third tip that you would give to travelers.

Kinne: This is one that won’t have a lot of fans in this comment because the State Department highlights the interview waiver process, and they highlight this as an advantage. And I do think it is an advantage for many people in the world to be able to avoid going to a consulate, send your passport in, get it stamped and sent back to you without having to visit a consulate. We’d all love that every single time we go for a U.S. visa appointment. However, the timing around interview waivers is often extended well beyond the timing that a consular officer can complete the visa process if you’re at an interview. I believe a lot of that has to do with the one-to-one conversation you have during an interview, and that consular officer being responsible with your passport in their hand at that time and they’re going to get it done. Whereas interview waivers, that idea of mailing it in, great advantage for people — however, I do think it sits there for some time before a consular team can actually pick it up and adjudicate it and then turn it around.

I often talk to clients about how long you are going to be in the country. If you’re going to be there for multiple weeks and you qualify for interview waiver, it probably could work out great for you to go with interview waiver. On the reverse side, though, I have many clients that I actually just recommend, even though they’re interview waiver-qualified, to go in for an interview because we can better estimate the turnaround time that the consulate will get their visa back out to them — normally 5-7 business days — where we see interview waivers taking in some locations up to 10-15 business days just because added time for mailing in and sorting the application without an interview on-site. You probably have more background than me in how a consulate actually looks at an interview waiver. But that is one of my tips, really weighing interview versus interview waiver and what can be best for your specific timing while you’re going to be in country.

Derentz: I like how you frame that. It’s not just simply interview over interview waiver, but it is based on the individual circumstance in how long they’re going to be in a country, whether going in for the interview, even if you qualify for interview waiver, may make more sense, given the timing that it can take for interview waiver cases to process. And I think one reason why interview waiver cases are generally taking longer is because there’s so much more of them. You know, if you rewind several years ago, there were only so many cases that could come through interview waiver, and so you would get your case back relatively quickly. But now you have nearly half of all visa issuances under interview waiver, and so there’s a lot more coming in through that process, which is going to slow it down a little bit. But I really like how you framed that. So those are three fantastic tips. But what if someone still can’t get a visa appointment? Are they totally out of luck?

Kinne: This is a bonus tip I’m being asked to provide here, but I’m happy to help. The one area that comes in is around utilizing what’s commonly referred to as an expedite request. And this is specific and varies by consulate on how you approach them for an expedite request. But it is a request from the applicant to the U.S. consulate asking them to prioritize them over other visa applicants due to a certain reason that makes it an important feature. The majority of our requests for our clients to revolve around business needs. And so for us to be able to work with them, I often use just a very simple statement of “why now” is important, and I meet with the applicant, I meet oftentimes with their managers. Why is this business need so important that we have to have it now? For me to put that forward to a consulate and approach them in that respect gives us a chance. Every expedite request is going to be reviewed then personally or individually by the office, whereas the appointment calendar is open for anybody to take dates, and if there’s dates there, take it — you don’t need an expedite. But if there’s no dates, you take the first available appointment, and then that is when you send in the expedite request. So the “why now” is important.

This comes in with summer travel because if your travel is in July and August, and we can’t find an appointment today in the beginning of May, trying to submit an expedite request today for an appointment in July or August I find to actually be very difficult. Whereas for expedites, the consular officers may know what their calendar is right now, and if they have extra space on the calendar, they’re able to then just give you that date in the coming days or weeks versus asking them to look at July or August and put you on a calendar at that time. I do not find very many posts that are able to accommodate that. So our advice to clients when they have future travel but dates aren’t lining up, we take the first available appointment. We’re going to monitor the calendar in between now and your travel, and probably somewhere around 2-3 weeks ahead of your travel, if we still haven’t been able fix that date in or lock it in for the date that you need, then we look to utilize the expedite justification. It’s a little bit more timely at that point.

Derentz: These are all fantastic points, and expedites can be a really good option for somebody when they need it. To your point, it’s really important that there be that clear justification, but then you also look at timing. There’s a little bit of a balance there because at the end of the day it really is an expedite request and because there is an urgent need travel to the United States — whether that need is business or medical emergency, humanitarian, it can be a number of different things — but it is important that you have both that and a timing component taken into account. So these are all super helpful. I hope that they help the foreign nationals traveling this summer. I really enjoyed talking to you, Brendan. Thank you for providing these great tips. And until then, happy traveling to everybody!

Global news

Canada revises Hong Kong permanent residence applicant policy

Canadian officials announced a new policy allowing Hong Kong permanent residence applicants to extend their status. Applicants can now apply for new work permits while their residence applications are still pending. The Canadian government stated that the new policy is designed to ensure the program remains responsive to the needs of Hong Kong passport holders. The policy assists applicants who are at risk of seeing their temporary status in Canada expire before their permanent residence applications are finalized. The new policy begins May 27 and will be effective for five years.

Australia adjusts graduate visa program

The Australian government announced changes to its temporary graduate visa program as part of its new policy commitments to overhaul the current migration system. The changes include realigning graduate and post-study work streams as post-vocational education and post-higher education work streams. Officials further outlined applicant qualifications based on education level and financial capacity. The changes will take effect. July 1.

Global news roundup

• The Italian government provided updates for digital nomad visa applicants.
• The Malaysian government announced an additional requirement for professional visit pass applicants.
• The Czech Republic continues to relax labor market testing rules for employee card applicants.

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