Categories Compliance Department of State News & Updates USCIS

When Does Your Immigration Status Expire? How to Interpret I-94, I-797, and Visa Documents.

Do the terms visa, i-94 and i-797 confuse you? How do you find out what is your authorized period of stay in the U.S and what determines that period? 

The difference between the visa expiration date and the length of time you have permission to remain in the United States can be confusing. To avoid violating your authorized stay, it is important to understand the difference between a U.S. visa, I-94, and I-797.

  • U.S. VISA
    • A visa is a travel document. A U.S. visa in a foreign national’s passport gives permission to apply to enter the United States. A visa by itself doesn’t authorize entry to the U.S. A visa simply indicates that your application has been reviewed by a consular officer at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate, and that the officer determined you’re eligible to travel to a U.S. port-of-entry for a specific purpose. The port-of-entry can be an airport, a seaport or a land border crossing.
    • A visa does not guarantee entry into the United States. Additionally, the visa expiration date shown on your visa does not reflect how long you are authorized to stay within the United States. Entry and the length of authorized stay within the United States are determined by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officer at the port-of-entry each time you travel.
    • The visa expiration date is shown on the visa along with the visa issuance date. The time between visa issuance and expiration date is called your visa validity. The visa validity is the length of time you are permitted to travel to a port-of-entry in the United States.
    • A U.S. visa shows when and how many times you may seek admission to the United States from abroad based on the classification noted on your visa. It doesn’t control the length of your stay. Depending on your nationality/purpose of travel, visas can be issued from a single entry (application) up to multiple/unlimited entries.
  • FORM I-94
    • Upon arriving at a port of entry, the CBP official will determine the length of your visit. On the admission stamp or Form I-94 (Can be retrieved from https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/#/home), the U.S. immigration inspector records either an admitted-until date or “D/S” (duration of status). If your admission stamp or Form I-94 contains a specific date, then that is the date by which you must leave the United States.
    • If you have D/S on your admission stamp or Form I-94, you may remain in the United States as long as you continue your course of studies, remain in your exchange program, or qualifying employment.
    • The admitted-until date or D/S notation, shown on your admission stamp or Form I-94 is the official record of your authorized length of stay in the United States. You cannot use the visa expiration date in determining or referring to your permitted length of stay in the United States.
    • Your passport must be valid for your entire requested period of stay in the United States, because your Form I-94 will be issued only until your passport expiry date, even if you have an I-797 Approval for a longer period of time.
    • It is also pertinent to note that many major airports are no longer stamping passports for most classes of admission. Instead, each time you enter the U.S., the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) creates an online, electronic entry record, i.e., the I-94 to record your entry to the U.S. The I-94 record will be your only official record of entry to the U.S.
  • I-797
    • USCIS issues an I-797 Notice of Action when a nonimmigrant petition or application is approved. The I-797 reflects the visa classification (H-1B, L-1A, F-1, etc.) you, the foreign national have been approved for and the validity period for the nonimmigrant status authorized by USCIS.
    • Any additional period given at the bottom of the I-797 notice cannot be considered as employment authorization period. It is only a grace period given on discretionary basis to either file for extension/ change of status or make arrangements to depart the country.

The latest I-94 received by the foreign national dictates the period of stay in the U.S. It could be an i-94 issued by CBP official at port of entry or by USCIS at the bottom of the I-797 Approval. In other words, whichever i-94 is latest needs to be considered.

For example: If you received an H-1B I-797 approved from 03/15/2022, valid until 12/31/2022 but you entered the U.S. on 03/20/2022 utilizing a previously issued H-1B visa and I-797 notice valid until 08/30/2022, you might be issued an I-94 valid only until 08/30/2022. In this situation, your period of stay ends on 08/30/2022 and not 12/31/2022 because the event of your entry succeeded the issuance of approval by USCIS.

To conclude, please verify the dates whenever you receive a new I-94 either at Port of Entry or from USCIS to ensure that your stay in the U.S. is authorized. If the stay as shown on your Form I-94, Arrival/ Departure Record, has already expired, USCIS will most likely not grant an extension of stay unless there are compelling unforeseen circumstances beyond your control prevented you from filing an extension of stay, on time. It is important to be aware and conscious of your status expiry date, as an overstay or violation of status may cause you to be ineligible for a visa in the future for return travel to the United States.

Please contact your Graham Adair attorney with any case specific questions or contact us at info@grahamadair.com; +1 408 715 7067.

Categories Global News & Updates

RELIEF Act Introduction Brings Both Senate Immigration Bills To Standstill

The?journey?of H.R.1044/S.386 through the Senate hit another roadblock as S.2603, the?Resolving Extended Limbo for Immigrant Employees and Families (RELIEF) Act,?was brought up for a vote by unanimous consent. At least one senator objected, blocking the unanimous consent fast-track and stalling both bills for the time being. A unanimous consent vote on H.R.1044/S.386 was originally expected to be held on Thursday, October 17th.

The RELIEF Act was introduced to address the massive green card backlog, with the goal of eliminating the backlog over five years. Building on S.744, the 2013 bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill, the bill would clarify spouses and children of Legal Permanent Residents as immediate relatives and exempt ?derivative beneficiaries? of employment-based petitions from the annual caps that contribute to the backlog. It would also protect children who qualify based on a parent?s petition from ?aging out? while waiting for approval, helping to keep families together.

We will continue to monitor developments and share updates as more information becomes available. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact your Graham Adair representative. For more frequent updates, please follow us on Twitter (@GrahamAdairLaw).

Categories Global News & Updates

UPDATED: Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act Goes Before Senate

UPDATED 9/20/19
H.R.1044/S.386 went before the Senate on Thursday and was blocked by a Senator who expressed unenumerated concerns about how the new rules would impact specific industries. Leading proponents of the bill say they will work to address those concerns and bring it up for a vote again next week.?We will continue to monitor developments and share updates as more information becomes available.

9/19/19
After passing the House with 365 bipartisan votes, H.R.1044, the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act will be brought before the Senate today, September 19, 2019 as S.386. U.S. Senators Mike Lee and Kamala Harris have led negotiations with Senator Rand Paul, who agreed to remove his hold on the bill after reaching a reasonable compromise.

H.R.1044/S.386 would remove the per-country quotas for employment-based immigrant visas, reducing the green card backlog. The per-country quota currently remains at 7% of total annual green cards, meaning Iceland (pop. ~338,000) has the same quota as India (pop. ~1.3 billion). The resultant backlog has resulted in extreme wait times and uncertainty for employers that rely on highly-skilled immigrants. Eliminating the quotas and backlog is intended to ensure that the United States continues to attract top talent from around the world.

The bill is expected to be brought up by Unanimous Consent, expediting the process.?We will continue to monitor developments and share updates as more information becomes available.

Categories News & Updates USCIS

Plan to Terminate H-4 Work Permit Program Delayed, DHS Seeks to Put Lawsuit on Hold

A memo from the U.S. Department of Justice, dated 9/16/19, has indicated that anticipated changes to the visa program which has allowed H-4 visa holder spouses of H-1B workers to obtain Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) will not be issued until the spring of 2020 at the earliest. The plan to eliminate the work authorization for H1-B spouses was formally introduced in February of 2019, with a proposed rule from USCIS and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “Removing H-4 Dependent Spouses from the Class of Aliens Eligible for Employment Authorization.? The new regulations, currently under federal review, were initially expected to be published this year.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is?currently hearing a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the H-4 EAD rule. The suit was filed by anti-immigration group Save Jobs USA, arguing that the DHS had no authority to issue the initial H-4 EAD rule, which was introduced in 2015. DHS lawyers maintain that the suit should be put on hold due to the ongoing efforts by the administration to?rescind the program. According to the?memo??…DHS?s intention to proceed with publication of the H-4 EAD proposed rule remains unchanged. At this point, DHS has informed counsel that it believes the earliest possible publication date for that rule would be in spring 2020. Although that timeframe is aspirational, DHS believes that the September 27, 2019 oral argument should be removed from the calendar and postponed??

We will continue to monitor developments and share updates as more information becomes available.?If you have any questions, please feel free to contact your Graham Adair representative. For more frequent updates,?please follow us on?Twitter?(@GrahamAdairLaw).

 

Categories News & Updates USCIS

USCIS Proposes New Rule on H-1B Registration Fee Requirement

On Wednesday September 4, 2019, USCIS published a?proposed rule?in the Federal Register that would require payment of a $10 fee from all petitioners filing a H-1B cap-subject petition. The rule would apply to each?registration submitted for the selection process, and is expected to be applicable to 2021 fiscal year cap filings. The 30-day public comment period is now open, with comments due 10/4/19 via mail or the Federal eRulemaking?Portal:?www.regulations.gov.

The new fee, which was excluded from the original January 2019?final rule?that introduced the new online registration requirement, is expected to result in a marginal increase in costs for selected selected petitioners, and a?cost savings for both unselected petitioners and the government. This is one in a series of steps toward implementing the new electronic registration system for H-1B filing. Details remain to be released about the new process,?which will be in place for the April 2020 H-1B filing season.

We will continue to monitor developments and share updates as more information becomes available.?If you have any questions, please feel free to contact your Graham Adair representative. For more frequent updates,?please follow us on?Twitter?(@GrahamAdairLaw).