US Immigration News

The United States is currently undergoing the largest wave of immigration in over a century, reports CBS news on April 20. But what makes this wave like no other is that so much of it is illegal. There are approximately 11 million illegal immigrants now in the United States. That equals the population of Ohio. These immigrants are coming for jobs, of course. But to be hired by an American factory, they need documents.

Some 500,000 Indians aspire to visit the United States every year, but the American government issues only about 55,000 visas, the Times of India reported on 15 April. This is due to lack of adequate manpower and infrastructure, US Transport Secretary Norman Y Mineta said in Bangalore on Friday.

The United States Senate opened an immigration debate on April 14 on agricultural guest worker visas that many lawmakers had hoped to postpone. A House and Senate negotiating session later this year will decide on final legislation regarding the agricultural guest worker visas.

Residents of the US state of New Hampshire residents can now go online to schedule an appointment with an immigration officer. The InfoPass system is already used at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices in large cities, and soon will be available at all offices around the country.

Though federal officials soon will begin issuing an additional 20,000 visas for highly skilled foreign workers, some US companies don't know if they'll be able to participate, reports the Sacramento Bee.

The federal government initially said the new batch of H-1B visas - which should be available soon - must be awarded to graduates of U.S. universities with master's degrees or higher.

The United States Embassy in London issued a pressrelease on April 7 reassuring British citizens that most would not needvisitor visas, as had been widely reported in the press this week.

TheEmbassy said in its press release that British passports issued beforeOctober 26, 2005 – as long as they are machine-readable – wouldcontinue to allow the bearer to travel visa free to the United States.Passports issued on or after October 26, 2005, must contain biometricidentifiers in order to qualify the bearer for visa-free travel.