Green card holders, international students are recommended not to leave the US

“Foreign citizens, especially those who need to extend the visa, should really think carefully before leaving the US now,” Kripa Upadhyay, a lawyer about immigration in Seattle, USA, said on March 17.

Many other lawyers also give the same advice, whether their clients are H-1B working visas, international students or even green card owners, also known as permanent residents.

The reason they give is that these people may face a delay in stamping at US consular offices abroad, while US officials are re -application of strict verification processes with people returning to the United States, even strengthening inspection at the airport.

“I recently processed a number of cases, of which the US Border Guard and Customs (CBP) targeted some elderly people with green cards, especially those who were outside the US for a long time.

Lawyer Upadhyay said that according to the law, only the immigration judge has the right to deprive the green card of the permanent residence. However, some CBP staff threatened to arrest or “deport” them, making these people feel scared and signed on the I-407 application.

Immigration lawyers are witnessing many cases of green card ownership, even seizing overnight when entering the US.

The lawyers also advised those who owned a green card for decades but did not apply for US nationality, so they asked for the US passport as soon as possible and avoid leaving the country until they finished.

The US State Department has also changed the requirements for the visa owners to enter the US to be exempted from the interview. Previously, the applicant may be exempted from the interview if they have been granted non -immigrant visas (except for Type B tourist visa) and filed within 48 months after the expiry date.

But according to the new regulations, the applicant is exempted from interviewing when applying for a visa extension of the same type within 12 months after expiry. Therefore, if an international student has an F-1 visa and needs to switch to H-1B visa, the applicant still has to wait for the interview schedule. The person who wants to extend the H-1B visa but submitted after the expiry of 12 months must also wait for the interview appointment, the lawyer Upadhyay explained.

Even when the US Citizenship and Immigration Department (USCIS) has approved the H-1B visa, the consular officer has the right to refuse the visa and send it back to USCIS for re-review.

“In this situation, workers who are overseas will be stuck at least 4-6 months before they can return to the United States,” the lawyer Upadhyay warned.

US President Donald Trump is implementing a large -scale expulsion campaign for immigrants without papers and affirming that he wants to maintain legal roads for immigration into the United States as through the $ 5 million yellow card program.