Since I launched my website almost a year ago, I frequently get questions that come to me via my "Ask Vida" button.  I personally answer these questions from visitors to my website and thought it would be helpful to post some commonly asked questions here and share the answers with everyone. One of the most common questions is, "How do I get a work visa?"  Work-based visas normally require the sponsorship of an employer.  Therefore, you generally have know the company you will be working for before you can obtain a work visa because they have to submit the application letting USCIS ...

President Bush announced this past week that nationals from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, the Republic of Korea, Lithuania and the Slovak Republic will be added to the list of Visa Waiver eligible countries.  The Visa Waiver Program allows visitors from approved countries to travel to the U.S. for business or pleasure for 90 days or less without having to obtain a visa.  Twenty-seven countries currently on the list are: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the ...

As expected, fiscal year 2009's H-1B cap was quickly reached. Read USCIS's April 8, 2008, announcement below. USCIS Reaches FY 2009 H-1B Cap WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received enough H-1B petitions to meet the congressionally mandated cap for fiscal year 2009. USCIS has also received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the “advanced degree” exemption. Before running the random selection process, USCIS will complete initial data entry for all filings received during ...

In an employment-based permanent residence (green card) process, both employer and employee must qualify under U.S. immigration laws. On the one hand, the U.S. employer needs to demonstrate that there are no U.S. Citizens or permanent residents in the state who are ready, willing and able to do the work that the foreign employee is being hired to do at the prevailing wage. On the part of the employee, he/she must demonstrate that he/she is qualified for the position in terms of either academic, work experience or a combination of both.   There are 3 steps to obtaining a Green Card ...

Earlier this year, our office sent an advisory to clients, friends and community members on our email list to inform them of a scheduled increase in immigration filing fees. We encouraged anyone thinking of filing for naturalization (citizenship) in particular to file if they were eligible. We submitted many petitions and applications for our clients just before the July 30, 2007, deadline. Because of the increase in applications, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released an advisory stating that the tremendous increase in applications has created a backlog in their ...

Why Become a U.S. Citizen? Some permanent residents have held their green cards for decades and for various reasons have not applied for citizenship through the process known as naturalization. One client had been wavering back and forth for about 30 years as to whether or not he should apply. When he came to meet me for his immigration consultation he brought in the various versions of the forms that changed over the decades and showed me a history of the fee increases over time. He had finally felt it was time to become a citizen after seeing how the forms had only gotten longer and ...

Winning the visa lottery would be the equivalent to some as winning a multi million dollar jackpot. Just with any other type of lottery though, as the saying goes, "you gotta play to win..." Find out about how to apply for the 2009 visa lottery. The visa lottery is formally known as the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program. The U.S. government makes available up to a maximum of 55,000 diversity green cards annually. 5000 of these visas are reserved for a visa program for certain Central American nationals, leaving 50,000 visas available to be drawn at random from a pool of applicants ...

The nonimmigrant classifications and visa categories are often referred to as an "alphabet soup". For example visitor visas are known as "B" visas, fiance(e) visas are known as K1 visas, and temporary workers in specialty occupations are known as H1B visas. But there many types of visas that may not be as well known which may be a viable option for those that qualify. Below is a list of nonimmigrant classifications.   Nonimmigrant Visas General Information on Nonimmigrant Benefits   Nonimmigrant Classifications and Visas Government ...