Season of Hope: Not Just for Christmas

What will you do once the H-1B cap is met, which could be any day now? Although the cap-subject H-1B is often considered the most straightforward solution for many foreign national professionals and their employers, it's not the only option. Once the cap is met, the following options will still remain open:

• L-1 for intra-company transferees
• J-1 for certain interns and trainees
• CPT/OPT, including OPT STEM extensions for certain students
• TN for citizens of Mexico and Canada
• E-3 for citizens of Australia
• O-1 for foreign nationals of extraordinary ability
• H-3 for certain trainees
• Not all H-1Bs are cap-subject (for example, transfers/extensions, those who are not currently in H-1B status but have previously been counted against the cap, and employees of certain non-profit and/or institutions of higher education)

Please contact an attorney at Challa Law to devise a strategy to fit your needs best!

The U.S. is implementing a new visa application process for Indians that will make obtaining visas more convenient, says the U.S. ambassador to India. The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and Consulates General in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad are now accepting visa applications at all visa facilities in India, regardless of the applicant's home address or city of residence.

After the opening of the new Consulate General in Hyderabad, the U.S. mission in India has been looking for other ways to best manage the changing population dynamics of that country. Part of this response has been to reorganize U.S. consular districts in India. The consular districts have been reorganized as follows:

Embassy Delhi: Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bhutan

Consulate Mumbai: Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Diu and Daman, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli

Consulate Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh, Orissa

Consulate Chennai: Karnataka, Kerala, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Consulate Kolkata: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, West Bengal??

"With these changes, we believe our Consulates General and our Embassy in New Delhi will be even better positioned to support and serve Indian visa applicants, as well as American citizens and businesses throughout India," said U.S. Ambassador to India, Timothy J. Roemer

Starting January 10, 2011, the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Mexico will make changes to the way visas are processed. Under new procedures, the majority of applicants will visit an Applicant Service Center (ASC) before their consular section interview. Staff at the ASC will collect biometric information that will be reviewed prior to the applicants' interviews with the consular section. These service centers will be located in buildings not connected to the U.S. Embassy or Consulates.

Please note that the total cost for visa applications will go down. Instead of paying separate fees for obtaining information and scheduling an appointment, the visa application and courier services, applicants will now pay just one fee that covers all three above-stated fees. The application fee will remain the same: $140 for a tourist application, $150 for a petition-based case and $390 for a treaty-trader or investor visa.

Please also note that applicants at the U.S. Consulates in Ciudad Juarez, Monterrey and Nuevo Laredo will no longer be required to pay a $26 surcharge