United States Department of State to Revive Domestic Visa Revalidation
According to an article published by Bloomberg Law on February 9, 2023, a U.S. Department of State official has confirmed that the Department will launch a pilot program later this year offering domestic visa renewal options for H-1B specialty occupation workers and L-1 intracompany transferees. The official also stated that the program may eventually be expanded to include other visa types. Although the news report provides few details, the official’s statement signifies beneficial changes in U.S. visa policy in the coming months. These changes should allow many high skilled foreign workers to avoid lengthy delays in returning to the U.S. after temporary trips abroad.1
Background
Prior to July 2004, the Department of State allowed visa applicants holding valid E, H, L, O and P statuses, among others, to renew their visas by mail with the Visa Office in Washington D.C., provided that the applicant had their first visa issued by a consular post abroad. Applicants renewing domestically were allowed to submit their applications in the period beginning sixty days before and up to one year after the visa expiration. In the wake of the events of September 11, 2001, the Department of State ended domestic visa revalidation, with the stated reason that it did not have capacity to comply with newly enacted national security laws requiring biometrics for all visa applicants. Consequently, since July 14, 2004, the only option for temporary workers living within the U.S. to renew their visa has been to leave the country and apply at a U.S. consulate or embassy abroad. This has often resulted in workers being unable to return to the U.S. for several weeks, and in some cases, several months. Delays in visa processing at consular posts occur most frequently where additional background checks are required.
What this Means for our Clients
The initiative to restore stateside visa renewals is intended to reduce the backlogs at consular offices abroad. Once implemented, this program will benefit many workers who have avoided international travel due to the wait for visa appointments. The pandemic has had a wide-ranging impact on consular operations, including loss of personnel, consular shutdowns, and executive orders preventing visa issuance, all contributing to extreme delays and lack of availability of visa services at many locations. While appointment availability has been improving at many consular posts over the past few months, the ability to renew visas domestically will be welcome news to many temporary workers who may prefer to not have to plan for visa appointments abroad. Currently, the only visas that qualify for domestic renewal are certain diplomatic and international organization visas.
As noted above, the change of policy is from a Bloomberg news article reporting on an interview with a Department of State official. The Department of State has yet to issue an official statement with details regarding how or when exactly the pilot will be implemented. It is expected that stateside renewals will not be available to all applicants, as was the case with the previous stateside visa renewal program which ended nearly 20 years ago. Applicants who have not maintained valid status in the U.S., or are from certain countries may be required to continue to renew at consulates abroad.
Goeschl Law will be closely monitoring the development of this program and will issue further client alerts as necessary.
1 'Visa’ in this context refers to a document stamped in a foreign national’s passport by the U.S. Department of State. This document allows the foreign national to apply for admission, or readmission to the U.S. in a temporary status. It does not control their period of authorized stay once in the country, and should not be confused with the ‘I-797 approval notice,’ issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service, or ‘I-94 arrival departure record,' which is issued by the Customs and Border Protection.