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IACC Karnataka Organises Meeting With Drew Hoster – Vice Consul, Chennai Consulate
On 29th July 2005, IACC Karnataka organized a meeting on U.S business visas at the Taj Residency in Bangalore. The speaker was Mr. Drew Hoster, vice Consul, Chennai Consulate, specially designated to the Business Executive Program. Our Director, Raji Govindaraj was a privileged attendee of the program. The meeting was a rather informal affair and more of an interactive session. It was well attended, despite being a week day afternoon.
The special points of interest were:
A MAJOR LIBERALIZATION IN VISA TERM: The visa officers have figured, that if an applicant has a genuine need to go to the U.S and qualifies for a B1 /B2 once, he most likely will once again. Therefore, in an attempt to reduce their workload, they have started issuing 10yr multiple entry visas for such applicants. This does not mean that a person can stay continuously for 10 yrs in the U.S. The exact duration of stay for each visit will be determined by the officer at the port of entry and will be mentioned in the I 94.
THE CONSULATES PRACTICE OF NOT HAVING COMPANY-SPECIFIC ANNOTATION ON THE VISA FOR MOST CASES: Prior to this, Visa officers, had the habit of annotating on the visa as to which company the B1 was issued for. This kind of bound the employee to travel on business only for that specific company. With the removal of this system employees have the freedom to travel for any company they may be working for, at that point of time. This also helps companies in that, they are not responsible for informing the consulate in case the employee ceases to work for them.
YELLOW FOLDER APPOINTMENT FOR GENUINE EMERGENCY: With available web appointments at least 6 months away, most companies expressed concern on transporting their employees at short notices. Mr Hoster has conceded that they issue yellow folder appointments for companies in the BEP program if there is a genuine emergency, and if it can be documented that something unforeseen has happened, and there is going to be a major loss to the American company if this particular employee is not in the U.S immediately. This may not be possible if the employee has to be in the U.S just to attend meetings or conferences.
APPLICANTS CAN APPLY ONLY FROM THE CONSULATE OF PRIOR REJECTION: When questioned about the possibility of applying for a visa overseas if an employee is currently on an assignment there, Mr Hoster reiterated that it was possible, only if the employee did not have a prior rejection. Otherwise they will have to go to the consulate where their visa was first rejected.
VISA OFFICERS ALLOW 2 NON-IMMIGRANT STAMPING ON PASSPORTS: As immigration attorneys we were under the impression that there can be only one non-immigrant stamping on an employees passport – that if you apply for the second the first one will be “Cancelled Without Prejudice”. But Mr Hoster clarified that this is not so in most cases, and that they do allow two valid non-immigrant visas concurrently.
One other thing that Mr. Hoster insisted is that HR heads should not coach their employees. After all, Visa Officers see close to a 750 people a day and they are put off by this pseudo appearances. So watch out! And only counsel your employees.
Raji govindaraj is Director and Head- Operations, the law offices of Korenberg Abramowitz Raj & Mathi, and can be reached at raji@karmlaw.com
On 29th July 2005, IACC Karnataka organized a meeting on U.S business visas at the Taj Residency in Bangalore. The speaker was Mr. Drew Hoster, vice Consul, Chennai Consulate, specially designated to the Business Executive Program. Our Director, Raji Govindaraj was a privileged attendee of the program. The meeting was a rather informal affair and more of an interactive session. It was well attended, despite being a week day afternoon.
The special points of interest were:
A MAJOR LIBERALIZATION IN VISA TERM: The visa officers have figured, that if an applicant has a genuine need to go to the U.S and qualifies for a B1 /B2 once, he most likely will once again. Therefore, in an attempt to reduce their workload, they have started issuing 10yr multiple entry visas for such applicants. This does not mean that a person can stay continuously for 10 yrs in the U.S. The exact duration of stay for each visit will be determined by the officer at the port of entry and will be mentioned in the I 94.
THE CONSULATES PRACTICE OF NOT HAVING COMPANY-SPECIFIC ANNOTATION ON THE VISA FOR MOST CASES: Prior to this, Visa officers, had the habit of annotating on the visa as to which company the B1 was issued for. This kind of bound the employee to travel on business only for that specific company. With the removal of this system employees have the freedom to travel for any company they may be working for, at that point of time. This also helps companies in that, they are not responsible for informing the consulate in case the employee ceases to work for them.
YELLOW FOLDER APPOINTMENT FOR GENUINE EMERGENCY: With available web appointments at least 6 months away, most companies expressed concern on transporting their employees at short notices. Mr Hoster has conceded that they issue yellow folder appointments for companies in the BEP program if there is a genuine emergency, and if it can be documented that something unforeseen has happened, and there is going to be a major loss to the American company if this particular employee is not in the U.S immediately. This may not be possible if the employee has to be in the U.S just to attend meetings or conferences.
APPLICANTS CAN APPLY ONLY FROM THE CONSULATE OF PRIOR REJECTION: When questioned about the possibility of applying for a visa overseas if an employee is currently on an assignment there, Mr Hoster reiterated that it was possible, only if the employee did not have a prior rejection. Otherwise they will have to go to the consulate where their visa was first rejected.
VISA OFFICERS ALLOW 2 NON-IMMIGRANT STAMPING ON PASSPORTS: As immigration attorneys we were under the impression that there can be only one non-immigrant stamping on an employees passport – that if you apply for the second the first one will be “Cancelled Without Prejudice”. But Mr Hoster clarified that this is not so in most cases, and that they do allow two valid non-immigrant visas concurrently.
One other thing that Mr. Hoster insisted is that HR heads should not coach their employees. After all, Visa Officers see close to a 750 people a day and they are put off by this pseudo appearances. So watch out! And only counsel your employees.
Raji govindaraj is Director and Head- Operations, the law offices of Korenberg Abramowitz Raj & Mathi, and can be reached at raji@karmlaw.com
