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As I write this, a few facts are starting to trickle out about Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, the man who committed the terrorist attack in Manhattan using a rented Home Depot truck on October 31, killing eight and injuring nearly a dozen more innocent people. (See, for instance, here and here.) First, we are told that he is Uzbek, having arrived in the United States from Uzbekistan "legally" in 2010. Second, some outlets have suggested that he may be married with two children, but I haven't seen any multiple verifications of that. Third, he appears to have been a Uber driver...

In the contentious debate over immigration policy, three groups have dominated public and political attention: the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants seeking to become legal, the skilled foreign workers bound for high-tech jobs and relatives waiting to be reunited with their families. Then there are those who won the green card lottery. Under a Senate compromise, the program would be eliminated and its visa slots would be subsumed into a broad system that stresses skills, education and other criteria for legal immigration. A few defenders, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus, have urged that the lottery be preserved. But...

On Tuesday, more than 14 million people around the world, including anxious applicants in the Washington area, will begin checking computers and smartphones in one of the strangest rituals of the U.S. immigration system. When the clock strikes noon in the nation’s capital, they will be able to visit a State Department website, enter their names, years of birth and 16-digit identification numbers. Then they will press “submit” to learn whether they have won one of the world’s most coveted contests: the U.S. green-card lottery. Each year, the Diversity Visa Lottery, as it is officially known, provides up to 50,000...

WASHINGTON — Groups have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the State Department’s refusal to process visa applications for winners of the U.S. Diversity Visa Program lottery who hail from the six countries covered by President Trump’s Muslim ban. The lawsuit was brought by Jenner & Block LLP, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of the District of Columbia, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the National Immigration Law Center. It was filed on behalf of lottery winners from Iran and Yemen, and charges the federal government with running afoul of federal law and regulations by refusing to issue visas to...

Halloween Massacre straight out of Isis playbook.

An interesting sidelight to the Russian Uranium One caper was reported by The Hill yesterday involving a Russian TENEX executive that the FBI was investigating for bribery and extortion who was granted a visa to enter the US by the Obama administration. TENEX is an American subsidiary of Rosatom, the company involved in buying an interest in Uranium One. The records show TENEX executive Vadim Mikerin was engaged in illegal conduct as early as the fall of 2009, yet he was allowed to enter the country by the Obama administration with a L1 temporary work visa when he arrived in...

The U.S. Embassy in Ankara on Oct. 8 announced that it had suspended all non-immigrant visa services at its diplomatic facilities in Turkey. "Recent events have forced the United States Government to reassess the commitment of the Government of Turkey to the security of US Mission facilities and personnel. In order to minimize the number of visitors to our Embassy and Consulates while this assessment proceeds, effective immediately we have suspended all non-immigrant visa services at all U.S. diplomatic facilities in Turkey," the Embassy said in a statement issued on its Twitter account. Statement from the U.S. Mission to Turkey...

My wife had her 5th visa interview since 2009, all previous had been denied, this time she was successful. But she said the interviewers were much kinder and understanding. Last time I was in the same area and they told her not to talk to me. This time there was no issue. Maybe they are finally using some common sense for tourist visas (which is what we just wanted anyway). So instead to laying out the red carpet to would be terrorists they may be letting people that have tourist dollars to spend actually get to the USA. Yes, some...

A 47-year-old Irishman has been arrested by Border Patrol agents in Northwest Montana for attempting to enter the United States illegally. Agents encountered the Irishman, carrying a large backpack, along the international border near the northeast section of Glacier National Park. He had previously overstayed his US visa and was prohibited from re-entering the United States for an extended period, according to Michael Rappold, public affairs officer for the Havre Sector Border Patrol Station. According to the authorities, the Irishman entered the United States from Canada by walking southbound, through the woods, to avoid detection. Rappold told the press he...

In a room full of non-native speakers, 'there isn't any chance of understanding'. It might be their language, but the message is often lost. Editor's Note (29 December 2016): Through the end of the year, BBC Capital is bringing back some of your favourite stories from 2016. It was just one word in one email, but it triggered huge financial losses for a multinational company. The message, written in English, was sent by a native speaker to a colleague for whom English was a second language. Unsure of the word, the recipient found two contradictory meanings in his dictionary. He...

The Trump administration moved on Thursday to make permanent a new questionnaire that asks some U.S. visa applicants to provide their social media handles and detailed biographical and travel history, according to a public notice. The questionnaire was rolled out in May as part of an effort to tighten vetting of would-be visitors to the United States, and asks for all prior passport numbers, five years' worth of social media handles, email addresses and phone numbers and 15 years of biographical information including addresses, employment and travel history. A State Department official declined to provide data on how many times...

The push toward a cashless society is becoming more of a shove. Before today I had never heard of “The Visa Cashless Challenge”, but after reading about it I have to say that I am quite alarmed. Visa is trying to “encourage” businesses to go cashless, and one of the ways that they will be doing this is by “awarding up to $500,000 to 50 eligible US-based small business food service owners who commit to joining the 100% cashless quest”. The food industry is still one of the last bastions where cash is used very heavily, and so it makes...

The Russian lawyer who penetrated Donald Trump’s inner circle was initially cleared into the United States by the Justice Department under “extraordinary circumstances” before she embarked on a lobbying campaign last year that ensnared the president’s eldest son, members of Congress, journalists and State Department officials, according to court and Justice Department documents and interviews.

Hezbollah is a greater and more longstanding foundational threat to our homeland than ISIS. This was brought to the forefront last week when two Hezbollah operatives were arrested on charges of surveilling targets for the Iranian-backed terror group on our own soil. They were also naturalized citizens who were admitted from Lebanon as immigrants years ago. Sadly, this story received very little media coverage. President Trump would be wise to give a televised address making the case for his immigration moratorium and travel ban by using this case as a perfect case study for the need for smarter vetting and...

The Labor Department announced that it will increase protections for Americans as much as it can, while cracking down on fraud and abuse within various foreign guest worker programs. In a news release, the Labor Department said it would implement a series of changes aimed at “aggressively” combating fraud and abuse within visa programs like the H-1B visa. Every year, more than 100,000 foreign workers are brought to the U.S. on the H-1B visa. Most recently, that number has ballooned to potentially hundreds of thousands each year, as universities and non-profits are exempt from the cap. With more entering the...

More than half a million foreigners stayed in the United States after their visas expired during the last fiscal year, according to a new report released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Monday. Of the more than 50 million foreigners that entered the U.S., 1.47 percent -- or 739,478 people -- stayed in the country past the length of their visa. That includes those who stay one day over their allowable time, as well as people who have no intention of ever leaving the U.S. {snip} Of the total number of overstays last year, 628,799 people or 1.25 percent...

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) is looking to expand the number of wealthy foreign nationals who can pay their way to permanent legal residency in the U.S. under the EB-5 visa. Cornyn is floating draft legislation that would essentially erase the current cap for EB-5 visas, which is set at 10,000 a year. Under the EB-5 visa, foreign nationals can claim that they will invest $500,000 and thus receive Green Cards for their family for at least two years, with pathways to citizenship available as well. The only requirement is that the EB-5 holder create 10 U.S. jobs.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4481200/Kushner-family-hoping-lure-Chinese-investors-US.html

The United States issued about 40 percent fewer temporary visas in March to citizens of seven countries covered by President Donald Trump's temporary travel bans than it did in an average month last year, according to a Reuters analysis of preliminary government data released on Thursday. At the same time, the data showed that the total of U.S. non-immigrant visas issued to people from all countries was up by nearly 5 percent in March compared to the 2016 monthly average. Citizens of the seven Muslim-majority nations under the bans - Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen - received...

Uber Technologies, Inc. has filed 986 labor condition applications for H1B visa and 167 labor certifications for green card from fiscal year 2014 to 2016. Uber Technologies was ranked 124 among all visa sponsors. Please note that 23 LCA for H1B Visa and 3 LC for green card have been denied or withdrawn during the same period.