Business Immigration Insights

For the second time in the past ten years, the Supreme Court has upheld the doctrine of consular non-reviewability of visa decisions and denied relief to the U.S. citizen spouse seeking to challenge the denial of a visa to a spouse. 

On December 4, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two orders that allow the Presidential Proclamation of September 24, 2017, otherwise known as the “Travel Ban,” to go into effect while appeals continue in the lower courts.  The practical effect of SCOTUS’s actions is to reinstate this version of the Travel Ban fully.  See our earlier blog entry, New Presidential Proclamation Modifies Travel Ban; SCOTUS Reacts, for a full explanation of which countries are targeted in the revised Ban and which citizens of those countries are subject to U.S. travel restrictions under the Ban.

On Sunday, September 24, 2017, the White House identified eight countries as inadequately managing identity and security risk information for their citizens who seek admission to the United States or other U.S. immigration benefits and established the following restrictions for those countries:

• North Korea / Syria:  All immigrant and nonimmigrant visas are suspended.
• Chad / Libya / Yemen:  All immigrant visas and all B-1 business and B-2 tourist visas are suspended.
• Iran:  All immigrant visas are suspended, as well as all nonimmigrant visas except F and M student visas and J exchange ...

Following the Supreme Court’s recent decision to allow the partial implementation of Executive Order 13780, “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States” (“EO”), the State Department issued a cable to all diplomatic and consular posts instructing them how to implement the EO, which begins tonight at 8:00 PM EDT.  The ban applies to aliens from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.  Consular officers are instructed to first determine if a visa applicant meets the general visa issuance requirements without regard to the EO and, if so ...