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June 18, 2004
Discontinuation of Visa Revalidation (Update)
The U.S. Department of State announced at last week’s AILA annual conference
that visa revalidation will be discontinued as of July 16, 2004. Visa revalidation
cases currently in the pipeline will continue to be processed. An exception
will be made for applications that have already been filed and for which
additional information has been requested to satisfy specific regulations.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Catherine Barry stated that DOS has
no current plans to revive the revalidation service. The rationale for terminating
visa revalidations is that DOS lacks the capacity domestically to acquire
the biometric identifiers all visas will be required to contain as of October
26, 2004. Immigration advocacy groups are urging DOS to retain the revalidation
service, which remains valuable despite a significant increase in processing
times, rejections and denials, and is developing ideas on how to do so.
The visa revalidation process has been used by individuals in the C,
E, H, I, L, O and P classifications to obtain new visas for traveling in
and out of the U.S. As of July 16, after taking a trip outside of the U.S.,
individuals whose visa stamp in their passports has expired will have to
apply for a new visa at a U.S. consulate abroad to be able to return to
the U.S. For those who do not plan on traveling, this change will not affect
them. Also, as a reminder, the visa only serves as a travel document. The
I-94 card issued by USCIS at the port of entry or by the Service Center
is the document that verifies a person’s status and employment authorization.
Regulations are expected within the next 10 days. Greenberg Traurig will
provide updates as they become available.
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