ISLAMABAD, June 24: The US State Department has decided to stop re-issuing certain categories of non-immigrant visas in the US from July 16, 2004. This will affect visas in categories ‘C, E, H, I, L, O and P,’ said a press release issued on Thursday by the US embassy in Islamabad.
The statement said that one of the reasons for the change was that after Oct 24, 2004, US visas “must include biometric identifiers” such as fingerprints. “It is not feasible for the State Department to collect biometric identifiers in the US,” the statement said.
However, the statement added, all visa-adjudicating posts abroad would have fingerprint-scanning equipment installed before the October deadline. "After July 16, persons, who depart the US and require new visas to re-enter, should seek assistance at a US embassy or consulate abroad.
Applicants should obtain an interview appointment before travelling," it added.
It means that if your visa stamp has expired and you need to travel outside US (other than Canada or Mexico), then you need to get the visa stamp from the consulate before they will allow you to return to the US. Previously US State Department would also do that via mail while people stayed within US, and now they are going to stop doing that.
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*Originally posted by laeeqkhan: *
^thanks but i still don't fully understand.
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Laeeqkhan Bhai,
Basically for example a new H1 has to be stamped outside the USA, earlier it was also being done at Canada and Mexico, but now they have restricted to the country of origin.
But If you had for example a H1 visa already stamped in your Passport, and it was expiring, and if your sponsoring company applied for a renewal, and if the renewal was approved, you could send your Passport and approval of the renewed H1 to St Louis (BCIS).
And they would stamp your Passport with the new H1, (Provided you had a H1 already stamped in your Passport).
Now with the new law even if you had an earlier H1 stamped on your Passport, at the end of 3 years (Validity of H1), after renewal you would have to go back to the country of origin to get your Passport stamped.
Mr Ahmad gets a job offer from a US Company to come work in New York. They send him his H-1B approval. He goes to his consultate and they stamp his passport with an H-1B visa for US, valid for 3 years. Mr Ahmad now moved to US and starts working for the US Company. Before the three years expire, the Company files for an extension of the H-1B visa for Mr Ahmed. The approval is received from INS in the form of a Notice. Now, Mr Ahmed is approved for staying in the US for three more years, but the stamp on his passport is now expired.
Mr Ahmed can continue to stay in the US and work for three years and he will be perfectly fine. But if intends to travel to Europe, he needs to then go to a US Consulate (probably back in Pakistan, the country of origin) and submit his passport so that a new updated stamp is placed on his passport. Without the updated stamp he can not enter back into the US.
Previously, while working in the US, Mr Ahmed could have mailed his passport to the US State Department and they will stamp his passport with the new visa, thereby Mr Ahmed didn't need to go to Pakistan. Now, this is changed and the US State Department will not stamp visas anymore.