Immigration lawyer: Customs and Border Protection Announces New Electronic Data Entry Program for Visitors from China 

Until late 2014, visitors to the United States from China had to apply for visitor visas, which were valid for only one year. This meant that Chinese visitors had to renew their visas every year to be able to continue visiting the United States. While this might not sound like a big inconvenience, business visitors who periodically attend meetings in the United States, and investors reviewing investment opportunities were required to apply for new visas – and risk being denied the visa – each year. For anyone not familiar with the process of applying for a visitor visa, U.S. immigration law presumes that everyone is seeking to immigrate to the United States. In other words, everyone applying for a visa intends to live in the U.S. permanently.)

The Department of State released the January 2016 Visa Bulletin. EB-3 China (July 1, 2012) is still ahead of EB-2 China (February 1, 2012). Visa numbers are not available in the Certain Religious Workers (EB-4) and EB-5 Regional Center classes for China. The unavailability of EB-5 Regional Center visa numbers reflects the expiration of the EB-5 Pilot Program on December 11, 2015. If Congress acts to extend these Programs, the cut-off dates for the EB-5 Regional Center class would immediately become "Current" for all countries except China, which would be subject to a January 8, 2014 cut-off date.

The U.S. Department of State has issued the December 2015 Visa Bulletin. Of note:

The Department of State has released the August 2015 Visa Bulletin, and EB-3 Rest of World has advanced to July 15, 2015.

Read Kathryn Karam's latest article in the Houston Business Journal: What Donald Trump is Missing in the Immigration Debate.

The Department of State issued the February 2015 Visa Bulletin. EB-3 has advanced in all categories, particularly EB-3 Rest-of-World, China, Mexico and the Philippines. EB-2 China and EB-2 India have also advanced.

Kathryn N. Karam is quoted in today's Houston Business Journal article on the Department of State's recent announcement that it will now extend the validity period for visitor visas issued to Chinese Nationals to ten years.

The U.S. Department of State has issued the December 2014 Visa Bulletin. Notable changes include:

The U.S. Department of State has announced that beginning November 12th, the United States and China will both increase the validity period of business and tourist visitor visas and student and exchange visitor visas. This will serve as a major benefit to Chinese nationals seeking to visit the United States temporarily may obtain 10-year multiple entry visas, whereas in previous years, visitor visas were issued to Chinese nationals for only one year.

The Department of State has released the November 2014 Visa Bulletin. Eb-3 China has moved ahead of EB-2 China, and EB-2 and EB-3 India remain severely backlogged.