The new US Embassy at 33 Nine Elms Lane in London opened for visa appointments earlier this month. Embassy staff helpfully shared a short video of a walk through for how a typical visa applicant will enter the Embassy to attend the appointment. After security at the South Pavilion, a separate structure on embassy grounds, visitors will walk to the main Embassy building, the most environmentally friendly and most secure US Embassy ever built. In the video, embassy staff remind visitors that while they can have a cell phone or small tablet, laptops and luggage are not permitted. Also, they say, don't forget your passport and confirmation page for the visa appointment as well as supporting documents. Inside the main building, after getting a ticket at the kiosk, visitors will take the elevator up to the waiting room where they will wait for their number to be called. When called, visitors will present their paperwork to consular officers at the (semi-private) teller windows. Oh yeah, one last thing: don't forget your passport!
A Walk Through for Visa Applicants at the New US Embassy in London
OPINION: How the Immigration Landscape Changed in 2017
When Donald Trump won the election, many immigrants and their advocates feared the worst. Now that President Trump has been in office for over a year, I wish I could write that everyone’s fears were overblown, but that simply isn’t true. The administration’s actions have met and in some cases exceeded the worst fears of many immigrants and immigration practitioners.
Read moreThe Washington Post: “Fans of Trump’s view on immigration should remember how figures like him targeted their ancestors”
President Trump’s recent comments calling Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations “shithole countries,” has been met with strong reactions. House Speaker Paul Ryan, reflecting upon the hardships that Irish immigrants like his ancestors had once faced, called the president’s choice of language “very unfortunate" and "unhelpful” and said “the Irish were really looked down upon back in those days.” Ryan’s reference to the Irish offers a teachable moment about US immigration history, explains Hidetaka Hirota, a professor of American history at the City University of New York-City College and author of Expelling the Poor: Atlantic Seaboard States and the Nineteenth-Century Origins of American Immigration Policy. It was the backlash in large part against poor Irish immigrants that led to the first US immigration policies and law, Hirota says.
Read moreAs American As Any Other
This Is Melbourne
During my most recent trip to Melbourne, a city I absolutely love, I was lucky enough to hire an experienced tour guide (the little guy is pictured above) to show me around. He took me on a whirlwind tour. Although I have been to Melbourne a number of times, there is always something new to learn: 1) Melbourne was originally going to be called "Batmania" after one of the city's founders, John Batman; 2) five of the six tallest buildings in Australia are in Melbourne’s Central Business District; and 3) thirty-eight per cent of the population in Melbourne were born outside of Australia (go immigrants!). My tour guide really knows his stuff!
My Immigration Story
It’s April 10, 1864 and Mexico is under Austrian rule. The elected president, Benito Juarez, the president of the people, has been cast aside and in his stead, Carlotta of Belgium and Maximilian of Austria have claimed the “crown” and built a castle in the Western Hemisphere’s largest park—Chapultepec Forest, in Mexico City. Maximilian became the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire, appointed by Napoleon the III of France. On the 5th of May (cinco de mayo) 1862 a battle was fought and won by the Mexican people against the French in what is known as “la guerra de los pasteles”—the War of Cakes.
Read moreNew York Times: “From Offices to Disney World, Employers Brace for the Loss of an Immigrant Work Force”
As hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Haiti, Nicaragua and El Salvador prepare to lose their legal status when Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for their countries end, some employers across the country are preparing for significant losses to their workforce. These TPS recipients, along with DACA recipients whose long-term status in the US remains unclear, make up approximately a million individuals in the US, many within the American work force.
Read moreUSCIS Announces They Will Resume DACA Renewals
Because of the nationwide injunction last week, US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that they will resume accepting requests to renew DACA status. The agency says that unless otherwise specified the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program will be operated until further notice on the same terms that were in place before it was rescinded on September 5, 2017.
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