President Trump’s latest travel ban which was set to take effect on October 18th, was blocked yesterday by a federal judge in Hawaii.  The latest ban imposed travel restrictions on citizens of Chad, North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.  The federal judge’s order stops it, at least temporarily, with respect to all […]

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a new binding memo on October 23rd rescinding earlier policy that required officers to give deference to prior decisions, in processing nonimmigrant visa extension applications.  This new policy affects all employment extension petitions (I-129), including H-1B, L-1, O-1 and more. The new memo emphasized that the burden […]

According to data of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Indian IT giants became the biggest consumers of the non-immigrant work visa – L-1 visa – for the fiscal years 2015 and 2016.  L-1 visas are available to employees of an entity or corporation with offices in both the U.S. and overseas.  The […]

Immigration of Indian nationals to foreign countries via various investor-visa programmes was not very popular until a few years ago.  Lately, increasing number of Indians are considering the option of immigration to countries such as US, Canada and certain European countries by investing in businesses in these countries. The goal or motivation for obtaining a […]

Recently, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia made headlines with its act of granting honorary citizenship to Sophia, a humanoid robot. Though the move has been criticized for various social and ethical reasons, it certainly raises a question of importance in present times where artificial intelligence is being developed at an accelerating pace: can a robot […]

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) recently announced its ambitious 3-year plan to admit approximately one million immigrants to Canada by 2020. As stated by Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen, the aim of the plan is to offset the demographics of an aging population and declining birth rate. Under the plan, 310,000 new permanent residents will […]

The Supreme Court on November 03, 2017 refused interim stay on the linking of Aadhaar Card to bank accounts and telecom service providers stating that the Constitution Bench is to decide on the validity of the matter on the ground that it violates a citizen’s right to privacy. Further, the Supreme Court came down heavily […]

During his first address to the U.S. Congress in February 2017, President Donald Trump had emphasized on the need for a merit-based immigration system. The terrorist attack in New York City on October 31, 2017 has again given him a reason to require the expedient execution of a policy in this respect as the terrorist […]

Expatriates working in India were brought under the ambit of the country’s social security law – the Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (EPF Act) – in October 2008.  Foreign nationals employed with an establishment in India to which the EPF Act applies are required to make provident fund (PF) contributions.  These employees contribute 12% of […]

On November 8, 2017, the Central Government of India informed the Supreme Court of India that it proposes to grant “proxy voting” rights to Non-Residential Indians (NRIs) by amending the Representation of People’s Act, 1951, the law dealing with the conduct of elections in India. The Government intends to introduce a Bill regarding the same […]