On July 5th, 2019, USCIS will permanently close its field office in Manila, Philippines, as part of the Trump Administration’s efforts to reduce legal immigration. After this date, there will be no USCIS international field office located in the Philippines. The office began redirecting Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, to the USCIS Lockbox on […]

When a visitor enters the US as a nonimmigrant, and does not exit the US before the terms of the visa allow, this is referred to as an “overstay”. Overall, the rate of overstays is low. In fact, in 2018, only 0.41% of visitors on ESTA overstayed, and only 2% of B1/B2 visitor visa holders […]

On April 19, 2019, the USCIS issued a policy guidance update in the USCIS Policy Manual. The update clarifies that violations of federal controlled substance law, including violations involving marijuana, are generally a bar to establishing good moral character for naturalization, even where that conduct would not be an offense under state law. So, as […]

The USCIS updated the versions of forms I-129F, I-130 and I-130A. However, up until now, they’ve still accepted the old versions. As of April 29, 2019, they will only accept the new November 7, 2018 versions of I-129F form. On the other hand, the USCIS would only accept the new versions of forms I-130 and […]

The poverty guidelines for the affidavit of support have been updated by the USCIS. As of March 1, the minimum income requirements have increased. You will want to make extra sure that you meet the new requirements, which you can do so on our updated visa income requirement calculator. We have updated not only the […]

The USCIS announced on February 15th that it’s publishing guidance for it’s officers to consider when adjudicating spousal petitions involving minors. The guidance published is an update to the Adjudicator’s Field Manual. It clarifies age requirements for a petitioner filing an affidavit of support for a spouse in conjunction with concurrently filing the I-485 and […]

Please subscribe to our Youtube channel, and also check us out on Facebook. [Ben]: Hi, I’m Ben, founder and CEO of RapidVisa. Welcome to our channel! [Camila (English)] RapidVisa is America’s largest full-service online family immigration service provider. [Camila (Portuguese)]RapidVisa é a maior empresa americana de imigração familiar que oferece serviço online completo. [Pedro (English)] […]

The USCIS issued a memo on December 22 stating that fee-funded activities will not be affected. None of the visa types RapidVisa handles will be impeded from filing and continuing with processing based on this memo. Programs directly affected at the USCIS level are EB-5 investor visas, Conrad 30 Waiver Program for J-1 medical doctors, […]

There are a couple very good, very helpful communities of self-help folks that are full of people just like you, going through this process and sharing their experiences. Sites like VisaCommunity.com or VisaJourney. To touch on VisaJourney – we have worked with their owners for years and are even an endorsed service on their site. […]

We wanted to alert all of our customers to be prepared to receive potential RFEs, or requests for evidence, even when everything in your petition is perfect. We have had numerous reports of customers receiving RFEs for items that were confirmed to have been included in their petitions, but the USCIS is requesting them anyways. […]