Applications may be submitted at any time prior to travel to the United States. The Department of Homeland Security recommends that travel authorization applications be submitted at least 72 hours prior to travel.

The estimated average time to complete the ESTA application online is approximately 23 minutes.

The ESTA, visa waiver is typically approved for 2-year increments.

A new travel authorization may be required in any of the following circumstances:

• The traveler is issued a new passport
• The traveler changes his or her name
• The traveler changes his or her sex
• The traveler's country of citizenship changes; or

The circumstances underlying the traveler's previous responses to any of the ESTA application questions requiring a "yes" or "no" response have changed.

You will need to enter either your Passport Number, Date of Birth, and Application Number OR the Country of Citizenship, Passport Issuance Date and Passport Expiration Date. Group Application: To check your ESTA Group status, go to the ESTA homepage, select "Check ESTA Status", and then click "Check Group Status".

You will need to enter Group ID, Family Name, First (Given) Name, Email Address, and Date of Birth for Group Point of Contact. If you do not know the Group ID, select the link "I do not know my Group ID" to retrieve your Group ID. The three possible responses to an ESTA application are: Authorization Approved, Travel Not Authorized and Authorization Pending.

Past DUIs can impact your admission to the United States.  You don’t need to be convicted of a DUI for a past DUI to cause issues with your Immigration.  Officers will review what you stated on your application on ESTA and/or visas.  Officers will look to see how long ago the DUI was committed, was there more than one offense; was there damage to property, or to a person etc.

If applying for a visa at the consulate, the officer may request you see panel physician, depending on what is discussed you may be deemed to be inadmissible.   Always speak to us before you go for interviews.

CBP have broad authority, and they have the right to question you for as long as they wish, regardless of you missing flights, etc.   They are also permitted to check all your electronic devices.  They may question you for hours and have you sign a sworn statement, form I-877 at the end of their questioning.

CBP are protecting the U.S. borders.

If CBP deny your entry; or cancel/revoke your ESTA/visa; do not go to the consulate without first speaking to us.  We deal with many clients who only cause further issues by going to the consulate when denied admission by CBP.

You cannot enter the United States under a non-immigrant visa or ESTA if your intention is to apply for your green card/adjust your status. However, it seems your father did not form any intent to apply for his green card when he entered the United States and thus would be permitted to adjust status inside the States.

His intention to apply for the green card was only after being admitted under his tourist visa status. Intention is really important, and there are many things that officers look at. In a case like this, it would be advisable to speak to Caro to be sure you are permitted to file for a green card otherwise you could be denied under preconceived intent.

Certain words will trigger denials. You mentioned the word "work." You are not permitted to "work" under a business visa. You are permitted to conduct legitimate business activities, which is completely different from doing "work." Permitted business activities range from attending conferences and meetings to negotiating contracts.  The officer denied you because you erroneously stated you would be coming to the United States to "work" and working under a business visa (B-1) is not permitted.

CBP have broad authority, and they have the right to question you for as long as they wish, regardless of you missing flights, etc.   They are also permitted to check all your electronic devices.  They may question you for hours and have you sign a sworn statement, form I-877 at the end of their questioning.

CBP are protecting the U.S. borders.

If CBP deny your entry; or cancel/revoke your ESTA/visa; do not go to the consulate without first speaking to us.  We deal with many clients who only cause further issues by going to the consulate when denied admission by CBP.

CBP has jurisdiction over a cancelled/revoked ESTA, not the US Consulate. Therefore, the US Consulate/Embassy cannot reinstate a denied ESTA.

Applications may be submitted at any time prior to travel to the United States. The Department of Homeland Security recommends that travel authorization applications be submitted at least 72 hours prior to travel.

The estimated average time to complete the ESTA application online is approximately 23 minutes.

The ESTA, visa waiver is typically approved for 2-year increments.

A new travel authorization may be required in any of the following circumstances:

• The traveler is issued a new passport
• The traveler changes his or her name
• The traveler changes his or her sex
• The traveler's country of citizenship changes; or
• The circumstances underlying the traveler's previous responses to any of the ESTA application questions requiring a "yes" or "no" response have changed.

You will need to enter either your Passport Number, Date of Birth, and Application Number OR the Country of Citizenship, Passport Issuance Date and Passport Expiration Date. Group Application: To check your ESTA Group status, go to the ESTA homepage, select "Check ESTA Status", and then click "Check Group Status".

You will need to enter Group ID, Family Name, First (Given) Name, Email Address, and Date of Birth for Group Point of Contact. If you do not know the Group ID, select the link "I do not know my Group ID" to retrieve your Group ID. The three possible responses to an ESTA application are: Authorization Approved, Travel Not Authorized and Authorization Pending.

If the principal applicant (you) is in valid H-1B status, and it seems you are because you stated that your I-94 was extended, your dependent spouse and children can apply for their H-4 visa stamps at the consulate. There normally is no need for you as the main applicant to obtain your new H-1B visa unless you would also be traveling outside of the United States.

When traveling to the United States, officers will look at the hand luggage when determining whether to admit you to the United States. For example, if you tell an officer you are going to visit a friend for a week, and your luggage looks like you are going to spend months, then will look suspicious to the officer.

Hand luggage is also important because CBP officers have authority to check your hand luggage. For example, if they find large sums of cash (over $10,000).  Civil documents, such as birth certificates and marriage certificates, when you are telling them you are entering for tourist purposes, your story is incongruent with the evidence they are looking at.  If an officer is in doubt they will deny your entry.

Be advised, CBP looks very carefully at hand luggage and checked luggage to confirm that you are, in fact, telling the truth about why you want to enter the United States.

CBP as the authority to check all your electronic devices if they request to review them.  They have sophisticated algorithm that will pull up things that may cause you to be denied entry.

For example, jokes made to a friend on your phone may cause a denial.  If you are discussing work and you are entering for example under a tourist visa this is may cause a denial.

Yes. There are several avenues that permit you to self-petition for your green card while you are outside of the United States. You do not need a U.S. employer to petition you. You do not need U.S. employment, and we would advise you to speak to our office, and we can go through this with you. We have actually had many successful cases for self-petitioning green cards if you qualify.

Some officers look at the support documents, and some officers do not look at documents it is subjective on the adjudicating officer.

When you go for your consulate interview specifically for a non-immigrant visa, part of Caro’s prepping our clients that go for a consulate interview is to show them how to deal with an officer that is not looking at your documents so that the officer, even though they may not be looking at your documents, understands that the document is there, and that's a huge part of getting your visa approved.  When an officer knows you have the support documents to corroborate what you are saying it does sway them to believe you and get the approval.

If you are applying at a US consulate/embassy for a tourist visa, then we don’t advise you file an I-134.  Bank statements showing a balance to cover your anticipated time in the States will be sufficient.  Simply depositing a lump sum of money may trigger the officer asking you questions about these funds.  Proof of employment you will return to, and pay-slips are also a good way to support finances.

If you are applying for an extension and/or change of status with USCIS to B classification, then we do advise filing an I-134 with your petition.

Depending on how you file an O-1 visa petition with USCIS, you may be permitted to work for more than one US employer. It is important to understand if US employer is acting as the petitioner, then you are limited to working only for that employer under the O-1 visa, regardless of your extraordinary ability.

If you file your O-1 application (and/or P-1) and an agent is acting as the petitioner, then depending on your events listed under your itinerary you may be able to work for more than one employer.   We advise many clients to understand the difference as the agent acting as the petitioner affords much greater flexibility to both O-1 and P-1 applicants in that they will be permitted to essentially work for multiple employers inside the United States.

Past DUIs can impact your admission to the United States.  You don’t need to be convicted of a DUI for a past DUI to cause issues with your Immigration.  Officers will review what you stated on your application on ESTA and/or visas.  Officers will look to see how long ago the DUI was committed, was there more than one offense; was there damage to property, or to a person etc.

If applying for a visa at the consulate, the officer may request you see panel physician, depending on what is discussed you may be deemed to be inadmissible.   Always speak to us before you go for interviews.

Generally speaking, if a person travels outside the US, while a change of status petition is pending, the change of status request is considered abandoned. This means as soon as you depart the United States your employment visa will be considered to be abandoned. However, the petition itself can still be approved, but it will only be approved at the consulate/embassy.  You will have to remain outside the United States and wait for the change of status approval by USCIS and for it to be forwarded to the consulate where you will attend an interview for the employment visa.

There are three different US governmental entities involved in this process for a green card when petitioned by your USC spouse.

Part 1 is with USCIS.

Part 2 is with NVC

Part 3 is with the US consulate where you are physically present

On average our office sees these cases take from 20+ months before the consulate approves your green card.

We have assisted many clients in our office to obtain US citizenship transferred through their grandparents both deceased and alive. There are certain requirements that must be in place. Your grandparents must have been US citizens and must have been physically present in the United States for at least five years (2 of which after they turned 14 years), before you were born.

You can also use your US parent who may not have lived in the States most of their lives also help you acquire US citizenship, and this can be done by either filing directly at a US consulate or with USCIS.

Call our office to see can you acquire US citizenship; you would be surprised the number of people we have helped over the years and did not know they even were eligible.

If you were lawfully admitted or paroled into the United States, you can look up your most recent Form I-94, and you can do this all the way back to 1983 for most classes of admission or parole. The I-94 you can print out is considered your lawful record of admission.

You can make this request online at the CBP.DHS.gov website.  Read an article on our website with further instructions.

If you have an electronic I-94 that you received on arrival, your departure will be recorded if you depart via land or ferry and re-enter the United States prior to the expiration of your I-94. If you are not a resident of Canada or Mexico and you receive an electronic I-94 and depart via land or ferry, but do not re-enter the United States prior to the expiration date stamped in your passport, you should travel with evidence of your departure to Canada or Mexico.

We advise our clients that good and probative  evidence of departure includes things such as entry stamps in your passport, transportation tickets, any pay stubs, receipts, or credit card transactions.

You do not need to go back to the consulate and be re-interviewed for your visa if it is still current and issued in your old passport.

When traveling, you will take both passports with you: the old passport with the visa issued in it by the consulate and your new passport that will not have the visa issued.

This saves you from having to go back to the consulate for an interview to obtain a new visa. There is no requirement to do that; you simply bring your old passport every time you are traveling.

If you don't wish to bring both passports, then you have to go back to the consulate and be re-interviewed for the visa so it can be issued in your new passport.

USCIS will issue an RFE on a filed petition if they need further evidence that you qualify and/or they want further clarification on something.  You must answer the RFE on or before the time USCIS permits or your application will be denied.  They do accept late RFE responses but only for extenuating circumstances.

If you file your case via regular processing, it can take many months for US immigration to adjudicate your application. When you file under premium processing, USCIS typically takes 15 business days (it can take longer). If you have filed via regular processing and you now receive an RFE, you can upgrade your RFE response by requesting premium processing along with  the RFE response.

You can request an upgrade to premium processing after your petition has been filed with USCIS and or after you have received an RFE.

USCIS recognizes that not everybody can pay the filing fees, so they have created a fee waiver process for certain forms and benefit types.

They will only approve a fee waiver request if you can clearly demonstrate that you are not able to pay the filing fees. If you are going to request a fee waiver, you cannot submit any petition online. You will need to file the paper version of the fee waiver request and the form for which you are requesting a fee waiver.

You can request a fee waiver if the form you are filing is eligible for a fee waiver and you meet the applicable conditions.

You must be able to provide documentation to show that you qualify based on one of the following:

• you, your spouse, your child, your parent (if you are under the age of 21 or disabled), or your sibling (if you and the sibling are under 21) living with you; you are currently receiving a means-tested benefit.
• your household income is at or below 150% of the federal poverty guidelines at the time you file; or
• you are currently experiencing extreme financial hardship, including hardship from unexpected medical bills or emergencies that prevent you from paying the filing fee.

Use the current edition of Form I-912, Request for Fee Waiver. Or you may write a letter asking for a fee waiver. Make sure to provide all the information and supporting documentation that clearly establishes your eligibility under one of the criteria listed above.

USCIS lists examples of extreme financial hardship as:

Unemployment; eviction; homelessness; military deployment of a spouse or parent; a natural disaster such as a hurricane or tornado; significant loss of work hours and wages; a medical emergency or illness affecting the non-citizen or non-citizen dependents; destruction of your home in a fire, water damage, or collapse; inability to pay basic utilities and rent or mortgage; victimization; divorce or death of a spouse affecting overall income; substantial financial losses to a small business affecting your personal income; and other situations that could not normally be expected in the regular course of life.

How do you show that you are experiencing extreme hardship:

USCIS wants to see a detailed description of why you have suffered extreme financial hardship and provides examples of evidence, including income, assets owned, and expenses. This can be shown in bank statements, pay stubs, utility bills, rental agreements, and medical bills.