Streamlining of Readmission for H and L Non-immigrants by the USCIS

H and L non-immigrant applications for permanent residency or adjustment of status have been streamlined by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services as of the last quarter of 2007. From this new policy, H and L non-immigrants have no need to present their Form I-797 or Notice of Action whenever they are returning to the US after coming from abroad. As per the current policy, H and L non-immigrants are required to get an Advance Parole or Application for Travel Document when they are leaving the United States. This streamlining removes the excess burden of presenting the Form I-797 when they come back to the US, since the receipt for requesting permission to travel abroad is already in the USCIS database when they left.

As explained by the USCIS, H non-immigrants that are included in this new streamlining are from H1B and H1C classifications of visa. H1B classes are also termed as special workers, while H1C classes include registered nurses. On the other hand, for the L non-immigrants, those that do not need to present their Notice of Action are under the L1A classification and L1B classification. Workers under the L1A class are those who transferees from companies with offices abroad, such as executives or managers. Specialized knowledge workers are those who are included under L1B classification.

However, for those H1 and L1 non-immigrants who have pending adjustment of status to permanent residency, all other requirements and regulations by the USCIS should still be followed. These non-immigrants, upon entry to the United States, should present evidence to the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspector. They should be able to show proof that they are currently eligible for either H1 or L1 status, they are returning as employees of the same company that they are known to be employed in prior to leaving, and that they have a valid H1 or L1 visa. At this point, they do not need to show the Form I-797, or the Notice of Action, as it was the previous norm.

H4 or L2 dependents, such as children and spouses of H4 or L2 visa holders, must have their spouse or parents complete the requirements as mentioned earlier, and they should also show evidence that they are still eligible to be admitted into the United States under the L2 or H4 classification. The abovementioned policies and procedures by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services were published in a November 1, 2007 issue of the Federal Register, Volume 72, number 211.