Insurance & Financial Services

The Department of State (DOS) has revised certain nonimmigrant and immigrant visa fees. DOS has adjusted the visa fees in the following categories:

As we reported on Monday, due to a massive software failure of the Department of State’s Consular Consolidated Database (CCD), there continue to be delays in the issuance of visas at consular posts around the globe.

Multiple reports have confirmed that the U.S. Department of State’s global database for issuing travel documents recently crashed. While the system has been restored, it is operating at reduced capacity and significant backlogs have developed.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS) Directorate has recently begun implementation of an L-1 site inspection program in response to an August 2013 report released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) titled “Implementation of L-1 Visa Regulations.”

After several years and 18,000 comments, yesterday regulators braved a “snow covered” Washington and voted to approve a final rule to prohibit banks from engaging in proprietary trading, known as the Volcker rule.