 Hi guys, my name is Shachi and welcome back to my channel, hope all of you are doing well. So it's been a while since I uploaded any video related to the US visa process so I thought today I'll come here and share all the updates with you. Since March you might be aware that lot of things have happened, lot of changes happened, lot of things got implemented, lot of things got reversed back and I did upload few videos on this channel talking about all these changes but more importantly I have been putting up almost daily news updates on the community tab of this channel. So if you want to keep yourself up to date with what exactly is happening then do subscribe and hit the bell icon so that you get all of these notifications. Now for today's video I am basically going to summarize and bring you up to speed with all the changes that have happened. So if you haven't really been following the news or you're just confused about what is valid, what is not valid, what is true, what is false then this video is for you. And the way I've structured this video is that you're going to start in chronological order. We'll start from March all the way till August and I will basically explain the changes which happened and also tell you the current status of the same whether it's valid or not. So let's get started. So let's start from the beginning from the month of March. So in the month of March is when the corona virus situation became really serious and it became pretty clear that this is going to be a pandemic and a lot of measures were put in place to contain this virus. The flights were stopped, borders were sealed and the U.S. Embassy shut its doors. So on 16th of March 2020 the U.S. Embassy in India announced that they are going to cancel all interviews that were scheduled to happen and also suspend all operations. So when they say suspend all operations what it means is that not only are the interviews being cancelled but also everything which happens in the back end. Things like dispatching of passports, background checks, administrative processing, all of this was just put on hold. And it is important to understand that this was done not just in India but throughout the world. So basically U.S. embassies in each and every country in the world followed the same protocol, suspended all interviews, put all its operations on hold and essentially shut its doors. So coming to the current situation, so currently we are in August and the U.S. embassies in India are still not open for B1, B2 visas and for other immigrant visas. Worldwide the approach that is being followed by them is of a lot of caution and this is what they call post by post basis which basically means that the opening date of the embassies will be different in each country and it will depend upon the coronavirus situation of that country. So if you take a look at embassies around the world it is currently open in very very few countries. So U.S. Embassy is currently open in UK and it is open in some European Union countries and there also they are not giving all the services, the services being offered are quite limited. So I think currently only the B1 that is the business visa and the investor visas are what you know are being interviewed and being scheduled. In India like I said the embassies are not open for B1, B2 interviews but they are allowing you to book your appointment and schedule interview for future dates. So I think right now you are allowed to book your interview starting from October. So this also gives us some idea and you know some indication about the timelines that we can expect. So next coming to the month of June. Now in the month of June is when major changes happened in the U.S. immigration laws and this brought a lot of panic and a lot of anxiety to people. So I actually have an entire video on this so if you are interested in knowing about this in detail then do check out this video. So essentially what happened was that on June 22, 2020 Trump administration issued a new proclamation which banned three visa categories that's H1B, L1 and J1. So by ban of these visa categories it meant that no new visas would be issued to people in these three categories and also all the visas which were due for renewals for stampings or which were currently under processing would also not be done. And a timeline was kept for this ban and it said that the ban was valid till end of this year that is till December 31, 2020. Now understandably this brought in a lot of anxiety to everybody especially to Indians who constitute a huge chunk of the H1B and the L1 visas that are issued every year. There were people who were in the middle of getting their work visas and you know their processes were suspended, they were dependents, there were families who were back home who had come back for stamping and for renewal and they were suddenly being told that you will have to now wait till the end of this year to get your visas done and go back. So to the current update so thankfully there is some positive development which has happened with respect to this proclamation just about a week back Trump administration announced the first set of relaxations under this proclamation. So this first set of relaxation basically states that people who have H1B and L1 visas and who are going to return to the same employer to the same job and to the same work pay. So basically you are going back to the same work conditions. Then you are exempted from this ban and basically you can apply for your visa, get it renewed and go back. Of course once the embassy is open and also it said that the dependents who were you know stuck back home could also get their visas done be reunited with their spouse in the US. So let's say that you are a H1B visa holder and you are in the US and your spouse is back home for stamping. The proclamation would have banned this spouse from entering the US till the end of this year but under this new relaxation the dependent is now allowed to get the visa processing done and go back to the US. So next coming to July. Now in the month of July it was the turn of the student visas. So after your H1 and L1 visas it was now the turn of the F1 and M1 visas which is essentially the student visa. So on 7th of July 2020 the Department of Homeland Security issued new visa regulations for the fall semester. The fall semester is the semester which begins from September. So these regulations were valid from September 2020 and it basically said that if your course or your module has got converted into an online course which means that you do not need to attend any classes physically then your visa is no longer valid and you will have to leave the US immediately. Now this was a major blow to the student community again of which Indian students comprise a huge chunk in the US because obviously because of the coronavirus situation a lot of universities and a lot of courses had got converted into completely online modules and this meant that huge chunk of these students would be affected by this ban. Coming to the current status now thankfully there are a lot of positive changes which have happened with respect to the student visas. So once this new ban was introduced it wasn't well received at all neither by the universities nor by the corporations and there was a lot of talk about how this just does not make sense in a pandemic situation. So what went on to happen was that universities like Harvard and MNCs like Facebook and Microsoft actually filed lawsuits against the US government and against the Trump administration. They in fact went on to win these lawsuits which meant that the ban was withdrawn. So just about 10 to 15 days after this ban came into place this ban was officially withdrawn and this was no longer valid which meant that whether your course was online whether it was offline or whether it was a mix of two you would not be impacted and your visas would continue to be valid. In fact another great thing which happened was that in the month of August in fact from 17th August of 2020 the US embassies in India started taking student interviews. So right now the embassies in India in all the five metros are open for student visa interviews. Now this is for students who have applied for the fall semester and who have got admission for the fall semester. They can in fact now schedule their interviews, get their visa and go to the US. And now coming to the month of August. So I think for the month of August the biggest positive development which has happened is resuming of international flights. So India set up air bubble arrangements with few countries and air bubble basically is a international travel arrangement which allows travel between the two countries direct travel without any transit without any layovers. And this air bubble arrangement has been set up with US, with UK, with some countries in the European Union, UAE and Canada. And this has opened the doors for international travel. Of course there are a lot of mandatory requirements like 14 days isolation, quarantine, declaration forms, negative coronavirus tests and all that but still international travel has finally resumed. What is important to keep in mind is that not all visa categories are being allowed right now. As of August 2020 it is only the work visas, the business visas and the student visas who are allowed to travel outside the country. But here's to hoping that in the coming months and as the situation improves more and more visa classes will get added and more and more people will be able to travel internationally. So these are all the changes that have happened from March up till now. I hope this has brought in clarity and brought you up to speed with everything and to sum it up and to basically put things in a nutshell especially for India. Here it is. The US embassies in India have opened but not completely. Only certain visa appointments are being undertaken right now and these are essentially the F1 or the student visas and certain emergency appointments. However, they are allowing you to schedule and book your appointments starting from October for other visa categories such as B1, B2. So if you're interested and you're keen on traveling, you can go ahead and book your appointment. But I would like to add something here and bring in a word of caution. I recently got to know that a lot of B1 and B2 appointments which were booked for the month of October have been cancelled by the US embassies in certain places like Delhi and Mumbai. Now, what was the reason for canceling this? We still don't know. We are still waiting for full clarity on it. But this is also happening. So when you book your appointments and you're planning out your travel, do keep this in mind. In the end, I would say that have a wait and watch policy. Things are changing every day. It's really, really dynamic right now. So it is just better to have an open mind and to keep all your plans flexible. Like always, I'm going to be tracking all these changes and bringing all the updates to you right here on this channel. So do subscribe and do hit the bell icon so that you don't miss out on anything. And in the meanwhile, if you want to start preparing for the US visa process and keep yourself completely ready, then do check out my playlist. This has a lot of videos which are going to help you. And also check out my website, shachimul.com. So on this website, you'll find free resources to prepare yourself and also find really useful things like the DS160 toolkit and the interview toolkit which will help you prepare for the US visa process from the comfort and safety of your home. Thank you so much for watching. Signing off for now. I'll see you in the next one. Bye.