United States To Allow Tourist and Business Visa Holders to Apply For Jobs

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that individuals traveling on B-1 or B-2 visas can now apply for new jobs and attend job interviews, but they must change their visa status before starting the new role.

USCIS verified in a series of tweets that attending interviews and looking for work is legal activities.

The agency also made a point of the fact that nonimmigrant workers who are laid off might not be aware of their alternatives and might believe that their sole choice is to leave the country within 60 days. If their employment is terminated, nonimmigrant workers frequently have several options to remain in the country, including applying for a change of status, an adjustment of status, an employment authorization document, or becoming the object of a nonfrivolous petition to change employers.

According to USCIS, “If one of these actions occurs within the up to 60-day grace period, the nonimmigrant’s period of authorized stay in the United States can exceed 60 days, even if they lose their previous nonimmigrant status. If the worker takes no action within the grace period, they and their dependents may then need to depart the United States within 60 days, or when their authorized validity period ends, whichever is shorter.”

The USCIS further stated that a petition and request for a change of status from B-1 or B-2 to an employment-authorized status must be approved and the new status must take effect before beginning any new work.

"Alternatively, if the change of status request is denied or the petition for new employment requested consular or port of entry notification, the individual must depart the U.S and be admitted in an employment-authorized classification before station the new employment."

The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 contains "fall up/fall down" provisions that permit the transfer of visas that are "not required" to other employment-based categories, but there is no equivalent provision for visas that are not required in EB-3. The number of EB-1 visas that may be made available is restricted by special criteria for the carryover of unused EB-5 visas from one fiscal year to the next.