Pandemic-based US visa and entry bans, originally imposed by former American President Donald Trump, have actually become tougher in some respects under Biden. In the Schengen Area, UK and Ireland it has become more difficult to receive National Interest Exceptions (NIEs) and thereby avoid the long COVID-19 backlog of visa applications. NIEs for travelers from these countries had previously been granted more easily under the Trump administration at US embassies and consulates. In many cases to gain entry to the US quickly you now need to come under `critical infrastructure needs`, which is restricted to a limited number of industries.

However, changes in US Department of State (DoS) guidance has made it more difficult for business travelers, including senior executives and managers, to enter the US. Under previous guidance, E1 and E2 visa holders, H1B visa holders and L1 visa holders would be seen to offer substantial economic benefits to the US and visa applications would often be approved.
However, the US Embassy in Rome, Italy recently explained that managers or senior executives traveling to observe operations or hold meetings with clients will no longer qualify for a National Interest Exception.

Some countries not included
While applicants from the Schengen region, the UK and Ireland have been blocked from NIEs, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken did not include Brazil or South Africa in the change of policy, despite these two nations having particularly contagious variants of COVID-19.
The abruptly updated policy also doesn’t include China or Iran �` countries that the US considers to be adversaries. The DoS announcement also fails to explain why students traveling from the Schengen region, the UK or Ireland with a valid F1 or M1 student visa do not need to contact an embassy or consulate to seek an individual NIE to travel.
According to new guidance, students granted an F1 or M1 visa will ‘automatically be considered for an NIE to travel to the US’.
Meanwhile, there has been no change to the COVID-19 Labor Market and the different and more-easily-attainable NIE standards for H1B, L1 and J1 visa categories.
By rescinding the substantial economic benefit from the NIE criteria, which applied to travelers from the Schengen area, the UK and Ireland, Blinken now requires US consular officers to be satisfied that a visa applicant will provide ‘vital support to critical infrastructure sectors’ as defined by

the Department of Homeland Security.
The DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) says: “There are 16 critical infrastructure sectors whose assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the US that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof.”
“They include chemical, commercial facilities, communications, critical manufacturing, dams, defense industrial base, emergency services, energy, financial services, food and agriculture, government facilities, healthcare and public health, information technology, nuclear reactors, transportation, and water/wastewater systems,” the CISA added.

NIE rules make no sense
Rescinding NIE for citizens of the Schengen area, the UK and Ireland has been described as ‘making no sense’ on many levels, whether it’s on the grounds of public health, foreign policy, economic policy, rule of law or interdepartmental accountability.
To rescind on the basis of public health is baffling considering that student visa holders can enter unobstructed, while people from Brazil and South Africa �` where a contagious variant of the coronavirus is known to exist �` can also travel to the US.
From a foreign policy point of view, most countries in the Schengen area, the UK and Ireland are considered allies of the US, whereas nations like China and Iran would be considered enemies, yet their citizens are exempt from the new NIE rules.
From an economic standpoint, questions have been raised on why ‘harm to US industries that utilize talent from around the world’ has been used as a basis to remove NIE for some countries, but not others.
Questions have also been raised over why the US State Department is adjudicating and denying applications when its consular officers only have the authority to determine ‘visa ineligibilities’ and not inadmissibility to enter the US.
The use of funds by the DoS has also been questioned, with reports of appropriated funds being used unlawfully.
The DoS is set to review the existing rules before May 3, 2021, at which point some of these questions may be answered.
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There are fears that more people will be separated by the introduction of a minimum salary level for those wanting UK family visas. Families living in the UK and abroad have raised concerns about what new rules will mean for them as they try to reunite with foreign spouses. In December, the Home Office, which says migration to the UK is too high, announced a package of measures to reduce net migration, following a spike in arrival numbers. V.5318
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EREMY MAGGS: I want to stay with crime now. Individuals with a criminal record may be faced with significant challenges when seeking employment, I think that’s a given. Here in South Africa, employers may legally exclude an applicant from consideration for a position if having a clean criminal record is what is termed an inherent requirement of the job. That phrase, inherent requirement, is important, but what exactly does that mean, and when can an applicant be lawfully excluded for having a criminal record? V.5321
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As a South African who has adopted a nomadic work lifestyle alongside my wife, Ingrid Lotze, I’ve been an interested observer of South Africa’s snail-pace digital nomad visa (DNV) development process. Despite the optimism surrounding its introduction, the visa seems to miss several crucial marks for digital nomads like us. V.5322
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DA MP says hours lost continue to result in persons being unable to collect their ID documents due to unmanageable queues The DA has been inundated with complaints that the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) systems are offline, resulting in long queues and delayed processing of documents. Through questions posed to the Minister, the DA can now reveal that the DHA has lost over 77 years’ worth of working hours due to system downtime and load-shedding from 2019 to date. Concerningly, this data only relates to hours lost for the application of smart IDs, meaning decades more of working hours could have been additionally lost in other spheres such as passport or visa applications. V.5314
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Home Affairs’ seemingly endless court battles set the department back more than R110-million between April 2023 and the end of February this year. This was revealed in a written parliamentary response by minister Aaron Motsoaledi. He said the department accumulated a litigation bill of R117 692 996.3, higher than the R72 637 944.51 spent the year before. V.5315
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Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) this week revealed that Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) has achieved a ground-breaking milestone by processing more than 10 million passengers over a single financial year. This is the highest number of regional and international passengers processed since COVID-19 V.5316
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In recent years, South Africa has seen a significant influx of immigrants from various African countries, as well as other parts of the world. This has raised important questions about the country`s immigration policies and their impact on job creation for both locals and immigrants. The South African immigration system, like many other countries, is a complex and ever-evolving process that aims to balance the country`s economic needs with its social and cultural interests. Let`s take a closer look at how this system intersects with job creation in South Africa. The South African government implemented the Immigration Act of 2002, which outlines the country`s immigration policies and procedures. Under this act, foreigners are required to obtain a visa or permit to enter, work, or study in South Africa. The type of visa or permit required depends on the intended purpose of the individual`s visit and their country of origin. V.5312
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Due to system downtime and load-shedding, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) lost nearly 141,000 hours of Smart ID application and production time between the 2019/20 and 2022/23 financial years. Minister Aaron Motsoaledi revealed this figure in a recent response to questions raised in Parliament by Democratic Alliance MP Adrian Roos. Motsoaledi provided a breakdown of smart ID production and application hours lost to technical difficulties and load-shedding per province for each financial year from 2019/2020. These disruptions hit home Affairs offices in the Eastern Cape the hardest, with over 34,000 hours to rotational power cuts and system downtime. Mpumalanga offices lost the next-highest number of hours at 17 V.5313
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Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has said the public has shown great support for the final White Paper on citizenship, immigration and refugee protection which appeared in the Government Gazette on Wednesday. Briefing the media, he addressed what he saw as a long-overdue need to replace an outdated Citizenship Act, as well as enact proposed changes to existing legislation. V.5306
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