Washington, July 18: The US state department Monday expanded its definition of “close family” to include grandparents and other relatives that constitute a bona fide US relationship for visa applicants and refugees from six predominantly Muslim countries.
In response to a Hawaii federal judge’s order last week, the department instructed US diplomats to consider grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces, and first cousins to meet the criteria for applicants from the six countries to receive a US visa. They had been omitted by the department after the US Supreme Court partially upheld the Donald Trump administration’s travel ban in June.
Initially, it had included only parents, spouses, fiancés, children, adult sons or daughters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law and siblings. Monday’s instructions change that.
“The ruling is effective immediately and we have issued instructions to our embassies and consulates to use the expanded definition when adjudicating visa cases,” the department said. Under the rules, applicants from the six countries—Syria, Sudan, Iran, Somalia, Libya and Yemen—have to prove a bona fide relationship with a person or entity, including a “close familial relationship” in the US to be exempt from the ban. US district judge Derrick Watson had ruled last Thursday that excluding grandparents and others defied common sense.
Additional H2B visas
The Trump administration has announced a one-time increase of 15,000 additional H-2B visas for low-wage foreign workers after determining that the needs of US businesses cannot be satisfied with Americans willing and qualified to do the work.
This is being done in the best interest of the businesses, Trump Administration has argued. US businesses in danger of suffering irreparable harm due to a lack of available temporary nonagricultural workers will be able to hire up to 15,000 additional temporary nonagricultural workers under the H-2B programme, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.