Immigration lawyers talk about a new problem facing Texas H-1B visa holders.
Immigration lawyers said they are receiving a lot of complaints from Texans about the Texas government rejecting H-1B visa holders when they go to renew their driver’s license as officials said their visa stamp has expired.
Attorney Emily Newman said there is no rule in Texas that would justify such a move, and if the situation continues, there will be a lawsuit. Because the visa stamp is a travel document and not a status document. They have a valid visa, passport, and driver’s license, and yet they are rejected.“A lawfully present worker walks into a Texas DPS office to renew a driver’s license and walks out denied. The reason given is that U.S.
“The visa stamp in their passports has expired,” Newman said as he explained the latest release.
“Here’s the problem with this reason,” she explained. “A visa stamp is not a status document. It is a travel document, used once to apply for admission at a port of entry. After someone is admitted, it is the I-94, not the visa paper, that controls how long it stays. A person whose stamp expired years ago could be perfectly valid today, on an approved extension or change of status, and that expired stamp says nothing about their identity or their right to be here.”
Texas rules stipulate that a valid or expired visa stamp is accepted for driver’s license renewal, Newman said.“It accepts a foreign passport with a valid or expired visa issued by the U.S. State Department, along with a valid Form I-94, as a basic identification document. The department’s DL-17 form says the same thing. The visa may be expired,” Newman said. The rule stipulates this in plain text.”“I have asked DPS to confirm its rule in writing and direct its offices to enforce Section 15.24 as written, so that lawfully existing professionals are not denied a license because of a document that has nothing to do with who they are or whether they belong here. These are people who work, support their families, and contribute to Texas every day, and they should not have to fight for a basic qualification that the state rule already says they are eligible to obtain,” Newman added.
