US agency allows non-immigrants to remain beyond authorised period of stay

A US-based immigration agency has allowed non-immigrants to "unexpectedly remain" beyond their authorised period of stay due to COVID-19 outbreak.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which administers the country's naturalisation and immigration system, said that amid such conditions, most non-immigrants can timely file an application for the extension of their stay or change in status.

The agency stated that application forms and petitions are available on its online website.

"Where applicable, employment authorisation with the same employer, subject to the same terms and conditions of the prior approval, is automatically extended for up to 240 days after I-94 expiration when an extension of stay request is filed on time," the agency said.

The USCIS has granted the flexibility to non-immigrant workers for filing late applications as the spread of the virus continues to keep daily lives at a standstill.

The agency has also issued new guidelines for entrants under the ambit of flexibility for Visa Waiver Program (VWP) and temporarily provided an additional 30-day period of satisfactory departure to those unable to leave the US because of OVID-19 related issues.

The total tally of deaths in the US was 1,557 on Sunday, according to Johns Hopkins University data. That was down from 1,877 on Saturday and more than 2,000 on Friday.

The virus has infected nearly six lakh people across the country so far and killed at least 23,604 others as of Monday.

Meanwhile, there were more than 119,000 deaths and nearly two million coronavirus cases worldwide as of Monday afternoon.

( With inputs from ANI )