Effective immediately, USCIS will begin accepting copies of negative consultation letters directly from labor unions relating to a current or future P nonimmigrant visa petition. A consultation letter from a U.S. labor organization is generally required for petitions in the P visa classification, which covers athletes, artists, entertainers and their essential support personnel.
Typically, a petitioner submits the necessary P visa consultation with the petition, and that process requirement remains unchanged. Aer reported concerns from labor unions that some consultation letters, also known as advisory opinions, may have been falsified by petitioners and submitted to USCIS as no-objections or favorable consultations, when in fact they were negative, USCIS announced that it would begin accepting copies of negative consultation letters for O visa petitions. USCIS is now expanding this to P visa petitions, and labor unions are now able to send copies of negative O visa petition or P visa petition consultation letters directly to USCIS so that they can be compared to the consultation letter submitted by the O or P petitioner.
Source: AILA Doc. No. 19020806.
