The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) February 2025 policy memorandum and July 2025 policy manual update highlight the agency’s intensified immigration enforcement efforts.
Generally, USCIS will no longer...more
8/12/2025
/ Adjustment of Status ,
Beneficiaries ,
Family-Based Visas ,
Fraud ,
H-1B ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Immigration Enforcement ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Notice to Appear ,
Removal Proceedings ,
Temporary Protected Status ,
USCIS
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has published a final rule (89 FR 10354) that significantly changes the H-1B Cap Gap period. This rule automatically extends the duration of status and any employment authorization...more
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced its intention to expand the use of criminal statutes to address illegal immigration. This move underscores the administration’s commitment to enforcement initiatives that hold...more
On Dec. 18, 2024, USCIS released the Modernizing H-1B Requirements, Providing Flexibility in the F-1 Program, and Program Improvements Affecting Other Nonimmigrant Workers Final Rule. First proposed in October 2023, the Biden...more
The 540-day automatic extensions of expiring employment authorization documents (EADs) will be permanent policy, according to a DHS final rule scheduled to be published on Dec. 13, 2024. The new rule will become effective on...more
12/12/2024
/ Asylum ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) ,
Extensions ,
Form I-9 ,
H-1B ,
Immigration ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Refugees ,
Spouses ,
STEM ,
Temporary Protected Status ,
USCIS
Just as people were starting to lose hope, USCIS announced that it will soon hold a second round of selections for the FY 2025 H-1B cap. USCIS will randomly select additional registrations for unique beneficiaries from the...more
It is not unusual for employers to require foreign employees to sign repayment agreements that require the employee to repay some or all required immigration process costs if the employee terminates employment before the end...more
Many USCIS filing fees are being adjusted upward beginning on April 1, 2024. That date, of course, is particularly significant. It is the earliest date that Cap H-1Bs can be filed.
The H-1B filing fee, for example, will rise...more
USCIS has published a proposed rule that, once implemented, would significantly reform and modernize the H-1B Program. The Modernizing H-1B Requirements, Providing Flexibility in the F-1 Program, and Program Improvements...more
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will soon be issuing a new proposed rule: Modernizing H-1B Requirements and Oversight and Providing Flexibility in the F-1 Program....more
USCIS has been issuing challenges and even denials to some H-1B petitions based upon allegations of suspected lottery fraud. USCIS appears to be taking the position that fraud occurs when multiple registrations are submitted...more
The H-1B cap season for Fiscal Year 2024 is fast approaching. USCIS announced on January 27th that cap registration begins on March 1st. Employers should assess their hiring needs and determine if they will sponsor foreign...more
For H-1B visas, employers have been hoping there will be another round of selections for FY 2023, but that is not on the horizon.
USCIS has been sending non-selection notices to registrants’ online accounts. USCIS can...more
USCIS has announced that H-1B Cap registration will start on March 1, 2022, at noon (Eastern) and will continue through noon (Eastern) on March 18, 2022.
If enough registrations to fill the cap are received by March 18...more
Nonimmigrant spouses of H-1B and L-1 visa holders with long-pending EAD applications have finally received some relief. Based upon a settlement in Shergill v. Mayokas, USCIS is making major policy changes. Going forward,...more
USCIS made more random Cap H-1B selections on July 28, 2021. Notifications started to go out today – July 29, 2021. Due to a glitch in the USCIS system, attorneys do not yet have access to the notices (although some employers...more
USCIS has announced that the Cap H-1B Electronic Registration will open on March 9, 2021 at noon EST and will close on March 25, 2021 at noon EST.
The process will mirror last year’s process.
USCIS also announced its...more
On the same day his nominee for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Alejandro Mayorkas, was confirmed, President Joe Biden signed several Executive Orders regarding immigration, including one that directs...more
On January 25, 2021, the Biden administration withdrew from review the Trump administration’s proposed rule that would have rescinded the H-4 EAD program.
For close to five years, spouses of H-1B workers holding H-4 EADs...more
USCIS has released its final rule on the modification of the H-1B cap selection process (“Modification Rule”) to prioritize petitions with the highest wage levels in the Federal Register.
Unless the Biden administration...more
On December 1, Judge Jeffrey S. White granted the plaintiffs’ request to set aside two separate rules issued by the Trump Administration that would have drastically undermined the ability of employers to utilize both the H-1B...more
Business groups, universities, and technology consulting firms have filed suits seeking to enjoin the new rules on H-1B and PERM labor certification programs issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the...more
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released yet another rule that will make it harder and more costly for U.S. companies to employ highly skilled workers.
As a companion regulation to the “Strengthening Wage...more
The “Strengthening the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Classification Program” rule has been submitted to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review and could be published by the end of the year – or earlier....more
In April and June, numerous Presidential Proclamations suspended entry of thousands of legal immigrants and nonimmigrants least until December 31, 2020, using the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason. This is despite the fact that...more
9/4/2020
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Foreign Workers ,
H-1B ,
H-2B ,
Immigration ,
J-1 Visas ,
L-1 Visas ,
Popular ,
Presidential Proclamations ,
Trump Administration ,
Visas