Business Immigration Insights

Congress was unable to avert the first government shutdown in six years as the clock struck midnight last night raising questions from companies and individuals about the impact on US immigration operations.

On September 24, 2025, DHS issued a proposed regulation to change the annual H-1B visa lottery from a random lottery of registrants to a weighted system favoring those offered higher salaries by US employers. 

In a rapidly evolving situation broadly impacting the business immigration community, the White House issued a proclamation on Friday, September 19, 2025, implementing significant restrictions on H-1B entry and introducing a $100,000 fee requirement. The situation has been marked by initial confusion followed by crucial clarifications.

The State Department has published the October Visa Bulletin, the first issue of Fiscal Year 2026. Priority dates in most employment-based categories make modest gains, ranging from 1 week to 7 months. All categories benefit from USCIS accepting the Dates for Filing chart in October—the first time the agency has done so since January of this year—allowing from 5 to 15.5 months of additional filing time, depending on nationality and category.

On August 15, 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a significant policy memorandum that changes how immigration officers evaluate the “good moral character” requirement for naturalization applicants. This new guidance represents a substantial shift from previous practices and will likely impact how citizenship applications are adjudicated going forward.

The State Department has published the September Visa Bulletin.  After limited movement in August – a 1-month advance for EB-3 Professionals and EB-3 India and a 1.5-month retrogression for EB-2 All Other Countries – priority dates are immobile in September, the last month of this fiscal year.

A temporary final rule initiating a 12-month pilot program requiring visitor visa bonds is set to go into effect on August 20^th.  This rule, authorized under INA 8 USC 1201(g)(3), allows consular officers to require a “Maintenance of Status and Departure Bond” (the "visa bond") for those applying for nonimmigrant visas. Historically, State Department guidance, as detailed in the Foreign Affairs Manual (“FAM”), has discouraged the use of visa bonds, suggesting they should be rarely employed.

In March 2021, during the COVID pandemic, the Department of State implemented an expansion of the categories of visa applicants eligible for visa issuance without in-person interviews. 

USCIS announced that the Congressionally mandated number of H-1B petitions for both "regular" and "master's" categories has been met, and there will not be a supplemental lottery for FY2026.

This post serves as a regularly updated resource to keep employers informed regarding TPS designations, extensions, cancellations, and other policy changes.