News

When individuals desire to enter the United States, whether for business, work, school, pleasure, or any other purpose, one must have a stated purpose and often an employer or family sponsor. Other than Canadians who are “visa exempt” and certain visitors using the ESTA program, individuals must apply and obtain a nonimmigrant visa stamp/sticker in their passports before entering the United States. The application process includes an interview to determine whether the individual’s application meets the specific requirements of the nonimmigrant visa classification. Background checks have been standard procedure, but the Department of State (DOS) is now explicitly requiring certain...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a proposed rule for the public to review and comment over the next 60 days. The DHS made this rule effective right away despite the comment period. The rule removes the requirement that religious workers leave the U.S. for one year when they reach their five-year limit in the U.S.

Currently, individuals coming to the U.S. to serve as a religious worker for a non-profit religious organization may qualify for the R-1 nonimmigrant visa. This allows individuals to enter and work in the U.S. for up to five years. If they change employers...

This morning, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) announced via X that they will pause immigrant visa processing for 75 countries, citing abuse of public assistance programs. The pause will take effect on January 21, 2026. No further official guidance has been released yet, but news reports indicate that the countries subject to the pause will include Brazil, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Thailand, and others.

Individuals can seek permanent residence (green card) in the U.S. through different routes, with each route consisting of multiple steps. Generally, the last step of each route consists of either filing an application stateside with...

What is an H-1B?

The U.S. immigration system offers a range of nonimmigrant statuses, or types of permission, for people to be in the U.S. The H-1B is one such status that allows individuals to work in a “specialty occupation” for a U.S. employer. A specialty occupation carries duties that cannot be done by someone without a college or university degree in a specific field of study. The employer must also pay a certain wage, but employers do not have to show a shortage of U.S. workers for the position.

Individuals who have jobs or job offers from U.S. employers...

On December 2, 2025, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a new policy memo directing officers to pause all asylum applications (Form I-589) regardless of the applicant’s country of origin. Additionally, USCIS were to pause all pending benefit requests where the individual was born or is a citizen of one of the 19 high-risk countries listed under Presidential Proclamation 10949 issued on June 4, 2025. Such benefits were to include applications for permanent residence, permanent residence card renewals, petitions to remove conditions on residence, travel-document applications, and petitions for a range of nonimmigrant statuses, such as H-1B...

USCIS announced today the impending publication of a final rule which will significantly change the H-1B lottery system. The rule, expected to be published on December 29, 2025, will be effective February 27, 2026, and impact this spring’s upcoming lottery. Based on preliminary proposed language, the lottery which had been a random selection process, will be weighted based on salary measured against the U.S. Department of Labor's prevailing wage leveling system.

The DOL has four wage levels, with “Level 1” the lowest and “Level 4” the highest. The proposed language released this fall indicated that those whose...