Trump Administration Issues Executive Order Limiting Birthright Citizenship
The new Trump administration issued an Executive Order (“EO”) on January 20, 2025 entitled Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship [Executive Order]. This EO attempts to deny United States citizenship to persons born in the United States whose...
Canada: Spousal Open Work Permit (SOWP) Changes
Effective January 21, 2025, the following changes will take place to Spousal Open Work Permits (SOWPs) for spouses of foreign workers and international students in Canada: Foreign Workers: SOWPs will be restricted to spouses of foreign workers employed in the...
Canada: Upcoming Changes to Express Entry PR Applications and POE Work Permit Applications
Express Entry (EE) Permanent Residence Application Changes: Sometime in Spring 2025, EE candidates will no longer receive points for having an offer of ongoing or future employment in Canada. Typically, job offers would add 50 or 200 points towards EE scores. It is...
February 2025 Visa Bulletin Issued: Final Action EB Cut-Off Dates Will Apply for the First Time in Several Months
The U.S. Department of State has released its February 2025 Visa Bulletin imposing per-country cut-off dates that regulate immigrant visa availability and the flow of Adjustment of Status (AOS) applications and consular Immigrant Visa application interviews and...
Romania Added to United States Visa Waiver Program
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the United States Department of State (DOS) announced on January 10, 2025, that Romania has been designated as a participant in the United States Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which allows visa-free travel to...
U.S. Extends Temporary Protected Status for Nationals of El Salvador, Sudan, Ukraine, and Venezuela
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will publish a notice in the Federal Register on January 17, 2025, announcing an 18-month extension of El Salvador’s designation for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). This allows all eligible TPS recipients to retain TPS...
The Potential Federal Shutdown on December 20th and its Effect on the U.S. Immigration Process
What is Happening? The deadline for Congress to pass a new budget to keep funding the federal government agencies is Friday, December 20, 2024 before midnight Eastern Time. The federal agencies responsible for administering the United States immigration process are...
State Department Revises Skills List to Remove Certain Countries; Citizens of Such Countries No Longer Subject to J-1 Two-Year Home Residence Requirement Based on the Skills List
The State Department (DOS) announced on December 9, 2024, a revision of its Exchange Visitors Skills List (“Skills List”) to remove certain countries from the list. The DOS is updating the countries included on the Skills List “based on criteria that is data driven,...
USCIS Processing of Concurrently Filed I-539 and I-765 Applications for H-4 and L-2 Dependents with Principal I-129 Petitions May End on January 18, 2025
As a result of a settlement reached in the Edakunni, et al. v Mayorkas litigation, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agreed on January 25, 2023, to process Form I-539 applications to extend or change status filed by H-4 and L-2 dependents at...
USCIS Proposed Rule to Modernize or Reform Certain Aspects of the H-1B Nonimmigrant Category Moves Closer to Finalization and Publication
As we reported in our Alert of October 24, 2023, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued on October 23, 2023, a Proposed Rule that seeks to implement significant changes in the H-1B Specialty Occupation nonimmigrant category, including...