Immigration News

The Visa Bulletin is a monthly publication issued by the U.S. Department of State that provides updated information on the availability of immigrant visa numbers for individuals seeking permanent residency (green cards) in the United States. It is primarily used by people applying for family-sponsored and employment-based immigration, providing them with “priority dates” that determine their place in line for a visa, based on their application category and country of origin. The bulletin includes two main charts: one for “final action dates,” which indicates when visas may be issued, and one for “dates for filing,” which shows when applicants can submit their green card applications. The Visa Bulletin helps applicants track their progress toward receiving a visa amidst the U.S.’s limited annual quotas.

October starts the federal government’s fiscal year, and this first Visa Bulletin of FY2025 left many visa applicants disappointed with its limited progress and in some cases retrogression. For example, EB-3 China Final Action retrogresses five months from September 1, 2020, to April 1, 2020. Similarly, EB-3 China Dates for Filing retrogresses from July 1, 2021, to November 15, 2020. However, some categories such as EB-3 worldwide Final Action jumped ahead nearly two years. The October 2024 Visa Bulletin does not provide guidance on expectations for the remainder of the fiscal year, but does reset visa availability for the fiscal year. This year’s conservative start has many applicants bracing themselves for longer and longer wait times.

The Department of State published information in the Federal Register about the online registration process for FY2026 diversity visas (DVs). Up to 55,000 immigrants can enter the United States each year from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. The DV Program requires the principal DV applicant to have a high school education, or its equivalent, or two years of qualifying work experience as defined under provisions of U.S. law.

The online registration period for the DV-2026 program begins on Wednesday, October 2, and concludes on Tuesday, November 5. With the exception of Cuba, which is not eligible for DV-2026, there were no changes in eligibility from the previous fiscal year.

Beginning this September 2024, USCIS will start automatically extending the validity of lawful permanent resident cards to 36 months for permanent residents who file the Form I-90 to renew their expiring green card. Previously, a 24-month automatic extension was applied. Individuals taking advantage of this 36-month automatic extension will need to show their expired green card in addition to the Form I-90 receipt notice to take advantage of the extension for employment authorization and international travel purposes.

On Monday, the U.S. Department of State made a significant announcement: all available Employment-Based Second Preference (EB-2) visas for fiscal year 2024 have been issued. This marks an important update in the annual visa allocation process and will impact employers and workers seeking to utilize this immigration pathway.

The EB-2 visa is designed for foreign professionals with advanced degrees or individuals with exceptional abilities. However, the number of these visas issued each year is limited by the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which sets a cap at 28.6% of the worldwide employment-based visa limit. For the 2024 fiscal year, the cap has already been met, meaning U.S. embassies and consulates will not issue any more EB-2 visas until the next fiscal year begins on October 1, 2024.

For U.S. employers, this development temporarily halts the ability to permanently hire foreign talent through the EB-2 program. Foreign workers aiming to secure EB-2 visas will need to wait until the new fiscal year to either apply or continue their application process.

This news follows last month’s announcement from the State Department that all visas in the Employment-Based Third Preference (EB-3), Other Workers (EW), and Employment-Based Fifth Preference (EB-5) categories had also been fully issued for FY 2024. As the new fiscal year approaches, both employers and visa applicants will be looking forward to fresh opportunities in 2025.

On August 26, 2024, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, in Texas v. Department of Homeland Security, administratively stayed the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), from granting parole-in-place (PIP) under the Biden Administration’s Keeping Families Together program for another 14 days. In the meantime, USCIS can continue to accept and review PIP applications but cannot grant parole.

To comply with the district court’s administrative stay, USCIS will:

• Not grant any pending parole in place requests under Keeping Families Together.
• Continue to accept filings of the Application for Parole in Place for Certain Noncitizen Spouses and Stepchildren of U.S. Citizens.
• Continue to schedule biometric appointments and capture biometrics at Application Support Centers (ASCs).

The program, announced by the Biden Administration on June 18, 2024 and officially implemented on August 19, 2024, is a process for certain noncitizen spouses and noncitizen stepchildren of U.S. citizens to request parole-in-place under existing statutory authority.  If granted parole, and if otherwise eligible, these noncitizens may apply for adjustment of status to that of a lawful permanent resident without having to leave the United States and be processed by a U.S. consulate overseas. The district court’s administrative stay order does not affect any applications that were approved before the administrative stay order was issued at 6:46 p.m. Eastern Time on August 26, 2024.

If you have questions about the Keeping Families Together program, please schedule a consult with a CYA attorney today!

In 2017 the US Supreme Court heard the case of Sessions v. Morales-Santana. This case dealt with the issue of gender-based discrimination in the context of U.S. citizenship law. The case addressed whether the Immigration and Nationality Act’s (INA) provisions for acquiring U.S. citizenship at birth violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.

The specific question was whether the INA’s differing requirements for a U.S. citizen parent to transmit citizenship to a child born abroad based on the parent’s gender were unconstitutional. Under the law, if a U.S. citizen father had a child abroad, the father had to meet a higher residency requirement than a U.S. citizen mother in order for the child to automatically acquire U.S. citizenship.

In Morales-Santana, the Supreme Court found that the gender-based disparity in these requirements was unconstitutional and did violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. The Court ruled that the law must provide equal treatment for both fathers and mothers in terms of the residency requirements necessary for a child born abroad to acquire U.S. citizenship. The decision required the government to apply the same residency requirements to both mothers and fathers, thus aligning with principles of gender equality under the Constitution.

In its newly released guidance and pursuant to the decision in Morales-Santana, USCIS clarifies how and when children may obtain US citizenship if they were born abroad through their US citizen parent or parents. Want to know more? Schedule a consultation with a CYA attorney!

On Tuesday, June 18, 2024, the Biden Administration announced that DACA Recipients and other Dreamers who have earned a degree at an accredited U.S. institution of higher education and have an offer of employment from a U.S. employer in a field related to their degree will have an easier path to a U.S. work visa.  

The Biden administration stated, “Recognizing that it is in our national interest to ensure that individuals who are educated in the U.S. are able to use their skills and education to benefit our country, the Administration is taking action to facilitate the employment visa process for those who have graduated from college and have a high-skilled job offer, including DACA recipients and other Dreamers.”

Stay tuned!  There will be more information soon about these opportunities for Dreamers!

On Tuesday, June 18, 2024, the Biden Administration announced that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will allow certain noncitizen spouses & children of U.S. citizens to apply for a green card without having to leave the U.S.  if they have lived in the U.S. for 10 years or longer, do not pose a threat to public safety or national security, are otherwise eligible to obtain a green card in the U.S. and merit a favorable exercise of discretion.  DHS estimates that approximately 500,000 people who, on average, have lived in the U.S. for 23 years, could benefit from this process. 

To be considered on a case-by-case basis for this process, an individual must:  

• Be present in the United States without admission or parole;

• Have been continuously present in the United States for at least 10 years as of June 17, 2024; and

• Have a legally valid marriage to a U.S. citizen as of June 17, 2024.

In addition, individuals must have no disqualifying criminal history or otherwise constitute a threat to national security or public safety and should otherwise merit a favorable exercise of discretion. Noncitizen children of potential requestors may also be considered for parole under this process if they are physically present in the United States without admission or parole and have a qualifying stepchild relationship with a U.S. citizen as of June 17, 2024.

Upon receipt of a properly filed parole-in-place request, USCIS will determine on a case-by-case basis whether a grant of parole is warranted and whether the applicant merits a favorable exercise of discretion. All requests will take into consideration the potential requestor’s previous immigration history, criminal history, the results of background checks and national security and public safety vetting, and any other relevant information available to or requested by USCIS. USCIS has strong processes in place to identify and address potential fraud, which will be applied here to ensure the integrity of this program.

Stay tuned!  There will be more information soon about this new process!

On June 4, 2024, President Biden issued a Presidential Proclamation that went into immediate effect at the border.  The order severely limits an individual’s ability to claim asylum at the border.  Asylum grants individuals the right to stay in the U.S. based on fear of persecution at home because of one’s race, nationality, political opinion, membership in a particular social group, or religious beliefs. The Presidential Proclamation allows the U.S. government to refuse to accept asylum claims from people arriving at the border during any period of time when there has been an average of more than 2,500 people encountered at the border over a 7-day period.  The asylum ban remains in place until 14 days after another 7-day period in which the average number of encounters at the border falls below 1,500.   Given these metrics, it is likely that the ban on applying for asylum at the border will last for a long time and possibly be an indefinite ban.  There will be legal challenges asserting that this Proclamation violates U.S. and international asylum law. 

The U.S. Department of State predicts that heavy demand for immigrant visas this fiscal year will cause additional backlogs in the worldwide (including Mexico and Philippines) employment-based 1st and 3rd preference categories starting in July 2024. For June 2024, the employment-based worldwide, Mexico and Philippines 1st preference categories are current (meaning no waitlist for immigrant visas); while the employment-based worldwide, Mexico and Philippines 3rd preference categories have cut-off dates of November 22, 2022 (meaning that only intending immigrants with a priority date earlier than November 22, 2022, can proceed with their immigrant visa applications). There are at least 140,000 employment-based immigrant visas available each fiscal year. The U.S. Department of State uses complicated statistical modeling to try and allocate all available visas throughout the fiscal year by monitoring usage monthly. If usage is heavy during the fiscal year, there are often backlogs in visa categories over the summer. Once the new fiscal year starts on October 1st and the next round of immigrant visas becomes available, those backlogs often (but not always) clear out.