On October 14, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security published a final rule permanently ending the automatic extension of most Employment Authorization Documents (EADs). If your renewal is still pending when your card expires, you may have to stop working until USCIS approves it. Here is what changed, who is affected, and what you can...
H-1B Information
Since January 17, 2025, a foreign national who owns a controlling interest in a U.S. company can be the beneficiary of an H-1B petition filed by that company. We secured our first H-1B self-petition approval in 2025 and have been filing these cases since. The same questions come up in nearly every consultation, so I’ve...
When USCIS processing runs long, an H-1B employee’s I-94 can expire while their petition is still pending. In many cases, the employee can keep working legally during that wait, but the employer has to update Form I-9 correctly to show it. The rules depend on what kind of H-1B petition you filed. Below, we walk...
We get this question a lot from employers. The certified LCA lists $85,000. The employee has been paid $100,000 for two years. Business slows, a major account goes away, and the employer asks the obvious question: can we go back down to the $85,000 we certified? Usually the answer is no. The LCA wage is...
On September 11, 2026, DHS published a new rule in the Federal register titled “Eliminating the Discretionary 60-day Grace Period,” with comments due 60 days later, which puts the deadline at November 10, 2026. The short version: if this rule is finalized as drafted, a nonimmigrant worker whose employment ends is out of status and...
Aug242026
On August 25, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would impose a $103,265 fee on H-1B cap-subject petitions. The timing is not a coincidence. It comes one month after the First Circuit refused to let the government reinstate the $100,000 fee created by last September’s presidential...
I’ve been telling people this for a while now: if you own your own company and want to sponsor yourself for an H-1B through it, you do not need a board of directors. No investors. No outside corporate governance. None of it. I’ve said it enough times that people started asking me if I was...
A rule effective January 17, 2025, changed what’s possible for entrepreneurs and business owners pursuing an H-1B visa. It allows H-1B beneficiaries to self-petition even when they hold a controlling interest in the petitioning entity. For founders and beneficiary-owned businesses, that opened a real path forward. But this path comes with specific documentation requirements. This...