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...
Immigration Blog
One day before it was set to take effect, a federal district court blocked the DHS rule ending “duration of status” (D/S) for F-1, J-1, and I nonimmigrants. On September 14, 2026, Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV (D. Mass.) entered a nationwide preliminary injunction barring DHS and ICE from implementing the rule while the litigation...
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...
Last October I wrote about the Supreme Court declining to hear Save Jobs USA v. DHS, and I said at the time that the decision did nothing to stop a future administration from revisiting the program through new regulatory action. That is exactly what is now happening. DHS has placed a rule on the Unified...
For EB-5 investors pursuing permanent residence through the Regional Center Program, September 30, 2026, is an important date. It is tied to the statutory grandfathering protection created by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA). This does not mean that the entire EB-5 Regional Center Program automatically disappears on September 30, 2026. The...
Over the past several days, immigrant visa applicants around the world have reported that their long-awaited consular interviews were cancelled or postponed often with little notice and no new date. The cancellations are not isolated to one embassy or one region. According to reporting by The New York Times on August 24, 2026, the U.S....
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...
On August 21, 2026, a federal judge in New York struck down the Department of State policy that had implemented the 75-country immigrant visa pause. The pause was originally announced in mid-January 2026 and allowed for Applicants to attend their consular interviews but barred consular officers from issuing immigrant visas. The Administration justified the decision...