U.S. Immigration Alerts

FGI FIVE: U.S. Immigration News Summary – Week of March 14, 2025

Department of State releases Visa Bulletin for April 2025: Significant Retrogression for EB-5 China and EB-5 India

On March 11, 2025, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) issued its monthly Visa Bulletin for April 2025. The USCIS confirms it will be accepting adjustment of status applications based on the Final Action Dates chart in April 2025. The Final Action Dates for EB-5 for China will retrogress to January 22, 2014. EB-5 India will retrogress to November 1, 2019. Additional movements are listed below:

• EB-1 India will advance two weeks to February 15, 2022
• EB-2 India will advance one month to January 1, 2013
• EB-2 China will advance almost five months to October 1, 2010
• EB-2 All other areas of chargeability will advance five weeks to June 22, 2023
• EB-3 India will advance two months to April 1, 2013
• EB-3 China will advance three months to November 1, 2020
• EB-3 All other areas of chargeability will advance one month to January 1, 2023
• EB-5 China  will retrogress to January 22, 2014
• EB-5 India will retrogress to November 1, 2019

Final Action Dates Chart – April 2025

Dates for Filing Chart – April 2025

SOURCE: U.S. Department of State, Visa Bulletin for April 2025: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2025/visa-bulletin-for-april-2025.html

CDC removes COVID-19 vaccination requirement for immigrant visa applicants

• Effective March 11, 2025, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has removed from the technical instructions to panel physicians the requirement that immigrant visa applicants receive the COVID-19 vaccination.  
• Panel physicians will no longer determine that an immigrant visa applicant is ineligible for travel based on their failure to receive, or otherwise document, their vaccination against COVID-19. 
• Based on CDC’s updated guidance to panel physicians, U.S. embassies and consulates will no longer refuse an immigrant visa application for failure to present documentation that they received the COVID-19 vaccination. 
• Applicants whose medical exams are unexpired and otherwise still valid for travel to the United States, and whom a consular officer previously found ineligible based solely on the applicant’s failure to establish vaccination against COVID-19, may have a new medical exam issued by the panel physician without a fee. 
• To request this, impacted applicants should reach out to the U.S. embassy or consulate at which they executed their application for an immigrant visa. 

SOURCE: Department of States, U.S. Visas News, March 11, 2025: travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/cdc-removes-covid-19-vaccination-requirement-for-immigrant-visa-applicants.html

Trump Administration to restart and expand travel bans

• According to the New York Times, the Trump administration is preparing to restart and expand a travel ban policy against certain countries that had been implemented during his first administration. 
• Officials said the travel ban would likely include the same countries that were on the list the first time—Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen—and that Afghanistan and Pakistan could be added, along with possibly others.
• It is unclear whether the travel ban will include highly vetted Afghans already cleared for U.S. resettlement on Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) or as refugees due to their working with the United States during the war with the Taliban. 

SOURCE: New York Times, March 6, 2025: www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/us/politics/trump-travel-ban.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

AILA: USCIS changing many forms without notice or grace period

• On March 8, 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) posted changes to many forms (including I-485, I-918,I-192, I-134, and G-325A) without prior notice. This immediately followed a complaint filed by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and an immigration law firm for declaratory and injunctive relief to challenge USCIS’s publishing new editions of immigration forms with no notice and requiring their use with no grace period.
• AILA said it reached out to USCIS to “request a grace period for acceptance of the new forms, but the agency offered no clear relief or public guidance” and thus “litigation was required.” 
• Shortly after AILA filed the lawsuit, USCIS responded that “while no definite grace period is being provided, USCIS will exercise its discretion to not reject previous versions of forms that are submitted for a reasonable period after the new versions take effect.” USCIS then subsequently posted grace periods.
• According to AILA, at least some of the changes are related to gender identity language and reinstituting the use of “alien.”

SOURCE: www.aila.org/library/aila-and-benach-collopy-file-complaint-over-uscis-form-changes-with-no-notice-or-grace-period

Trump Administration proposes social media requirement for applicants of immigration benefits

• The White House announced a new requirement for immigrants applying for green cards, citizenship, and other benefits to provide their social media handles as part of enhanced security measures. USCIS states that there is a need “to collect social media identifiers (‘handles’) and associated social media platform names from applicants to enable and help inform identify verification, national security and public safety screening, and vetting, and related inspections.” 
• Published on March 5, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) proposal aims to verify applicants’ identities and assess potential risks to public safety. This change will affect over 3.5 million applicants annually. 
• The proposal is meant to comply with President Trump’s executive order 14161, “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats.”
• The public has 60 days to comment on the proposal, which affects nine immigration forms. The comment period closes on May 5, 2025. 

SOURCE: Federal Register 2025-03492, March 5, 2025: www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/03/05/2025-03492/agency-information-collection-activities-new-collection-generic-clearance-for-the-collection-of

USCIS issues proposal for revising collection of immigration information

• USCIS recently published a proposal in the Federal Register to obtain comments regarding immigration information collection, the category of respondents, the estimated costs and burden, and the actual collection instruments. 
• USCIS will collect biographic information on immigration information collection instruments and systems. 
• U.S. Government departments and agencies involved in screening and vetting, to include USCIS, identified 24 data elements that would constitute a new baseline threshold of data to be collected for identity verification and national security vetting. For USCIS, these data elements will be added to certain immigration benefit request forms where the information is not already collected.
• USCIS will update its forms and systems to collect additional information from individuals who seek admissibility or other benefits when that information is not already collected.
• This information collection initiative complies with the Trump Administration’s executive order, “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Oter National Security and Public Safety Threats” to establish enhanced screening and vetting standards and procedure to enable USCIS to assess an alien’s eligibility to receive an immigration-related benefit. This data collection is also used to help validate an applicant’s identify and to determine whether such grant of a benefit poses a security or public-safety risk to the United States. 
• Comments will be accepted until May 2, 2025. Submit comments via the Federal eRulemaking Portal website at https://www.regulations.gov under e-Docket ID number USCIS-2025-0002.

SOURCE: Federal Register, 2025-03436, March 3, 2025: www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/03/03/2025-03436/agency-information-collection-activities-new-collection-generic-clearance-for-the-collection-of 

American Immigration Council: Personnel reductions are straining immigration processing,  but not immigration enforcement

• On February 14, 2025, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) terminated nearly 50 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) employees, identifying them as “non-mission critical personnel in probationary status.” USCIS adjudicates immigration-related benefits requests and, last fiscal year, it received a record 10.9 million applications. 
• The recent firings, as well as others which may come under the Trump administration’s continued call for reductions in force, will likely impede USCIS’ ability to make progress on its processing backlogs, and may even lead to backsliding.
• The Department of State (DOS) has also experienced significant staff reductions, particularly within U.S. consulates and embassies worldwide. In a move that is expected to exacerbate these issues, the U.S. Department of State announced new restrictions to the visa interview waiver program on February 18, 2025.
• In mid-February, the Department of Justice (DOJ) fired at least 15 immigration judges and 13 managers, including assistant chief judges who handle management tasks. This has left the remaining 700 or so immigration judges with average caseloads of about 5,600 cases each. 
• In addition, the Trump administration reduced the number of appellate immigration judges at the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which decides appeals of immigration judge decisions.
• The Trump administration’s recent staff cuts have not touched Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). In fact, the White House has asked for an additional $485 million for ICE to fund additional detention beds and transportation and removal costs.

SOURCE: American Immigration Council, Immigration Impact, March 6, 2025: immigrationimpact.com/2025/03/06/federal-firings-immigration-processing-enforcement-expands/?utm_campaign=everyaction&utm_medium=email&utm_source=&emci=9f705f61-97fb-ef11-90cd-0022482a9fb7&emdi=c3639da6-eefc-ef11-90cd-0022482a9fb7&ceid=4500768 

Beginning March 15, U.S. federal government may shutdown: What is the impact on immigration processing?

A partial government shutdown is possible, beginning on March 15, 2025, if agreement on an appropriations bill or another stopgap measure cannot be reached by March 14. Here are some of the potential impacts on immigration processing:

• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS): Processing delays may occur if case adjudication depends on support from government functions that are suspended during the breakdown. 
• As a fee-funded agency, USCIS is expected to process applications during the shutdown. USCIS confirms that “in the event of a lapse in appropriations, USCIS will continue to support the H-1B application process via all collection methods, including pay.gov.” (AILA Doc. No. 25022800). However, employers should consider the following:  
  • Because the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Labor Condition Application (LCA) operations would be suspended, employers planning E-3, or H-1B, H-1B1 extensions or changes of employer, for which a DOL-certified LCA is required, may be unable to file if they do not already have an LCA in hand.
  • In addition, if federal systems that support the H-1B cap registration are affected, there could be an impact on the registration period. If a shutdown were to beyond the scheduled close of the cap registration period on March 24, USCIS may need to delay the start of the H-1B cap filing period, which normally begins on April 1. By regulation, the H-1B cap filing period must be at least 90 days, so the filing period would not be truncated, but the later start and end dates could be disruptive to some employers and foreign nationals. 
• Department of Labor (DOL): The impact of a federal shutdown would be no processing of PERM or temporary labor certification applications, labor condition applications (LCAs), or prevailing wage requests. Online application systems would not accept PERM applications or audit responses, LCAs, or prevailing wage requests. DOL would not be able to accept submissions by mail. Because DOL suspends operations during a shutdown, LCAs required for H-1B petitions could not be drafted, accessed, or processed during the shutdown.
• Department of State (DOS): Visa processing and U.S. citizenship document functions would remain in effect as long as consular operations can be funded with filing fees. In the event of a long shutdown, DOS may suspend visa processing or limit it to emergencies. 

SOURCES: AILA Doc. No. 25022800; and AILA Handout, “Government Shutdown.” 

The content of this article is intended only to provide a general guide to the subject matter. It should not be construed as legal advice. Please contact FGI at info@employmentimmigration.com or (+1) 248.643.4900 for guidance if you have specific questions.