FGI FIVE: U.S. Immigration News Summary – Week of May 16, 2025
Partner Matt Morse Named Mondaq’s Top Immigration Thought Leader (US) for Spring 2025
Matthew Morse, a Partner at Fakhoury Global Immigration (FGI), was recently named the Top Immigration Thought Leader in the United States for Spring 2025 by Mondaq. Mondaq’s thought leadership awards showcase the most popular articles and blogs in terms of total readership over the last six months across a number of countries and topic areas. Matt earned this distinction for his article, “The EB-2 National Interest Waiver (NIW) Visa Category: Update and Outlook.” This article can be accessed at https://www.mondaq.com/article/1539734.
Matt has also published numerous articles with Mondaq on such topics as PERM labor application processing and the USCIS Asylum Program among others.
At FGI, Matt is an expert in Green Card processing including PERM labor applications, immigrant visa petitions, and Adjustment of Status applications. He has experience with naturalization issues and applications, family-based immigration matters and many nonimmigrant visa categories, including the B, E, F, H, K, L, O, R, and TN categories, as well as consular processing matters.
Mondaq is a leading content aggregator and global provider of AI-enabled content marketing, data, and analytics solutions for professional services firms.
Fakhoury Global Immigration congratulates Matt for this much deserved recognition.
Department of State releases Visa Bulletin for June 2025: EB-2 and EB-3 Show Modest Advances for China and Worldwide
On May 13, 2025, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) issued its monthly Visa Bulletin for June 2025. The USCIS confirms it will be accepting adjustment of status applications based on the Final Action Dates chart:
- EB-1 China: Final Action Date remains at November 8, 2022.
- EB-1 India: Final Action Date remains at February 15, 2022.
- EB-1 All other countries: Final Action Dates remains current.
- EB-2 China: Final Action Date will advance two months to December 1, 2020.
- EB-2 India: Final Action Date for India remains at January 1, 2013.
- EB-2 All Other Countries: Final Action Dates advance by nearly four months to October 15, 2023.
- EB-3 China: Final Action Date advances by three weeks to November 22, 2020.
- EB-3 India: Final Action Date remains at April 15, 2013.
- EB-3 All Other Countries: Final Action Dates will advance five weeks to February 8, 2023.
- EB-5 Unreserved China: Final Action Date will remain at January 22, 2014.
- EB-5 Unreserved India: Final Action Date will remain at May 1, 2019
- EB-5 Unreserved All Other Countries: Final Action Dates will remain current.
Final Action Dates Chart – June 2025
Dates for Filing Chart – June 2025
SOURCE: U.S. Department of State, Visa Bulletin for June 2025: travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2025/visa-bulletin-for-june-2025.html
FY 2026 H-1B Cap registrations show decline; USCIS rejects 65% of applications
- For FY 2026, USCIS received 343,981 H-1B Cap eligible registrations, a decline of 27% from 470,342 for FY 2025. Higher immigration fees likely contributed to the drop in H-1B registrations. A Biden administration fee rule raised the cost of filing an H-1B registration for FY 2026 from $10 to $215.
- The number of unique employers increased, going from approximately 52,700 for FY 2025 to 57,600 for FY 2026, a rise of 9%. H-1B registrations filed per employer declined. For FY 2026, employers filed an average of 6.0 eligible registrations, a decline of 33% from 8.9 eligible registrations per employer for FY 2025, according to the National Foundation for American Policy.
- Despite the lower number of H-1B registrations, USCIS rejected nearly two-thirds due to the annual limit of 85,000. USCIS selected 120,141 registrations out of 343,981, or 35%. That means the agency rejected 65% of registrations because of the annual limit.
- Only 85,000 new H-1B visa holders will begin work in FY 2026 for cases that count against the annual limit. That means only 25% of the 343,981 eligible registrations will result in new H-1B workers for companies in FY 2026, up from 20% in FY 2025.
SOURCE: Stuart Anderson, Forbes, May 15, 2025: H-1B Visa Cap Results: 65% Rejected, Immigration Fees Prompt Decline
OFLC releases public disclosure data and selected program statistics for Q2 2025
- The Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) has released a comprehensive set of public disclosure data (through the second quarter of fiscal year 2025) drawn from employer applications requesting prevailing wage determinations and labor certifications for the PERM, LCA (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3), H-2A, H-2B, CW-1, and Prevailing Wage programs.
- Please Note: OFLC recently implemented the revised form ETA-9089. As a result, there will be two distinct PERM disclosure data files. These files will each have their own record layout documents.
- The public disclosure files include all final determinations OFLC issued for these programs during the October 1, 2024 through March 31, 2025 reporting period of fiscal year 2025.
- OFLC has also released selected program statistics for the first half of fiscal year 2025 for the PERM, LCA (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3), H-2A, H-2B, CW-1, and Prevailing Wage programs.
- The public disclosure files and selected program statistics can be accessed here: www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/foreign-labor/performance
SOURCE: US Department of Labor, Office of Foreign Labor Certification, May 15, 2025: Announcements | U.S. Department of Labor
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.