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President Trump promised new executive actions on immigration, creating confusing statements about plans involving the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and regarding merit-based immigration intended to bring in highly skilled workers into the United States. President Trump made statements regarding immigration such as “Nobody will have done what I’m doing in the next four weeks.” This comes after the U.S. President announced “very big” changes to merit-based immigration and announcing that he would sign an immigration bill as an executive order to give a DACA recipients a path to citizenship.

On Monday, the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) announced modifications to the temporary exemptions regarding online courses which had been instituted for the Spring and Summer 2020 semesters. The previous exemptions allowed nonimmigrant students to take more online courses than normally permitted. Today, SEVP announced that online-only education in the fall will not be permitted. Any F-1 or M-1 students currently in the U.S. enrolled at an institution holding online-only courses for the Fall 2020 semester will not be allowed to remain in the U.S. unless they transfer to a school offering in-person instruction or take other action to maintain  their status. Any student who violates these rules and participates in more online education than what is permitted will face immigration consequences, including but not limited to the commencement of removal proceedings.

President Trump’s most recent Executive Order extends the current restrictions on Green Cards issued abroad and expands the restrictions to include some nonimmigrant visa types including H-1B, H-4, H-2B, J-1, L-1, and L-2. These restrictions will be in place until December 31, 2020.

As we are currently at the end of the FY 2021 Cap season, many clients have been reaching out to us asking how these restrictions affect them. Importantly, the Executive Order only limits the issuance of new H-1B visas at the consulate. It does not affect anyone applying within the U.S.

On June 17, 2020, USCIS announced that it is effective immediately, rescinding two policy memoranda regarding the adjudication of certain H-1B nonimmigrant petitions.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on June 19, 2020 a regulatory change removing the 30 day processing window USCIS officials had to process initial employment authorization documents (EADs) for asylum applicants. Effective August 21, 2020, this change will give USCIS more time to address “national security and fraud concerns, maintain technological advances in identity verification, and further deter those who may attempt to defraud the legal immigration system.”

How USCIS clarifies affirmative requirements to notify of any restructuring events between parent and subsidiary companies and affiliates abroad for first-preference multinational executive or manager petitions.

On Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump clarified a controversial tweet made earlier in the week that he would be signing an executive order limiting immigration to the United States.

On March 27, 2020, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced additional measures taken to help reduce the implications of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on petitioners and applicants responding to requests for evidence (RFEs) and notices of intent to deny (NOID).

USCIS is not accepting requests from individuals who have never before been granted deferred action under DACA. Due to federal court orders on Jan. 9, 2018 and Feb. 13, 2018, USCIS has resumed accepting requests to renew a grant of deferred action under DACA. The scope of the Feb. 13 preliminary injunction issued in the Eastern District of New York is the same as the Jan. 9 preliminary injunction issued in the Northern District of California. Unless otherwise provided in this guidance, the DACA policy will be operated on the terms in place before it was rescinded on Sept. 5, 2017, until further notice.