A weekly summary of U.S. immigration law developments; compiled from official and top-ranked sources. Published every Monday.
Week of Oct 12 – Oct 18, 2026
DHS proposed on October 14 to delete the deference regulation at 8 CFR 214.1(c)(5) outright, sending every O-1 and P-1 extension back to de novo adjudication on facts USCIS has already approved — comments close November 13, the single most consequential item of the year for the nonimmigrant side of this practice; the Board decided Matter of L. Ramirez, overruling Sanchez Sosa and abolishing the presumption favoring a continuance for a pending visa petition; and a second district court rejected Mukherji v. Miller in Agarwal v. Miller, leaving a live split on whether the EB-1A final merits determination is lawful at all.
Read edition →Week of Oct 5 – Oct 11, 2026
The Board issued three precedent decisions in four days — the last, B-S-A-N-, directing immigration judges to deny asylum generally to nationals of developed democracies; ICE proposed a $70,000 fee on a student's first OPT and $30,000 on every one after, pricing the F-1 bridge that feeds this practice's O-1A and NIW pipeline out of reach; and DOL reportedly suspended PERM intake for Microsoft, Adobe and six IT firms without publishing a single document.
Read edition →Week of Sep 28 – Oct 4, 2026
The Northern District of California enjoined the $100,000 H-1B entry payment on September 30 — one week after Proclamation 11069 extended it to September 2027 — and ordered DHS back through notice-and-comment; and the Supreme Court granted certiorari on October 1 in Rhoney v. Barbosa da Cunha, taking up whether a noncitizen arrested in the interior gets a bond hearing at all.
Read edition →Week of Sep 21 – Sep 27, 2026
The October 2026 Visa Bulletin opens FY2027 by retrogressing EB-2 and EB-3 Rest-of-World out of Current while reopening EB-2 India and advancing EB-1 India to 01FEB23; and Proclamation 11069 and EO 14431 hit the Federal Register on September 23, extending the $100,000 H-1B entry payment to September 21, 2027 and folding employer layoffs into adjudication.
Read edition →Week of Sep 14 – Sep 20, 2026
Two presidential actions signed September 18 reshape H-1B adjudication — a proclamation extending the $100,000 entry payment through September 21, 2027, and an executive order directing State, DOL and DHS to weigh a sponsor's layoffs; and Judge Saylor postponed the duration-of-status rule nationwide one day before it took effect.
Read edition →Week of Sep 7 – Sep 13, 2026
DHS published the proposed rule eliminating the 60-day grace period on September 11, and it names O-1 — a classification whose beneficiaries cannot port, so termination would mean same-day loss of status; USCIS issued a new 09/09/26 edition of Form I-129; and the duration-of-status rule takes effect this week.
Read edition →Week of Aug 31 – Sep 6, 2026
USCIS reversed itself on the Form I-864 within a day of AILA suing, accepting the old edition through September 30; Judge Saylor heard the duration-of-status challenge and took the motion under advisement with the rule still effective September 15.
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