Weekly Brief
U.S. Immigration Law
Week of August 31 – September 6, 2026 · Full-spectrum coverage
Sources: USCIS newsroom & Policy Manual · DOS Visa Bulletin & visa news · DOL/OFLC & FLAG · Federal Register (DHS, USCIS, DOS, DOL, EOIR, CBP, ICE) · OIRA · USCIS AAO · BIA precedent & EOIR · SCOTUS and circuit courts · ICE/CBP · AILA · Fragomen, BAL, Ogletree, Greenberg Traurig, Jackson Lewis, Fisher Phillips · Cyrus Mehta · ImmigrationProf · NLR/JD Supra
Deadline calendar · next 60 days
| Date | Item | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Wed Sep 9 | Effective — 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit Fee ($4,000 H-1B / $4,500 L-1) reaches all H-1B and L-1 extension petitions by covered employers (FR 2026-16231) | Effective date |
| Wed Sep 9 | Federal Register publication — DHS interim final rule on LPR registration for U.S.-born children of foreign government employees (FR 2026-18345, RIN 1615-AD24); already effective Sep 4 | Publication |
| Thu Sep 10 | Appellants' opening brief due — Dorcas Int'l Inst. of R.I. v. USCIS, 1st Cir. No. 26-1703. Date carried from last week; the docket could not be re-read this week. | Court deadline |
| Thu Sep 10 | Effective — DOJ interim final rule on civil penalties against international marriage brokers (FR 2026-16290) | Effective date |
| Mon Sep 14 | Comments close — USCIS ICR, revision of Form I-130 (FR 2026-14384) | Comment |
| Tue Sep 15 | Effective — fixed period of admission replaces duration of status for F, J and I (91 FR 44976). Motion under advisement since Sep 3; no ruling as of Sep 8. | Effective date |
| Tue Sep 15 | Form I-539 and Form I-765 editions 09/15/26 mandatory. No grace period. | Form edition |
| Fri Sep 18 | Effective — public charge final rule (FR 2026-14539) and revised 8 USCIS-PM Part G. Reaches EB-1 and EB-2 adjustment applicants. | Effective date |
| Fri Sep 18 | Form I-485 edition 09/18/26 mandatory. Both the 01/20/25 and the new 09/04/26 editions are rejected if postmarked or e-filed on or after this date. No grace period. | Form edition |
| Fri Sep 18 | Joint status report due — Medani v. Trump, N.D. Cal. No. 5:26-cv-06332 (diversity visa holds). Comments also close on USCIS ICRs for E-Verify+ (FR 2026-16863) and Form I-9 (FR 2026-16862). | Court deadline / Comment |
| Mon Sep 21 | Proclamation 10973 ($100,000 H-1B entry payment) lapses on its own terms unless extended. Some firms compute the lapse as Sep 20; the fee remains vacated by D. Mass. either way. | Expiry |
| Thu Sep 24 | Comments close — DHS NPRM imposing a $103,265 fee on cap-subject H-1B petitions (FR 2026-17324, RIN 1615-AD20) | Comment |
| Fri Sep 25 | Status conference, 10:00 a.m. PT, by Zoom — Red Eagle Law, L.C. v. Edlow, N.D. Cal. No. 3:26-cv-04850-CRB, on adjudication of the certified class's applications | Court deadline |
| Mon Sep 28 | Comments close — EOIR NPRM, civil money penalty for contempt of an immigration judge (FR 2026-15458); DOS ICR, J Exchange Visitor Program annual report (FR 2026-17578) | Comment |
| Wed Sep 30 | FY2026 ends. Last day USCIS accepts the 10/17/24 edition of Form I-864. DV-2026 entitlement ends. DOS still warns EB-1 India and EB-2 worldwide may go unavailable before this date. DOL rescission of 29 C.F.R. Part 42 effective (FR 2026-17726). | Visa numbers / Form edition |
| Thu Oct 1 | FY2027 visa numbers open. Only the 08/24/26 I-864 editions accepted; a wrong edition draws an RFE under 8 C.F.R. § 103.2(b)(8), not a rejection. Also effective: EOIR OBBBA fee inflation adjustment (FR 2026-17146) and FY2027 Labor Surplus Area list (FR 2026-17828). | Effective date |
| Sun Oct 4 | Comments close — DHS foreign-government-employee IFR, 30 days from the Sep 4 public-inspection filing. Confirm against the DATES section when it publishes Sep 9; treat Oct 5 as the practical deadline. | Comment |
| Mon Oct 5 | Supreme Court October Term 2026 opens. Comments close on USCIS e-Request Tool ICR (FR 2026-18099). | Court / Comment |
| Tue Oct 13 | Oral argument — Genalo v. Black, No. 25-886 (prolonged detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(c)); second case of the day. Comments also close on the DHS mandatory electronic filing IFR (FR 2026-16313). | Court deadline / Comment |
| Mon Oct 19 | Effective — DOL/ETA Wagner-Peyser staffing final rule (FR 2026-16982). Auto-extended Sudan and Ukraine TPS EADs expire. | Effective date |
| Tue Oct 20 | Comments close — DHS Genealogy Program NPRM (FR 2026-17119) | Comment |
| Mon Oct 26 | Effective — rescission of the EO 11246 implementing regulations (FR 2026-17114); CBP ACE electronic export manifest for rail cargo (FR 2026-17390) | Effective date |
| Tue Oct 27 | Comments close — DOS NPRM expanding online passport renewal to applicants overseas (FR 2026-17655) | Comment |
1 · Action Required
Six itemsUSCIS reversed on the I-864: the 10/17/24 edition is accepted through September 30, and a wrong edition after that draws an RFE, not a rejection
Last week's item is superseded. After USCIS posted the 08/24/26 editions of Forms I-864, I-864A and I-864EZ after 4:30 p.m. on August 31 and declared them mandatory the same day, AILA and Benach Pitney Reilly sued in the District of Columbia on September 3 under the APA and the Paperwork Reduction Act (AILA Doc. Nos. 26090306 and 26090305, both public). By September 4 the Form I-864 page carried a new alert: USCIS "is providing a 30-day grace period during which we will accept the 10/17/24 edition," will accept only the 08/24/26 edition from October 1, 2026, and "does not reject Form I-485 ... if it is filed with a previous edition of Form I-864." A superseded edition filed on or after October 1 is treated as missing initial evidence under 8 C.F.R. § 103.2(b)(8), which means an RFE rather than a lost filing date. The docket number of the AILA suit was not located and its status after the reversal is unknown.
The substantive change survives the reversal. The new edition carries a privacy release authorizing USCIS to pull the sponsor's file from consumer reporting agencies, and the page instructs sponsors with a credit or security freeze to lift it "expeditiously" on request or expect delay. Cohen Tucker & Ades adds a point the USCIS page does not: derogatory credit information may be disclosed to the intending immigrant under 8 C.F.R. § 103.2(b)(16), and mixing editions across the I-864 and I-864A in one package is a rejection risk.
USCIS Form I-864 page (alert, updated Sept 4)·AILA press release, Sept 3 (Doc. 26090306)·AILA complaint page (Doc. 26090305)·Manifest Law, Sept 4·Cohen Tucker & Ades, Sept 2
USCIS posted a 09/04/26 edition of Form I-485 that has a fourteen-day life: from September 18 only the 09/18/26 edition survives
The Form I-485 page now describes a two-step cliff. Until September 17, USCIS accepts only the 01/20/25 and 09/04/26 editions. Effective September 18, 2026, USCIS will reject both if postmarked or electronically submitted on or after that date and will accept only the 09/18/26 edition, which is the public-charge version already previewed under Special Instructions. Supplements A and J also received 09/04/26 editions, with 01/20/25 still accepted for those. The 09/04/26 edition exists because of the foreign-government-employee interim final rule (below); it is not a public-charge form and should not be mistaken for one.
Unlike the I-864, there is no grace period here and no RFE safety net: a wrong I-485 edition is a rejection, and for an EB-1A or NIW concurrent filing a rejection can cost the priority-date lock and, for an applicant near the end of nonimmigrant status, the § 245 window.
Duration of status: argued September 3, under advisement, with a "brief TRO" floated from the bench — and the rule still bites September 15
The government filed its opposition on September 2 after a four-day extension, and the court heard the preliminary injunction and § 705 stay motions on September 3. The docket records only "Arguments heard; Court takes matter under advisement." NAFSA's litigation page, updated September 8, reports no ruling. Plaintiffs also moved for summary judgment. The courtroom accounts, from co-plaintiff NewsGuild and the Boston Globe, are consistent: Judge Saylor said the irreparable-harm uncertainty was "enormous," asked whether the government's national-security evidence was all "anecdotal," said he was "struggling to see any real rational connection" between a four-year cap and "not even half a dozen isolated incidents over a period of nearly 50 years," and raised the possibility of "a brief TRO to give myself some more time." He committed to nothing. Those remarks are summary-sourced from the parties and press; no transcript was read.
Two operational reminders that do not depend on the ruling. First, the I-539 and I-765 editions dated 09/15/26 become mandatory on September 15 with no grace period whatever happens to the rule. Second, the travel trap from last week stands: an existing D/S holder who departs and re-enters after September 15 is admitted for a fixed period.
D. Mass. docket (CourtListener)·NAFSA litigation page, updated Sept 8·NewsGuild courtroom account, Sept 3·Final rule, 91 FR 44976
Consular EB-1 and EB-2 beneficiaries: the public-charge "training" reschedule is still moving interviews, the enforcement motion in CLINIC v. Rubio is pending, and third-country posts need a logistics check at intake
Three threads converge on the same client. The State Department's August 24 worldwide instruction to reschedule immigrant visa interviews pending public-charge training drew an emergency motion to enforce the August 21 vacatur of the 75-country immigrant visa suspension; Cyrus Mehta reports the government represented in court that the pause would not extend past August 31, while press accounts collected by the litigation team describe posts rescheduling into late September and early October. No ruling on the motion was found. The DOS page for the 75 listed nationalities now states the January 21 pause "is no longer in effect" as of August 21.
Separately, Matthew Morley's AILA Think Immigration post reads the July 15 DOS guidance that routes nonimmigrant applicants to their country of nationality or residence and immigrant applicants to their country of residence, with designated substitute posts where operations are suspended (Russians to Warsaw or Astana for NIVs, and Warsaw, Almaty or Tashkent for IVs). His checklist is the practical one: can the client enter the third country, obtain its entry visa in time, remain there through passport return or a 221(g), and return if re-interviewed. The new African hub system expands the problem.
AILA Think Immigration, Morley, Sept 1 (Doc. 26090100)·Cyrus Mehta, Aug 31·NILC case page, CLINIC v. Rubio·DOS visa news, updated Aug 28·Jackson Lewis, Aug 27
Biometric entry-exit fee attaches to H-1B and L-1 extensions from tomorrow
The $4,000 (H-1B) and $4,500 (L-1) fee under Public Law 114-113 applies to extension petitions, including same-employer extensions, filed on or after September 9 by employers with 50 or more U.S. employees more than half of whom hold H-1B or L status. Amended petitions that do not request an extension are outside it, and the rule runs through petitions filed through September 30, 2027. Not an EB-1A, NIW, O-1 or P-1 item, but any petition mailed this week with an H-1B or L-1 extension for a covered employer needs the fee or it will be rejected.
The $103,265 H-1B fee: sixteen days to comment, and the strongest objection now on record is that the fee funds other agencies
No new agency action this week, but the practitioner record is filling in. Cyrus Mehta's argument, quoted in the Times of India and repeated in his August 31 update, is that routing the fee through the Immigration Examinations Fee Account to fund functions outside USCIS adjudication violates the IEFA statute and separation of powers; last week's brief flagged the cost-recovery theory as the vulnerable point, and this is the same attack from the appropriations side. Larrabee confirms the proposal does not reach transfers, extensions or amendments. If finalized, the regulation would moot the posture of the Proclamation 10973 appeal, in which the First Circuit denied a stay on July 24 and the fee remains vacated.
2 · Notable
Ten itemsWhat the First Circuit actually stayed in Dorcas: re-review of approved benefits may proceed; the country holds stay vacated
Because Red Eagle Law v. Edlow is stayed pending this appeal, the scope of the First Circuit's August 14 order matters more than last week's brief conveyed. The panel granted a stay pending appeal only as to the Comprehensive Re-Review Policy, which directs re-examination of benefits already approved for nationals of the listed countries who entered on or after January 20, 2021, and denied the stay as to the Benefits Hold and Country-Specific Factors policies, which remain vacated. The USCIS alert of August 28 confirms the agency is adjudicating class members' applications in the normal course under Breyer's injunction.
For EB-1A, NIW and O-1 practice the split is precise: pending petitions and applications for nationals of the 39 Proclamation 10949 and 10998 countries must be adjudicated, but an approved I-140 or I-129 for such a national who entered after January 20, 2021 is exposed to re-review while the appeal runs. The September 10 opening-brief date is carried from last week; the First Circuit docket could not be re-read (Justia's mirror is stale and CourtListener presented a bot challenge).
First Circuit stay order, Aug 14·USCIS alert, Aug 28·Red Eagle docket tracker (secondary)
Thirty-day RFE windows are now being issued under the August 5 evidence policy
Greenberg Traurig reports it is "now seeing RFEs issued under the new framework that provide 30 days to respond" in place of the customary 84 days. USCIS has not adopted a universal 30-day rule; officers are exercising case-specific discretion, extensions are not available, and a partial response may be treated as a request for a decision on the record. Murthy's Adam Rosen and Larrabee independently report denials issued without any RFE or NOID where initial evidence was missing, which the August 5 guidance authorizes. The August 25 date is just outside the window; it is included because it is the most concrete observed-behavior report on the policy so far and was not covered in earlier editions.
This bears directly on EB-1A, NIW and O-1A drafting. An RFE that asks for new expert letters, citation reports or foreign records cannot be answered in 30 days unless the material already exists. Pre-identify the third-party evidence a foreseeable RFE would call for, obtain the letters at filing rather than holding them in reserve, and treat every notice as time-critical on receipt. Chen Immigration's approval logs (Monitoring, below) show that the RFE-then-approve pattern in NIW cases is intact, which makes the response window the binding constraint.
Greenberg Traurig, Aug 25·Larrabee, Sept 1·USCIS Policy Manual updates
Attorney General designates Matter of A-Q-R-K- precedent: a third-country visa or residence permit is now an express credibility factor in asylum
The Board sustained a DHS appeal and remanded an immigration judge's grant of asylum to an Afghan respondent because the decision "does not contain factual findings or legal analysis concerning numerous inconsistencies": marriage and birth certificates that did not exist and then appeared, shifting dates for the onset of Taliban problems, conflicts with the credible-fear interview, and family members left unharmed. The remand instruction is the new part. The immigration judge must address "how the respondent obtained a student visa to enter Austria and permission to reside in Germany and how the respondent's ability to obtain such documents impacts his claim to be a refugee in flight." The decision cites Matter of E-N-N-, 29 I&N Dec. 586 (BIA 2026), and was made precedential under 8 C.F.R. § 1003.1(g)(3) a month after issuance, continuing the pattern of the Attorney General elevating DHS-favorable credibility reversals. Read in full.
Eighth Circuit opens two new splits in one day: no review of standalone reasonable-fear affirmances, and no equitable tolling of the 30-day petition deadline
In Sebastian-Perez, the court held it lacks jurisdiction under § 1252(a)(1) to review an immigration judge's standalone affirmance of a negative reasonable-fear finding, because it is not a final order of removal and does not merge into the reinstated order under Riley and Nasrallah. The opinion expressly disagrees with the Third Circuit's Laureano v. Attorney General, 177 F.4th 453 (3d Cir. 2026), and joins the Ninth and Eleventh. In B.P., a CAT-only petition was dismissed as untimely: a § 1228(b) administrative removal order was final on issuance in November 2020, and the 30-day deadline in § 1252(b)(1) is a mandatory claims-processing rule not subject to equitable tolling, splitting with the Fourth (Navarro, Aug 11, 2026), Sixth and Seventh Circuits. Both read in full. The equitable-tolling split is the more likely certiorari vehicle; it will surface in any post-Riley case where the petition was filed against the later CAT denial rather than the underlying order.
Fifth Circuit applies Urias-Orellana: substantial-evidence review for cancellation hardship and VAWA extreme-cruelty findings
Following the Supreme Court's decision in Urias-Orellana, the Fifth Circuit now reviews the agency's hardship determination under § 1229b(b)(1), and the battery-or-extreme-cruelty and hardship findings under the VAWA special rule in § 1229b(b)(2), for substantial evidence rather than de novo, and holds that a summary affirmance under Burbano adopts the immigration judge's reasoning for that purpose. Read in full. The practical effect in the Fifth Circuit is that a cancellation record must be built for deference at the trial level; the petition for review will not re-weigh it.
Stanford Daily v. Rubio: a declaratory judgment that the foreign-policy deportation and visa-revocation provisions are unconstitutional as applied to protected speech
The court declared the challenged portions of INA § 237(a)(4)(C) (deportability for foreign-policy consequences) and § 221(i) (visa revocation) unconstitutional under the First Amendment and void for vagueness as applied to protected speech, denied a permanent injunction as to the deportation provision on the ground that only the Supreme Court may enjoin it, and closed the case. Only the opening and closing pages were read; the reasoning is summary-sourced and the government's appeal position is unknown. The holding is citable now for any O-1, F-1 or J-1 client whose visa is threatened over publication or protest activity, which is the fact pattern that has produced most of the 2025 and 2026 revocations of student and scholar visas.
Second birthright order enjoined for a certified class on September 2; DHS answered two days later with an interim final rule on children of "foreign government employees"
Judge Boardman preliminarily enjoined Executive Order 14418, the August 6 successor order on birthright citizenship, as applied to a certified class; Cyrus Mehta's September 5 analysis, read in full, reports the court called the order "almost certainly unconstitutional" and argues the order's commercial-transaction and "birth tourism" carve-outs are motive-based exceptions that Trump v. Barbara and 8 U.S.C. § 1401(a) do not permit. The order itself was not read. On September 4 DHS filed for public inspection an interim final rule, cleared by OIRA the same day, that replaces "foreign diplomatic officer" in 8 C.F.R. §§ 101.3, 101.4 and 264.2 with "foreign government employee," a category reaching accredited diplomats, embassy and consulate employees who are nationals of the sending state, persons employed by a foreign government in an official capacity, and employees of international organizations with immunity. Such children, treated as non-citizens at birth under the order, may register as LPRs by I-485 as of their date of birth; the rule revises Forms I-485 and G-325R. USCIS states it "will not take actions to implement the rule specifically to any member of the certified class." The public-inspection text was read in full. The practice relevance is confined to clients employed by international organizations or foreign missions, but the rule is the reason the 09/04/26 I-485 edition exists.
Public-inspection PDF, FR 2026-18345·USCIS alert, Sept 4·Cyrus Mehta, Sept 5
Diversity visa holds vacated in Medani v. Trump; USCIS and DOS both resume, with a September 30 hard stop
The court certified a USCIS subclass of FY2026 DV selectees and derivatives subject to PM-602-0193, temporarily vacated that hold policy, and ordered USCIS to resume ordinary adjudication of class members' pending I-485s for the remainder of the fiscal year; USCIS "strongly disagrees" but is complying. The DOS visa-news page, updated August 31, states the December 2025 pause on DV issuance "is no longer in effect" as of August 28. USCIS alert and DOS page read in full; the order itself is summary-sourced from Courthouse News and BAL. Every DV-2026 adjustment and visa must be completed by September 30 or the entitlement is lost.
USCIS alert, Sept 4·DOS visa news, updated Aug 31·Courthouse News, Aug 28
DOJ's National Fraud Detection Center will cross-match immigration filings against IRS and DOL records
Greenberg Traurig's original analysis of the prosecutor-led center, which unifies FBI, HSI, IRS-CI, FinCEN, Treasury and the DHS and DOL inspectors general, is that immigration filings will be cross-referenced against tax and wage records, and that inconsistencies in job duties, wages, worksites, credentials or corporate relationships can produce an RFE, NOID, site visit, revocation or criminal referral. Ogletree's companion piece traces Executive Order 14406 (May 2026), the June 5 FinCEN advisory FIN-2026-A002 and a June 8 CFPB statement that immigration status may be weighed in ability-to-repay determinations. For self-petitions the exposure is specific: the income, employment and ownership claims in an EB-1A or NIW record, and the agent or petitioner structure in an O-1 or P-1, must reconcile with what the same people told the IRS. Reconcile before filing, not after the RFE.
ICE reports 50,925 August arrests, a third consecutive monthly record
DHS reports 50,925 ICE arrests in August against 50,208 in July and 43,900 in June, claims more than three million departures since January 2025, and continues the $3,000-plus-flight self-deportation offer through CBP Home. A separate September 1 release on "Operation Rotten Apple" claims 2,197 New York arrests between July 27 and August 29; only its title loaded. No new detention, parole, worksite or vetting policy was announced in the window, and the CBP newsroom carried nothing beyond seizures and a preclearance technology rollout. The state-level counterpoint: on September 1 Judge Payne (E.D. Va.) preliminarily enjoined Virginia's new limits on 287(g) cooperation (summary-sourced, Virginia Mercury).
3 · Monitoring
Twelve itemsThe 60-day grace period rule is twelve days out of OIRA and still unpublished; it reaches O-1
RIN 1615-AD22 concluded review on August 27 "consistent with change" and has not appeared on the Federal Register public-inspection desk as of September 8, which was checked directly. It would eliminate the discretionary up-to-60-day period at 8 C.F.R. § 214.1(l)(2) for E, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1 and TN principals and dependents. Ogletree's Beltway Buzz expects publication "soon"; the stage is listed at OIRA as a rule and by Klasko as a proposed rule, and the text is not public. Until it publishes, an O-1A beneficiary who loses the job still has the grace period, but last week's observation stands: refusals of the discretionary period are becoming more common. Ogletree Beltway Buzz, Sept 4 · OIRA dashboard
October Visa Bulletin still unpublished; September stands with EB-2 India unavailable and EB-1 India on warning
As of the September 8 check the DOS index lists September as the current bulletin and USCIS shows October as "coming soon." September final action dates are unchanged: EB-1 current worldwide, China 01JUL23, India 15OCT22; EB-2 current worldwide, China 01SEP21, India unavailable; EB-3 worldwide 01SEP24. USCIS is using the Final Action Dates chart for employment categories. No "annual limit reached" notice for EB-1 India or EB-2 worldwide has posted, so an Indian-chargeable EB-1A applicant with a priority date before October 15, 2022 can still file adjustment this month, and the FY2026 annual EB limit of 186,317 with a per-country ceiling of 28,862 is the arithmetic behind DOS's retrogression warning. Expect the October bulletin between September 10 and 17; the questions are whether EB-2 India returns from unavailable, whether EB-1 India and China move with the new fiscal year's numbers, and which chart USCIS designates. September 2026 Visa Bulletin · USCIS chart designation · Fisher Phillips, Aug 27
Proclamation 10973 lapses September 21 absent extension; the First Circuit appeal is unbriefed
The $100,000 H-1B entry payment expires twelve months after its September 21, 2025 effective date unless the President extends it (Klasko and Buchalter compute September 20). Its implementing policy was vacated by D. Mass. on June 8, and the First Circuit denied a stay pending appeal on July 24; no briefing or argument schedule was located. Watch for a renewal proclamation in the week of September 14, which would be the signal that the administration intends to keep the entry restriction alive alongside the regulatory fee. Summary-sourced. Buchalter · Larrabee, Sept 1
Pending at OIRA: the H-1B reform NPRM, an OPT fee rule, EAD auto-extension removal, and H-4 EAD elimination on the long-term agenda
The reginfo.gov dashboard, read directly, lists DHS's "Reforming the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Classification Program" NPRM (RIN 1615-AD00, economically significant, received August 24), ICE's "Optional Practical Training Fees" NPRM (1653-AB01, received August 20), the "Removal of the Automatic Extension of EADs" final rule (1615-AD05, received June 23) and the EB-5 fee rule (1615-AC93) as pending, and RIN 1615-AD23, removing the 30-day refugee termination notice, as concluded September 4 and unpublished. Murthy reports H-4 EAD elimination (RIN 1615-AD14) added to the long-term agenda. Nothing from OFLC, EOIR or the State Department's visa office is pending. OIRA EO 12866 dashboard · Murthy, Sept 1 (listing only)
NIW adjudication as observed in approval logs: service-center ping-pong, RFE-then-approve, and EB-1A denials running alongside NIW approvals for the same beneficiary
Chen Immigration's September 3 log of twelve NIW approvals after RFE, read in full, records seven petitions transferred Nebraska to Texas and back during adjudication, premium processing in every case, several approvals with no or minimal letters at filing and two to five added at RFE, two approvals through the exceptional-ability route, and one NIW approval for a doctoral student whose companion EB-1A was denied after RFE. Profiles include five publications with twenty citations. Colombo & Hurd's September 4 case study (aesthetic surgeon, Mexico, approved July 30 after an RFE asking exactly what the beneficiary would do and why it mattered nationally) shows the prong-one response that worked: tie the endeavor to named federal programs and describe a training model as the mechanism for national reach. Together with the three AAO dismissals below, the picture is consistent: prong one is where NIWs are being decided, and it is being decided on specificity of the endeavor rather than the importance of the field. Chen Immigration, Sept 3 · Colombo & Hurd, Sept 4
DOL: PERM analyst review at November 2025 and 336 days; prevailing wage at May 2026; court-ordered H-2A wage notice
FLAG as of August 31 shows PERM analyst review at a November 2025 priority with an average of 336 calendar days, audit review at December 2025, and OEWS prevailing wage requests for PERM and H-1B from May 2026 in process, with roughly 15,000 PERM wage requests pending in each of June, July and August. On September 2 OFLC posted the notice required by the August 26 order in United Farm Workers v. DOL, E.D. Cal. No. 25-cv-01614: the October 2025 AEWR methodology was held unlawful without vacatur, DOL must publish a new methodology, and H-2A employers using labor from September 2 until new rates issue "may" owe wage adjustments if the new rates are higher. For NIW filings that include an ETA-9089 with a prevailing wage determination, budget roughly four months. Read in full. FLAG processing times · OFLC announcements, Sept 2
CPT: SEVP's August broadcasts are now producing named suspensions
Ogletree's September 3 analysis of SEVP Broadcast Messages 2608-01 (August 12) and 2608-02 (August 24) describes guidance, not a rule, that CPT must be integral to the curriculum and that SEVP may demand documentation; Boundless reports UC Berkeley and UC Davis have temporarily suspended some course-credit CPT programs. An F-1 client bridging to an O-1A on CPT-based employment should be moved to a filing plan that does not depend on the authorization continuing. Ogletree, Sept 3 · Boundless, Sept 4
AILA in the windowMember-gated
The two I-864 litigation documents (Doc. Nos. 26090306 and 26090305) and the underlying August 31 alert (26083102) are public, as is Morley's Think Immigration post (26090100). The GMS E-Bulletin of August 18 (26081812) is gated. No practice alert on receipt-notice delays, the September 9 biometric fee or duration of status surfaced in the public feed; the receipt-notice call for examples (26082538) closed September 7 and any resulting alert will be gated. AILA Immigration News
Supreme Court: Genalo argued October 13; Wassily v. Blanche on the merits docket without a date; no immigration cert grants or emergency rulings in the window
The October calendar, read in full, lists Genalo v. Black, No. 25-886, as the second case on Tuesday, October 13, on whether prolonged § 1226(c) detention without a bond hearing violates due process and whether the case is moot after the petitioner's 2022 release. SCOTUSblog lists Wassily v. Blanche (asylum termination and LPR eligibility) on the OT2026 merits docket, not yet calendared; summary-sourced. The seven-to-two split on mandatory detention of entrants without inspection, deepened by the First Circuit on August 13 and the Third Circuit last week, is the likeliest next grant. October 2026 argument calendar
Continuing resolution signed September 2 runs through December 11
No October 1 shutdown. USCIS is fee-funded regardless; the December 11 date is the one to diarize for DOL certifications, consular operations and EOIR hearings. Ogletree Beltway Buzz, Sept 4
Massachusetts: 48-hour employee notice after an ICE Notice of Inspection, effective now
Jackson Lewis reports the PROTECT Act of 2026, signed August 5 with no phase-in, requires Massachusetts employers to give written notice to all employees within 48 hours of service of an ICE I-9 inspection notice, with $200 to $500 penalties, and restricts enforcement at schools, hospitals and courthouses. Relevant to any Massachusetts petitioner employer. Jackson Lewis, Sept 1
EOIR: nothing new; USCIS Policy Manual: nothing for EB-1, EB-2, O or P
EOIR's most recent notice remains the August 27 appointment of 35 immigration judges; the policy-memoranda list returned a challenge page and could not be checked. The only Policy Manual change in the window was the August 31 reinstatement of NGO voter registration at naturalization ceremonies, reported last week. Matter of R-P-L-, 29 I&N Dec. 859 (voluntary departure fines), reported last week from the slip opinion, now appears in the Volume 29 index. EOIR notices · Policy Manual updates
Adjudication trend · AAO
Three new NIW decisions; August postings beginningAugust 2026 decisions have started to reach the repository, but only in other categories so far (an EB-3, an L-1 and a VAWA decision dated August 3). Nothing for August has posted in EB-1A, NIW, O-1 or P. The one change since last week is that three NIW decisions dated July 23 are newly posted, moving that category's newest date from July 21. EB-1A remains at July 22, O-1 at June 17 and P at April 2. The three NIW decisions were read in full from the decision PDFs. The category listings were read through a live browser; the repository still returns 403 to fetchers.
EB-1A — Extraordinary Ability
No postings since the July 22 batch analyzed last week. The two standing lessons from that batch carry forward: recency is being used as the lever against awards, memberships, press and judging simultaneously, and the AAO is citing Trump v. CASA to discount Buletini and Mukherji by name. One adjacent data point this week from outside the repository: Chen Immigration reports an EB-1A denied after RFE while the same beneficiary's NIW was approved, which is the pairing to expect when the record is a modest publication count and letters from acquaintances.
EB-2 NIW — National Interest Waiver
All three July 23 appeals were dismissed, and two of the three turned on Dhanasar prong one. In JUL232026_02B5203, a water-infrastructure engineering consultant with a conceded advanced degree submitted EPA National Water Program guidance and industry reports; the AAO found they "speak to the substantial merit" but "do not establish how his future work operating a single engineering consulting services company would impact these fields more broadly," and stated the rule in one sentence: "Working in an important field is insufficient in and of itself to establish the national importance of the proposed endeavor." Prongs two and three were reserved under Bagamasbad, and a footnote rejected the argument that the service center had "mandated" direct support of government agencies. In JUL232026_03B5203, a drilling engineer proposing autonomous drilling and a proprietary digital field application cited DOE and BSEE programs, the national energy emergency declarations, IRA methane goals, claimed adoption by major operators, and quantified an 8 to 12 percent per-well emissions reduction and $100 million a year in recaptured losses. The AAO held that the support letters, including new ones on appeal from outside the employer, "only reinforce" that the impact is confined to the employer and its clients; that alignment with government initiatives does not show likely national impact; that the technical documentation was filed "with little explanation as to its probative value"; and that unsubstantiated quantitative claims fail under Matter of Ho. Two drafting consequences: appellate letters from outside the employer did not cure a prong-one record, and every number in the petition needs an independent source.
The third, JUL232026_01B5203, is the one to read for the underlying classification. A hospitality-staffing co-founder claimed EB-2 through exceptional ability only. The service center had credited two of the six criteria at 8 C.F.R. § 204.5(k)(3)(ii); the AAO withdrew the favorable finding on ten years' experience and affirmed. The record described the endeavor three ways (HR consulting for rural small businesses, running an existing staffing and janitorial company, a new consulting firm), and the AAO invoked Matter of Ho for the petitioner's burden to resolve the inconsistency, then added that the "area of exceptional ability" under § 204.5(k)(3)(ii)(A) "must be directly related to their proposed endeavor when seeking a national interest waiver." Experience letters lacked title and duties under § 204.5(g)(1); sales and store-manager roles were not the occupation sought; the salary comparison to HR-specialist wage data was "irrelevant" because the earnings came from sales leadership; and client letters praising the staffing service did not show contributions "significant to the field." The AAO will reverse criteria the service center granted, so an exceptional-ability NIW must be built as if every criterion is contested. The dismissals now close with the Form I-862 boilerplate warning that a petitioner not lawfully present may be placed in removal proceedings; self-petitioners out of status should hear that before the appeal is filed.
O-1A — Extraordinary Ability (Nonimmigrant)
Nothing posted since JUN172026_01D8101, the single June decision. No July or August O-1 decision has appeared, which is now the longest gap in this category in the current year; it says nothing about outcomes, only about repository lag. The relevant O-1A development this week is regulatory rather than adjudicative: the grace period rule at OIRA, above.
P-1A — Internationally Recognized Athlete
Nothing since APR022026_01D9101. No P decision has posted for May through August.
Read in full. The USCIS Form I-864 page alert (updated September 4), read directly in a live browser; the USCIS Form I-485 page edition rules and the Forms Updates page; the USCIS alerts of September 3 and 4; the AILA press release and complaint page of September 3; the public-inspection text of FR 2026-18345; the September 2026 Visa Bulletin and the USCIS chart-designation page; the DOS visa-news pages for diversity visas and the 75 listed nationalities; FLAG processing times and the OFLC September 2 notice; the OIRA dashboard; Matter of A-Q-R-K- and Matter of R-P-L- from the EOIR PDFs; the Eighth Circuit opinions in Sebastian-Perez and B.P. and the Fifth Circuit opinion in Okene; the First Circuit stay order in Dorcas; the D. Mass. docket entry of September 3 in Presidents' Alliance; the Supreme Court's October calendar; the three NIW decision PDFs; the DHS press release of September 2; and the firm and blog pages of Greenberg Traurig, Ogletree, Jackson Lewis, Cyrus Mehta, Larrabee, Manifest, Cohen Tucker & Ades, Chen Immigration, Colombo & Hurd, NAFSA and NewsGuild cited above.
Blocked sources and workarounds. uscis.gov, dhs.gov and reginfo.gov reject automated fetchers and were read through a live browser; travel.state.gov was reached through an alternate fetcher; the Federal Register API was reached by direct request after the fetch tool refused it. The DHS "Operation Rotten Apple" release loaded only its title. CourtListener presented a bot challenge to one researcher and served the D. Mass. docket to another; the First Circuit docket in Dorcas was not re-read and the September 10 brief date is carried from last week. The EOIR policy-memoranda list returned a challenge page. Fragomen's insights index served a stale January listing and its article pages returned empty bodies, so no Fragomen item is relied on this week. JD Supra's immigration page served cached 2024 content. BAL's news landing page surfaces a 2019 article in its featured slot and is cited only for the September 2 diversity visa item, itself summary-sourced.
Summary-sourced. Judge Saylor's remarks at the September 3 hearing, from NewsGuild, the Boston Globe and NAFSA, with no transcript. The September 2 preliminary injunction in CASA v. Trump, from Cyrus Mehta's analysis and the USCIS alert. The Medani order of August 28, from Courthouse News and BAL. The Red Eagle docket entries, from a third-party tracker built on CourtListener. The Stanford Daily decision, of which only the opening and closing pages were read. The First Circuit's July 24 stay denial in the Proclamation 10973 appeal and the proclamation's lapse date, from Buchalter, Klasko and Larrabee. The CLINIC v. Rubio opinion and the status of the enforcement motion, from NILC and Democracy Forward. The Virginia 287(g) injunction, from the Virginia Mercury. The scope of the grace period rule, from Klasko and Ogletree, since the text is not public. Wassily v. Blanche, from SCOTUSblog. The Chen Immigration entries for September 1 and 2, from the site's listing.
Not confirmed. The docket number and post-reversal status of AILA v. USCIS. The October 2026 Visa Bulletin, unpublished at the September 8 check. The comment deadline for the foreign-government-employee IFR, computed from the public-inspection date and to be confirmed against the DATES section on September 9. Whether the DOL concluded-review list at OIRA contains any immigration item; the search form would not submit. Whether the September 10 Dorcas brief date has moved. Nothing from the Proclamation 10973 appeal was read at source. No AILA member-gated content was read.
Compiled September 8, 2026 · Bratter PA