IMMIGRATION UPDATE – Month in Review
September 25, 2026
HEADLINES
Federal Court Postpones Effective Date of Final Rule Limiting Duration of Status for F, J, I Nonimmigrants – A federal court in Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction that postponed a Department of Homeland Security final rule that would have ended duration-of-status (D/S) admissions for F, J, and I nonimmigrants effective September 15, 2026.
DOS Expands Online ‘Screening and Vetting’ of Visa Applicants – Effective October 1, 2026, the Department of State will instruct all applicants for I, TD, and TN nonimmigrant visas “to set the privacy settings on all of their social media profiles to ‘public’ or ‘open.’ ” The latest announcement expands the vetting that currently applies to many other visa categories.
Trump Orders New H-1B Restrictions/Reviews and Extends $100,000 Fee for New H-1B Nonimmigrant Applications – President Trump issued an executive order and a proclamation that, together, impose new H-1B restrictions, order the Secretary of Labor to review previously submitted labor condition applications, and extend the $100,000 fee on new H-1B nonimmigrant applications.
DHS Proposes to Eliminate 60-Day Grace Period for Certain Nonimmigrant Workers Upon Cessation of Employment Before Authorized Stay Expires – The Department of Homeland Security has proposed to eliminate the 60-day grace period after cessation of employment before the expiration of a nonimmigrant worker’s authorized period of stay.
USCIS Reaches H-2B Cap for First Half of FY 2027 – September 4, 2026, was the final receipt date for new cap-subject H-2B worker petitions requesting an employment start date before April 1, 2027.
Uncertainty Continues Re Salvadoran TPS – Despite Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Salvadorans having expired on September 9, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said without elaborating that Salvadoran individuals present in the U.S. under TPS retain protection including work authorization for an unspecified period.
SAVE and E-Verify Post Updates on TPS for Sudan and Ukraine – Both countries’ TPS and related benefits are extended until October 19, 2026.
District Court Judge Rules Against Trump in Birthright Citizenship Case – A U.S. district judge in Maryland ruled against President Trump’s latest executive order attempting to limit birthright citizenship.
U.S. District Judge Rules in Favor of Stanford Daily on Free Speech for F-1 Students – A U.S. district judge ruled in favor of a student newspaper in a case challenging the Trump administration’s actions against free speech by noncitizen students in the United States.
DHS Issues Interim Final Rule on Children Born in United States to Foreign Government Employees – The Department of Homeland Security issued an interim final rule, effective September 4, 2026, to allow certain children born in the United States to foreign government employees who are not U.S. citizens to register as lawful permanent residents.
USCIS Says It Will Follow Court Order on Diversity Visa Adjustment Applications – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is now ordered, “to the extent practicable and in good faith, to take all reasonable steps during the remainder of the Diversity Visa fiscal year to resume ordinary adjudication of plaintiffs’ pending adjustment of status applications without applying” a USCIS memo that placed a hold on Diversity Visa adjustment applications.
Lawsuit Challenges ‘Arbitrary Mandatory Form Changes’ Issued Without Warning – The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and immigration law firm Benach Pitney Reilly sued the Trump administration for “implementing substantive form changes again, without warning, that will harm potentially thousands of AILA members and their clients.”
Canada Attracts Researchers From U.S. Universities – According to reports of a Canada-bound “brain drain” from the United States, 21 Canadian universities have taken advantage of Trump administration pressures on scientific research and funding at top U.S. universities by hiring at least 48 researchers from them.
DETAILS
Federal Court Postpones Effective Date of Final Rule Limiting Duration of Status for F, J, I Nonimmigrants
On September 14, 2026, a federal court in Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction postponing the effective date of a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) final rule that would have replaced duration-of-status (D/S) admissions for F, J, and I nonimmigrants with fixed admission periods beginning September 15, 2026. The ruling preserves the existing D/S framework while the litigation proceeds, affecting students, exchange visitors, foreign media representatives, sponsoring institutions, and employers.
In granting preliminary relief, the court found that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their Administrative Procedure Act claim. That finding is preliminary and does not constitute a final ruling on the validity of the rule. The court scheduled a status conference for October 2, 2026.
The order enjoins DHS from taking further action to implement the rule while litigation proceeds. The court denied requests for vacatur (invalidating the rule) and summary judgment without prejudice, meaning those requests may be renewed later in the course of litigation.
LAC recommends that employers coordinate with immigration counsel and affected employees before making status, travel, or filing decisions that assume the fixed admission period rule is in effect, since D/S remains the controlling framework. Employers who sponsor F, J, or I visa holders should notify their HR teams, hiring managers, and affected employees that current D/S rules remain in effect until further notice. This update does not change any prior requirements regarding F-1 employment authorization, such as filing timeframes to apply for post-completion Optional Practical Training (OPT) or STEM-OPT extensions, and it does not change I-9 requirements for these forms of employment authorization. Employers, designated school officials, exchange visitor program officers, and international offices are advised to confer with immigration counsel to identify which steps remain appropriate under the current framework.
DOS Expands Online ‘Screening and Vetting’ of Visa Applicants
On September 18, 2026, the Department of State (DOS) announced that effective October 1, 2026, the agency will “broaden its online presence review” to cover applicants in additional nonimmigrant visa classifications: I (foreign media representatives), TN (U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement [USMCA] professionals), and TD (USMCA dependents).
To support this “vetting” process, DOS will instruct all applicants for I, TD, and TN nonimmigrant visas “to set the privacy settings on all of their social media profiles to ‘public’ or ‘open.’ ”
DOS said that the latest announcement expands, to the applicants above, the vetting that currently applies to the following visa categories:
- Diplomatic and official visas: A-3, C-3 (if a domestic worker), G-5
- Students: F-1, M-1, F-2, M-2
- Temporary workers and trainees: H-1B, H-3, H-4 dependents of H1-B and H-3
- Exchange visitors: J-1, J-2
- Fiancé(e)s and dependents: K-1, K-2, K-3
- International cultural exchange participants: Q
- Religious occupations: R-1, R-2
- Witnesses, informants, and victims: S, T, U
Trump Orders New H-1B Restrictions/Reviews and Extends $100,000 Fee for New H-1B Nonimmigrant Applications
President Trump issued an executive order and a proclamation that, together, impose new H-1B restrictions, direct the Secretary of Labor to review previously submitted labor condition applications, and extend through September 21, 2027, the $100,000 payment requirement tied to certain new H-1B petitions for workers outside the United States.
Below are highlights of the order and proclamation:
- On September 18, 2026, President Trump signed the executive order, Enhancing Program Integrity and Interagency Coordination in the Administration of the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Program. The order directs the Secretaries of State, Labor, and Homeland Security to “take into account in any labor condition application, petition, visa, and entry of aliens entering or attempting to enter the United States as H-1B nonimmigrants to perform services in a specialty occupation whether the employer sponsor directly or indirectly engaged in layoffs within the previous year or plans future layoffs that negatively affect the employment of similarly situated United States workers.”
The order also directs the Secretary of Labor, through the Wage and Hour Division, to “begin reviewing data related to previously submitted labor condition applications to determine whether further action against sponsoring employers is warranted.”
- On September 19, 2026, President Trump issued the proclamation, Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers, which extends his $100,000 fee on new H-1B nonimmigrant visa applications to September 21, 2027, with certain exceptions, such as for the national interest. Litigation over the $100,000 fee by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others remains pending.
DHS Proposes to Eliminate 60-Day Grace Period for Certain Nonimmigrant Workers Upon Cessation of Employment Before Authorized Stay Expires
On September 11, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a proposed rule to eliminate the 60-day grace period after cessation of employment before the expiration of a nonimmigrant worker’s authorized period of stay. This includes those with E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1, and TN nonimmigrant classifications.
Written comments must be submitted by November 10, 2026.
USCIS Reaches H-2B Cap for First Half of FY 2027
On September 11, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has received enough petitions to meet the congressionally established H-2B cap for the first half of fiscal year 2027.
September 4, 2026, was the final receipt date for new cap-subject H-2B worker petitions requesting an employment start date before April 1, 2027, USCIS said. The agency is rejecting new cap-subject H-2B petitions received after September 4, 2026, that request an employment start date before April 1, 2027.
Uncertainty Continues Re Salvadoran TPS
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and associated work authorization for more than 170,000 Salvadorans in the United States remains uncertain after it had been extended until September 9, 2026. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and E-Verify recently said, “An announcement on El Salvador’s TPS will be made at the appropriate time. Until such announcement is made, Salvadoran individuals present in the U.S. under TPS retain protection including work authorization.”
No further information was given.
SAVE and E-Verify Post Updates on TPS for Sudan and Ukraine
Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) and E-Verify have posted updates on the status of Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) beneficiaries from Sudan and Ukraine. Both countries’ TPS and related benefits are extended until October 19, 2026.
District Court Judge Rules Against Trump in Birthright Citizenship Case
On September 2, 2026, in CASA, Inc., v. Trump, a U.S. district judge in Maryland ruled against President Trump’s latest Executive Order 14418, issued August 6, 2026, that once again attempts to limit birthright citizenship.
The court said that the order “is almost certainly unconstitutional as applied to the certified class for the simple reason that the Supreme Court … already decided that the children in the class are citizens at birth. This Court must, once again, preliminarily enjoin enforcement of the President’s most recent attempt to strip the right to citizenship from them.”
The court noted that “[s]ince his second term in office began on January 20, 2025, the President has tried, through Executive Order, to upend our country’s longstanding tradition of birthright citizenship and eliminate, for large swaths of Americans, the right to citizenship by birth, a right enshrined in the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
U.S. District Judge Rules in Favor of Stanford Daily on Free Speech for F-1 Students
On August 28, 2026, in Stanford Daily Publishing Corporation v. Rubio, a U.S. district judge ruled in favor of the student newspaper Stanford Daily in a case challenging the Trump administration’s actions against free speech by noncitizen students in the United States “who express opinions the government wants to suppress.”
The plaintiffs alleged, the court said, that since March 2025, the Trump administration changed the U.S. government’s “immigration policy and pattern of enforcement by arresting, detaining, and deporting students with F-1 visas when those students use their freedom of speech to express opinions that the government does not like—such as expressing support or empathy for Palestinian people, or criticizing Israel’s actions regarding Palestine or the conflict in Gaza.” The plaintiffs argued that these actions violated the First and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The court said, “Stated plainly, in the United States, freedom of speech belongs to the people. It is not the government’s to take.”
The Stanford Daily noted that it was “one of three plaintiffs in the lawsuit, alongside two anonymous students not affiliated with Stanford, though one later departed the case. The plaintiffs were represented pro bono by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).”
DHS Issues Interim Final Rule on Children Born in United States to Foreign Government Employees
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it plans to issue an interim final rule, effective September 4, 2026, to allow certain children born in the United States to foreign government employees who are not U.S. citizens to register as lawful permanent residents.
DHS said the rule amends existing regulations that allow children born in the United States to foreign diplomatic officers to register as lawful permanent residents. The rule extends that opportunity to eligible children when neither parent is a U.S. citizen and at least one parent is a foreign government employee at the time of the child’s birth.
The interim final rule replaces the term “foreign diplomatic officer” with the broader term “foreign government employee.” Under the rule, DHS explained, “foreign government employee” includes “foreign diplomatic officers accredited to the United States, certain foreign embassy or consulate employees who are nationals of that foreign country, persons employed by a foreign government in an official capacity, and persons employed by an international organization that possesses international-organization immunity.”
The rule also clarifies categories that are not included, such as “personal employees or attendants of foreign officials, certain employees of state-owned enterprises, third-country nationals working for foreign governments, certain contractors, and foreign government employees visiting the United States in a personal capacity.”
DHS said that given the injunction in CASA, Inc., v. Trump, it will not implement the rule “specifically to any member of the certified class, or otherwise conflict with the preliminary injunction, unless and until the government obtains relief from the injunction. If the government obtains timely relief from the injunction, DHS will implement the rule accordingly.”
USCIS Says It Will Follow Court Order on Diversity Visa Adjustment Applications
According to reports, on August 28, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued an order in Medani v. Trump that temporarily vacated PM-602-0193 pending further litigation. That memorandum, issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on December 19, 2025, placed a “hold” on Diversity Visa (DV)-related adjustment of status applications and ordered a comprehensive review of related policies, procedures, and screening and vetting processes. USCIS is now ordered, “to the extent practicable and in good faith, to take all reasonable steps during the remainder of the Diversity Visa fiscal year to resume ordinary adjudication of plaintiffs’ pending adjustment of status applications without applying” the memo.
USCIS noted that the court granted in part the plaintiff’s motion for class certification. With respect to USCIS, the court certified the following subclass: “all selectees and derivative beneficiaries under the FY-2026 Diversity Visa Program who are subject to the USCIS DV Hold imposed by Policy Memorandum PM-602-0193.”
USCIS said it “strongly disagrees with the Court’s order but will follow its terms pending possible further judicial review.”
Lawsuit Challenges ‘Arbitrary Mandatory Form Changes’ Issued Without Warning
On September 3, 2026, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and immigration law firm Benach Pitney Reilly sued the Trump administration for “implementing substantive form changes again, without warning, that will harm potentially thousands of AILA members and their clients.” The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia.
In a press release, AILA alleged that late on August 31, 2026, “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that as of that day, new editions of the forms I-864 [Affidavit of Support], I-864A, and I-864EZ would be required without exception—potentially leading to the rejection of countless applications. In violation of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), and longstanding agency practice, no notice was given and no grace period was implemented; USCIS only informed the public of these changes via the ‘Forms Update Alert’ after 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time on the day they would take effect. To make matters even more alarming, form errors on the USCIS website created additional barriers to compliance.”
The USCIS I-864 webpage, updated on September 4, 2026, now states that “USCIS is providing a 30-day grace period during which we will accept the 10/17/24 edition of Form I-864. Beginning Oct. 1, 2026, we will only accept the 08/24/26 edition of Form I-864. USCIS will not process any 10/17/24 edition of Form I-864 postmarked or electronically submitted on or after Oct. 1, 2026.”
Canada Attracts Researchers From U.S. Universities
According to reports of a Canada-bound “brain drain” from the United States, 21 Canadian universities have taken advantage of Trump administration pressures on scientific research and funding at top U.S. universities by hiring at least 48 researchers from them. The hirings are funded, in part, by heavy Canadian government investment in research and innovation projects.
One scientist, Phillip Zamore, chair of the RNA Therapeutics Institute at the University of Massachusetts, will join the medical faculty at McGill University in Montréal. He said, “I used to live in the country that I thought was the most enthusiastic about the prospects for science improving the human condition, of any country in the world. And I woke up one day and that wasn’t true anymore.”
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PUBLICATIONS AND ITEMS OF INTEREST
Know your rights. A number of organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (English and Spanish), the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., the National Immigrant Justice Center, and the Asian Law Caucus, have published resources highlighting immigrants’ rights in the United States, including “know your rights” information and what documents they may want to carry when traveling inside the United States. The ACLU of Northern California has also released Know Your Rights: U.S. Airports and Ports of Entry.
See also Information for Employers — “What to Do if Immigration Comes to Your Workplace” : NELP_EmployerGuide_Eng_2025_Final-.pdf.
IMMIGRATION AGENCY INFORMATION/PROCESSING TIMES
U.S. Customs and Border Protection:
Accessing I-94 Information: https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/#/home
Department of Labor:
PERM and Prevailing Wage Processing Times: https://flag.dol.gov/processingtimes
State Department:
Visa Appointment Wait Times: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas.html
Monthly Immigrant Visa Bulletin: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin.html
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services:
Processing Times: https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/
Case Status Online: https://egov.uscis.gov/
GOVERNMENT ENGAGEMENTS
E-Verify webinars: E-Verify has added a webinar with a focus on acceptable documents for Form I-9 verification, and has updated its calendar of webinars.
SAVE webinars: Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) has updated its calendar of webinars.
Immigration agency X (formerly Twitter) accounts:
- EOIR: @DOJ_EOIR
- ICE: @ICEgov
- Study in the States: @StudyinStates
- USCIS: @USCIS
Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers: ABIL is available on X (formerly Twitter): @ABILImmigration
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This information was prepared in collaboration with ABIL, the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, comprised of twenty U.S. immigration lawyers who head some of the top immigration practices in the country. Larrabee Albi Coker LLP is an active member of ABIL.
Legal Disclaimer: This information is provided for informational purposes only and does not substitute for legal advice based on the circumstances of a specific matter.