By: Patricia Gannon, Esq. and Marcela Bermudez, Esq.
H-1B and Jobs for F-1 Students
As we near Labor Day, we are reminded that summer is almost at an end. Summer employment is winding down, and F-1 students and employers are counting on the H-1B cap lottery as they plan for 2026.
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) new proposed rule changes the H-1B lottery, which also changes the H-1B game. H-1B cap has cleared federal review. The proposed rule could seek to supplement or replace the annual H-1B cap lottery by giving priority in the selection process to registrants who meet or exceed certain criteria, such as wage or education level.
This is not the first time this has been proposed. During the final weeks of the first Trump Administration, an alteration to the cap selection process was suggested that would have largely replaced the computerized H-1B lottery with a system that allocated H-1B visa numbers according to the Department of Labor’s four-level prevailing wage system. That regulation would have first distributed H-1B cap numbers to registrants offered a wage that equaled or exceeded Level IV, the highest wage tier of the prevailing wage system, then would have selected registrations in descending order from Wage Levels III, II, and I. A computerized lottery would have been used only if the number of registrations for a specific wage level exceeded the number of H-1B cap slots available. This rule was vacated by a federal court without being implemented.
Almost Everyone will be Interviewed for a Visa
As summer comes to an end, and people make their plans to obtain their visas to travel, the U.S. Department of State has determined that foreign nationals can no longer skip the in-person visa interview. Everyone will need to be interviewed, including children and senior citizens. Before, you could mail in your visa renewal to the U.S. Consulate in your home country while you were visiting. Now, even though you may have had a visa renewal for the last decade, you will have to attend an interview. This business flexibility is now gone. Now, most business categories will have to be interviewed, along with children and senior citizens.
Family Based Petitions
Be watchful and be careful. USCIS recently issued some new rules regarding family-based petitions. Note, while before you would receive a request for evidence, a notice that lets you fix anything the service may need, now USCIS can just deny the petition. This risk is especially high for those who are undocumented and are trying to legalize their status through a U.S. family member, or for those applying for a waiver. USCIS made these changes to protect the integrity of the immigration system and weed out “fraudulent, frivolous, or non-meritorious” applications.
Family-based immigration remains the largest path to permanent residency, accounting for about 40% of all new green card holders each year, according to USCIS. The agency said it wants to ensure that the marriages and family ties behind those petitions are genuine and verifiable.