POLICY & ANALYSIS
Follow U.S. immigration policy, filing changes and official announcements.
We are updating guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual regarding when students may be eligible for optional practical training (OPT) extensions for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is updating policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual regarding when students may be eligible for optional practical training (OPT) for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields; as well as clarifying guidance concerning online study, school transfers, the grace period, and study abroad.
On Aug. 12, the California Service Center will move to a new address. The new facility will help streamline processes by concentrating operations in the new location.
USCIS recently announced that we would need to select additional registrations for unique beneficiaries to reach the fiscal year 2025 H-1B regular cap numerical allocation.
In March, USCIS conducted an initial random selection on properly submitted electronic registrations for the fiscal year 2025 H-1B cap, including for beneficiaries eligible for the advanced degree exemption.
Effective Oct. 1, 2024, we will increase the investment and revenue thresholds under the International Entrepreneur Rule, as required every three years. The application fee will not change, however.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is issuing policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual regarding provisions for children’s acquisition of citizenship.
On June 18, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced actions to promote family unity in the immigration process. This announcement is consistent with the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to keep families together. DHS is establishing a process to consider, on a case-by-case basis, requests for parole in place from certain noncitizen spouses of U.S. citizens who have been in the U.S. for at least a decade.
We are issuing policy guidance on new provisions in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that cover consequences for noncompliance with the EB-5 Regional Center program.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is issuing policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to address the new provisions added to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA) relating to the consequences to regional centers, new commercial enterprises, job creating entities, and investors for noncompliance in the EB-5 program.
This technical update incorporates the policy guidance that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced June 12, 2024, that interprets the confidentiality protections under 8 U.S.C. 1367 as ending at naturalization. USCIS is making this change as the previous practice of maintaining 8 U.S.C. 1367 protections beyond naturalization created burdens for some naturalized U.S. citizens. This policy will result in naturalized citizens having full access to USCIS electronic benefit processing and critical customer service tools that are available to other U.S. citizens. This guidance became effective July 12, 2024.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is updating policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to address how officers determine a benefit requestor’s legal name.
