USCIS selected 114,017 unique beneficiaries, resulting in 120,603 selected H-1B registrations during the initial FY 2025 H-1B Lottery. This represents a selection rate of approximately 25.6 percent. While this is an increase in the percentage of selections from the previous year, where the selection rate was roughly 14.6 percent, it still means that the vast […]
Palmer Polaski Blog
For an additional filing fee, certain applicants seeking certain employment-based visas and change of status to certain nonimmigrant visa classifications can file for expedited adjudication. Disappointingly, in conjunction with the April 1, 2024 filing fee increase, USCIS made a significant change to premium processing requests, promising adjudication of certain eligible applications in business days, rather […]
As of May 22, 2024, USCIS has updated its policy manual regarding certain aspects of Form I-130 and Form I-360, including how the agency corrects approval notice errors, requests for consular processing or adjustment of status on the beneficiary’s behalf, and routing procedures for approved petitions. Previously, when petitions did not clearly state a preference, […]
Facing intense political pressure as a result of enforcement policies, and after the failure of bipartisan legislation to address border security, President Biden issued a proclamation on June 4, 2024, intending to strengthen border security, restrict asylum eligibility, and increase the consequences for those who enter without authorization on the southern border. The proclamation gives […]
Biden Administration announced that DACA recipients are eligible to participate in a Qualified Health Plan through the Exchange. This change will go into effect on November 1, 2024. On June 20, 2024, USCIS extended Employment Authorization Documents under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) Designations of El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Sudan through March 9, 2025. […]
In an accompanying announcement to the parole-in-place policy, the White House indicated it will direct the State Department and Department of Homeland Security to enable DACA recipients and others without legal status to gain H-1B and other temporary employment visas. While DACA provides work authorization and protection from deportation, and prevents the accrual of unlawful […]
The Biden Administration recently made a monumental announcement that certain foreign nationals, who, as of June 17, 2024, were married to United States citizens, and have been physically present in the United States since June 17, 2014, among other requirements, would be eligible to apply for parole-in-place. This policy has the potential to benefit an […]
One important, yet not often highlighted, area of immigration policy under the Biden Administration has been a change in enforcement priorities for referring foreign nationals to immigration court proceedings, referred to as “prosecutorial discretion.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sets priorities in allocating its resources, so using prosecutorial discretion can help the government focus on […]
Asylum-seekers face ever-growing backlogs in obtaining asylum office interviews and decisions on their asylum claims. For example, in the 2022 fiscal year, USCIS received around 239,000 affirmative asylum applications, a historic high and a major jump from the previous year, when USCIS received approximately 62,800 affirmative applications. The backlog has increased already-significant wait times for […]
For Fiscal Year 2025, USCIS has introduced a significant change in how H-1B registrations will be selected for filing. The ever-growing number of H-1B registrations, specifically multiple registrations on behalf of the same beneficiary, was evidence that the H-1B electronic registration H-1B lottery was not working. Since USCIS introduced the H-1B electronic registration process in […]
