Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has corrected its guidance for the R205(b) C20 Reciprocal Employment work permit category. The correction removes a recently published restriction that would have required applicants to already be employed by the company abroad. The C20 category remains an important LMIA-exempt option for qualifying multinational employers, academic...
New USCIS Form Editions for I-539 and I-765 Required Starting September 15, 2026
USCIS is rolling out new editions of two of its most commonly filed forms, and this one comes with an unusually hard cutoff. Starting September 15, 2026, USCIS will only accept the 09/15/26 editions of Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status, and Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization. The current versions,...
Denied an EB-1A Despite Meeting the Criteria? Understanding the Kazarian Standard
An EB-1A extraordinary ability petition can satisfy every regulatory requirement on paper and still come back denied. That outcome catches a lot of applicants off guard, and the reason usually traces back to a single legal standard: Kazarian.
EB-1A has become an especially active filing option lately, particularly for...
9-11 Biometric Fee Now Applies to Same-Employer H-1B and L-1 Extensions, Effective September 9
A fee that used to apply only to new H-1B and L-1 petitions is about to reach a much larger group of filings. Homeland Security has finalized changes to the 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit Fee, closing an exemption that let companies avoid the charge simply by keeping an employee on staff...
L-1B to L-1A Conversion: The 4.5-Year Deadline Employers Often Miss
An employee who enters the United States in L-1B status and later gets promoted into a managerial or executive role can often go through an L-1B to L-1A conversion. That conversion matters because of how differently the two categories are capped. L-1B status tops out at five years total, while L-1A status...
B-1/B-2 Visa Bond Program Is Now Permanent, Bonds Up to $20,000
The visa bond requirement for certain B-1/B-2 applicants is no longer a temporary experiment. On August 3, 2026, the State Department published a final rule, effective immediately, that makes the visa bond program a permanent part of the visitor visa process. The original version of this program launched as a one-year pilot...
DOL’s Office of Inspector General Opens Nationwide H-1B and PERM Fraud Investigations
On July 8, 2026, the Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General announced a nationwide initiative to investigate fraud and strengthen compliance oversight across employment-based visa programs. This is a separate effort from Project Firewall, the H-1B enforcement initiative the Wage and Hour Division launched last September. The OIG's initiative casts a...
Domestic Travel Risk Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All: Find the Right Guide for Your Immigration Status
Not every traveler faces the same risk when flying within the United States, and it's a mistake to assume a rule protecting one person applies equally to everyone. What TSA shares with ICE, how a traffic stop plays out in a high-enforcement state, and what you should be carrying with you all...
USCIS Can Now Deny Cases Without an RFE: 2026 Policy Update
USCIS announced this policy update on August 5, 2026, stating that officers may deny benefit requests without first issuing a Request for Evidence (RFE) or Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID) when required initial evidence or eligibility has not been established at filing. In practice, this means USCIS is holding benefit requestors...
TSA Is Sharing Passenger Data With ICE — What Employers Need to Know
A quiet policy shift is changing how immigration enforcement finds people who may have overstayed their authorized period of admission, and employers with foreign national employees should be paying attention. Reports have surfaced of a previously undisclosed agreement, signed in May 2025, between the Transportation Security Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement...
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