Starting July 1, 2026, certain U.S. consulates are testing something new: a $750 fee that moves a B-1/B-2 visa applicant's interview up to within 10 business days. The pilot runs through December 31, 2026, and it's a direct response to visa interview backlogs that have stretched past a year at some posts,...
On July 2, 2026, DHS published a sweeping proposed rule that would, for the first time, turn the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 into actual regulations. Since RIA passed back in March 2022, USCIS has largely run the EB-5 program on policy guidance and informal practice rather than a finished...
The O visa category exists for one purpose: bringing people who are genuinely at the top of their field into the United States to keep doing that work, without forcing them through a lottery or a rigid degree requirement. Four letters get used together so often that people mix them up,...
Back in December 2025, USCIS tightened how long it can reuse an old photo on file, cutting the reuse window down to 36 months for most filings. At the time, that seemed like a fairly technical, back-office change. Months later, the real-world effect is becoming clear: applicants across a wide range of...
Headlines this week announced that the current administration won't be renewing the trade deal underlying TN status, and understandably, that got people's attention fast. Here's the part that matters for anyone actually holding TN status right now: nothing changes today. What actually happened is procedural, but it does start a clock worth...
For most of the last two decades, leaving the United States barely registered as an immigration event. You showed a boarding pass, maybe a passport, and walked onto the plane. A final DHS rule that took effect December 26, 2025 is changing that. Departure is now becoming its own inspection point, not...
Between visa bulletin retrogression and the program's repeated near-expirations, religious organizations sponsoring an EB-4 special immigrant worker already have enough to track. A Request for Evidence adds months to a process that's often already been years in the making. Most I-360 religious worker RFEs trace back to a small set of recurring...
Anyone researching the EB-5 program quickly runs into two unfamiliar terms: direct investment and regional center. These aren't two versions of the same green card. They're two separate paths to the same destination, and picking the wrong one for your situation can mean a lot of unnecessary risk, cost, or hassle down...
For more than a year, families across the country have been waiting to find out whether children born in the United States to parents on visas, or without lawful status, would keep their citizenship. On June 30, 2026, the Supreme Court answered that question. In Trump v. Barbara, the Court ruled 6-3...
Lawful permanent residents have long assumed that coming home from a trip abroad is routine, almost automatic. A decision the Supreme Court handed down on June 23, 2026 complicates that assumption for a specific group: green card holders who have an open criminal charge or a past conviction on their record. The...
