In the wake of a deadly shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has been instructed to pause all asylum decisions until further notice. Asylum officers at USCIS, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security, have been told to refrain from…
San Diego’s immigration community has been rattled by new reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is arresting individuals with no criminal history during routine green card interviews at USCIS offices—a practice that is historically unprecedented and deeply alarming. What’s Happening Starting in early November, immigration attorneys began reporting that…
A federal judge has issued a court order requiring that immigrants detained at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing center in downtown Los Angeles be granted access to their attorneys in a timely manner. The ruling comes after lawyers reported that detainees were frequently denied phone access, had…
The U.S. State Department announced on November 5, 2025, that it’s making changes to the 2027 Diversity Visa (DV) lottery. While it hasn’t yet confirmed when registration will open, the government says those dates—and the timing for entry-status check results—will be released “as soon as practicable.” Importantly, these changes do…
We are pleased to report that the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs has published the December 2025 Visa Bulletin. In this blog post, we breakdown the movement of the employment-based and family-sponsored categories in the coming month. USCIS Adjustment of Status For adjustment of status filings to permanent…
On November 12, 2025, a federal court ruling in the case Moody et al. v. Mayorkas et al. granted relief to new investors in the EB-5 program by halting the increased application fees introduced by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on April 1, 2024. What fees were increased?…
On November 5th the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that the country‑specific designation of South Sudan will be terminated for the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. The TPS designation for South Sudan will end on January 5, 2026. What’s the background? South Sudan was first designated for TPS in 2011 due…
This week, the Justice Department announced that it has hired 36 new immigration judges — 11 permanent and 25 temporary — for the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), a key agency that handles immigration court proceedings in deportation cases. What’s happening? The hiring comes after several months of layoffs…
On August 29, 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a major update to how filing fees for USCIS forms are paid. Starting October 28, 2025, all payments must be made electronically through ACH bank transfer from a U.S. bank account or with credit/debit cards. Paper checks and money…
On October 29, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced an interim final rule that will end the automatic extension of employment authorization documents (EADs) for most renewal applicants effective October 30, 2025. In this post, we’ll unpack what’s changing, who it affects, the rationale behind the change, and…