T&R Immigration Newsletter - February 2025

Immigration Newsletter

February 2025

In this month’s newsletter, T&R provides updates and information about (1) dates for H-1B cap registration; (2) TPS for Venezuela; (3) PERM processing times; and (4) March visa bulletin.

As there are a lot of executive orders regarding immigration, the T&R newsletter will focus on changes in business immigration and issues that affect our clients – both corporate and individuals. As most of the executive orders are being challenged in court, such as the executive order addressing birthright citizenship, we will report on them when decisions are final. As of today, the courts have stayed the executive order on birthright citizenship as it is clearly unconstitutional.

H-1B CAP REGISTRATION OPENS MARCH 7TH

The USCIS announced that the H-1B cap registration period this year for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 H- 1B cap will open on March 7th at 12 noon ET and go until March 24th at 12 noon ET; all H-1B cap registrations must be submitted during this period.

New Filing Fee: The new filing fee for H-1B cap registrations is $215 per person, which USCIS increased from $10 per person in prior registrations periods.

Once the registration period closes, the USCIS will conduct the fiscal year 2026 H-1B cap selection and notify all employers of selected beneficiaries by March 31, 2024. The USCIS will start accepting H-1B cap petitions as of April 1, 2024.

TERMINATION OF TPS FOR VENEZUELA

As of January 2025, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuela has undergone significant changes. Venezuelans were initially made eligible for TPS due to severe humanitarian conditions in their home country, and the TPS was extended several times with the most recent extension announced on January 10, 2025, by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) extending TPS for Venezuela from April 3, 2025, until October 2, 2026.

However, the January 10^th TPS extension was vacated on January 28^th by Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem. DHS announced the termination of TPS for Venezuela as of April 7, 2025 (60 days after publication of the notice in the Federal Register) for those who obtained it in 2023. Those who registered for TPS for Venezuela in 2021 are able to keep this status through at least September 10, 2025, as of now. DHS must decide on whether to extend the 2021 TPS for Venezuela by July 12, 2025.

This Federal Register notice reversed the prior one that had extended TPS for Venezuela through October 2, 2026. DHS Secretary, Kristi Noem, returned the 2021 and 2023 TPS for Venezuela back to their prior expiration dates.

PERM PROCESSING TIMES CONTINUE TO GET LONGER

PERM labor certification application is the first step in getting permanent resident (“green card”) status for many foreign nationals, especially those in H-1B status. The processing times have gone from getting longer to ridiculously long!

PERM prevailing wage requests (PWR) are taking 7-8 months. As of February 1, 2025 the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) indicated that it is issuing prevailing wage determinations (PWD) for requests filed in July 2024. The PWR must be issued before filing the actual PERM application with the DOL.

PERM applications are taking about 17 months. The DOL indicated that it is reviewing PERM applications filed in September 2023 or earlier.

Based upon these timelines, it takes at least two years to get a PERM application certified by the DOL from the time the PWR is filed. As a result, employers should be starting PERM applications as soon as possible but no later than two and one half years (30 months) before a candidates fifth year in H-1B status to ensure that H-1B status can be extended beyond the maximum of 6 years, which requires the PERM application to be filed prior to the 5^th year anniversary date in H-1B status.

MARCH 2025 VISA BULLETIN

USCIS will honor Final Action date chart for March for employment-based cases. Overall, there is slight forward movement in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories for most countries. Here are the dates for Final Action chart:

EB-1: Both India and China remain at prior dates (as they did in February) with India at February 2, 2022, and China at November 8, 2022. All other countries are current.

EB-2: India moves ahead 6 weeks from October 15, 2012 to December 1, 2012; China advances by 2 weeks from April 22, 2020, to May 8, 2020. All other countries move ahead by 6 weeks to May 15, 2023.

EB-3: (1) Professional and Skilled workers – India moves ahead by 6 weeks from December 15, 2012, until February 1, 2023; China moves ahead by one month from July 2, 2020, to August 1, 2020. All other countries will remain the same at December 1, 2022. (2) All Other Workers – India moves ahead by 6 weeks from December 15, 2012, to February 1, 2013; China remains (again) at January 1, 2017, and The Philippines moves forward by 5 weeks to January 15, 2021. All other countries move ahead by almost 2 months to February 1, 2021.

EB-4: This category retrogresses by almost one year and six months to August 1, 2019. The U.S. Department of State notes that it is retrogressing this category to keep issuances within the annual limit due to high demand.

NOTE: As an important note, the “Certain Religious Workers” program is due to sunset on March 14, 2025. As of now, there is no legislation to extend it beyond this date. If it is not extended by Congress it will become “unavailable” on March 14, 2025. We will continue to monitor this category.

EB-5: Unreserved EB-5 category for India and China remains the same as it did last month (January 1, 2022, and July 15, 2016 respectively).

Only foreign nationals with priority dates prior to the dates indicated on the visa bulletin can file applications to adjust status or consular process for an immigrant visa.

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