May 2026 – Duane Morris Immigration Law

May 20, 2026May 20, 2026 by Valentine A. Brown

The B-2 “Bridge” Is Collapsing: What Employers and H-1B Workers Need to Know About USCIS’s New Approach to Change-of-Status Filings

For years, a foreign national who lost H-1B employment could file a change of status to B-2 visitor within the 60-day grace period, stay in the United States while searching for a new job, and then transition back to H-1B status with a new employer. Immigration counsel, HR departments, and workers alike relied on this strategy — and on published USCIS guidance that explicitly stated job searching and attending interviews were permissible B-1/B-2 activities. That world has changed dramatically.

Since late 2025 and into 2026, USCIS has been issuing aggressive Requests for Evidence (RFEs), Notices of Intent to Deny (NOIDs), and outright denials on these B-2 change-of-status applications at a rate that immigration practitioners describe as a stark departure from prior practice. The downstream consequences — including the potential for a $100,000 consular processing fee, accrual of unlawful presence, and even the initiation of removal proceedings — make this an issue that every employer sponsoring H-1B workers and every foreign national in the H-1B pipeline must understand.

This post is for HR professionals evaluating candidates who may be in a “B-2 bridge” posture, for immigration program managers building hiring timelines, and for H-1B workers who have been terminated and are weighing their options. Below, we explain what has changed, why it matters, and what both sides should do now.

Continue reading “The B-2 “Bridge” Is Collapsing: What Employers and H-1B Workers Need to Know About USCIS’s New Approach to Change-of-Status Filings”

May 13, 2026May 13, 2026 by Valentine A. Brown

USCIS Enhanced Security Vetting: New Fingerprint-Based Background Check Process Places many USCIS Applications on Temporary Hold

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently implemented a sweeping new security vetting process that has effectively paused adjudications across a wide range of immigration case types. Employers and their foreign national employees should understand what this means for pending and future applications, and how to plan accordingly.

What Happened

Beginning April 27, USCIS field and asylum offices across the country began notifying applicants and attorneys that adjudications were subject to a hold while the agency rolls out enhanced fingerprint-based background checks. The change stems from Executive Order 14385, signed February 6, 2026, which directs federal criminal justice agencies to share criminal history record information with the Department of Homeland Security to the full extent permitted by law. In response, the FBI granted USCIS expanded access to its criminal history databases, triggering a requirement that pending cases undergo re-vetting under the new system.

Under the updated protocol, USCIS must resubmit fingerprint information for most pending applications in which biometrics were collected prior to April 27, 2026. In most cases, USCIS will use fingerprints already on file rather than requiring applicants to attend new Application Support Center appointments. Already-scheduled interviews are expected to proceed; however, the issuance of final approvals is largely paused until the new checks are completed.

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May 10, 2026May 13, 2026 by Valentine A. Brown

Federal Court Blocks USCIS’s Hold on Immigration Benefits for Some Applicants from 39-Country List — What You Need to Know

On April 30, 2026, a federal judge in Massachusetts issued a significant ruling that may affect anyone with a pending immigration benefit application in the United States. In Akmurat O. Doe et al. v. Donald J. Trump et al., Judge Julia E. Kobick found that two sweeping USCIS policies — one placing an indefinite hold on benefit applications from nationals of 39 countries and all asylum seekers (set forth in PM 602-0192 and PM 602-0194), and another treating an applicant’s nationality as a “significant negative factor” in discretionary decisions (announced in PA 2025-26) — are likely unlawful. The court ordered USCIS to immediately lift the adjudicative hold for 22 individual applicants who demonstrated concrete harm, and to stop applying the nationality-based negative factor to their adjustment of status and work authorization applications.

The court’s reasoning is just as important as the immediate result. The court concluded that the adjudicative hold violates federal statutes and USCIS’s own regulations, which require the agency to decide applications for naturalization, asylum, adjustment of status, and work authorization within the frameworks Congress established. It also found that USCIS failed to provide a reasoned explanation for the policy and failed to consider the reliance interests of thousands of applicants whose lives have been placed on indefinite hold. And it held that treating nationality as a negative factor in adjustment of status and work authorization cases violates the Immigration and Nationality Act’s prohibition on nationality-based discrimination in visa issuance.

Continue reading “Federal Court Blocks USCIS’s Hold on Immigration Benefits for Some Applicants from 39-Country List — What You Need to Know”