A federal court has vacated the USCIS policies that paused adjudication of immigration benefits for nationals of the travel-ban countries, and USCIS has publicly acknowledged that those policies are no longer in effect. So far, however, the agency\u2019s acknowledgment has not been matched by any visible change in how quickly affected cases are actually moving. This post explains the gap \u2014 and what employers and their affected employees can do about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On June 5, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, in Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island v. USCIS, vacated four USCIS policies \u2014 the Global Asylum Hold, Benefits Hold, Comprehensive Re-Review, and Country-Specific Factors policies \u2014 as unlawful under the Administrative Procedure Act. The court entered final judgment on June 11, and USCIS has since acknowledged that the underlying issuances (PM-602-0192, PM-602-0194, and PA-2025-26) should be treated as though they are not in effect, agency-wide. The government has appealed to the First Circuit; absent a stay, USCIS remains obligated to comply in the meantime. (Several firms have published detailed procedural recaps, so we will not repeat the blow-by-blow here.)<\/p>\n\n\n
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Despite the acknowledgment, we have not seen meaningful swings in adjudication speed, nor anecdotal evidence of long-delayed cases suddenly being adjudicated. For many affected applicants, little has changed on the ground. The vacatur is in effect and the agency says it is complying \u2014 but \u201ccomplying\u201d has not yet translated into visible movement on cases that were paused.<\/p>\n
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That said, the public acknowledgment has real practical value: it gives those who were negatively affected by the holds a concrete basis to press USCIS for timely adjudication of their cases.<\/p>\n
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Cases in premium processing. <\/strong>The most direct route is to email the premium processing unit handling the case, point to the vacatur and USCIS\u2019s own acknowledgment, and request that adjudication proceed within the premium processing timeframe. If USCIS does not respond or act, litigation \u2014 such as a mandamus action to compel the agency to adjudicate \u2014 may become necessary.<\/p>\n \n\n<\/p>\n Cases not in premium processing. <\/strong>The path here is harder. There is no easy channel to communicate directly with USCIS, and the agency\u2019s lengthy published processing times often make it impossible even to submit a case inquiry \u2014 because a case is not treated as outside \u201cnormal\u201d processing time until it exceeds those posted benchmarks, which themselves continue to lengthen. For cases that have been pending well beyond a reasonable period, litigation may ultimately be the most effective way to compel action.<\/p>\n \n\n<\/p>\n \n\n<\/p>\n Beyond direct outreach to USCIS, affected employers and employees can use their relationships to apply pressure \u2014 an approach that is especially useful where the agency\u2019s standard inquiry tools are unavailable.<\/p>\n \n\n<\/p>\n Congressional offices. <\/strong>Members of Congress \u2014 in both the House and the Senate \u2014 maintain casework staff who can submit inquiries to USCIS through the agency\u2019s congressional liaison channels. This route is particularly valuable for cases outside premium processing, where the usual online inquiry options are closed: a constituent, or their employer, can ask their representative\u2019s office to open a congressional inquiry on a delayed case (the office will typically need a signed privacy release first). Pointing the office to USCIS\u2019s own acknowledgment that the hold policies are no longer in effect gives the inquiry added force.<\/p>\n \n\n<\/p>\n Chambers of commerce and business associations. <\/strong>Employers can also work through local and national chambers of commerce and industry or trade associations to raise the systemic impact of the continuing delays. Coordinated advocacy \u2014 consolidating many affected cases into a single message to USCIS leadership and to congressional offices \u2014 can carry more weight than individual inquiries and underscores the real economic stakes for employers and their workforces.<\/p>\n \n\n<\/p>\n \n\n<\/p>\n USCIS has said the right things; whether its adjudication follows remains to be seen. Employers should identify matters that were delayed under the vacated policies now and pursue the available levers \u2014 direct outreach for premium processing cases, congressional and business-group advocacy where direct channels are closed, and litigation held in reserve if the agency does not respond. We are continuing to monitor the First Circuit appeal and are happy to advise on case-specific strategy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A federal court has vacated the USCIS policies that paused adjudication of immigration benefits for nationals of the travel-ban countries, and USCIS has publicly acknowledged that those policies are no longer in effect. So far, however, the agency\u2019s acknowledgment has not been matched by any visible change in how quickly affected cases are actually moving. … <\/p>\n Continue reading “After Dorcas: USCIS Says the Hold Policies Are Gone \u2014 What Affected Employers and Employees Can Do Now”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":640,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11,10],"ppma_author":[282,298],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-immigration","tag-uscis"],"authors":[{"term_id":282,"user_id":640,"is_guest":0,"slug":"mavargas","display_name":"M. Alejandra Vargas","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/immigrationlaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2023\/05\/vargasalejandramayra-100x100.jpg","author_category":"1","last_name":"Vargas","first_name":"M. Alejandra","job_title":"Partner","user_url":"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/malejandravargas.html","description":"Read Alejandra's bio.<\/a>"},{"term_id":298,"user_id":688,"is_guest":0,"slug":"tjchiappari","display_name":"Ted J. Chiappari","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/immigrationlaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2024\/07\/chiapparited-100x100.jpg","author_category":"","last_name":"Chiappari","first_name":"Ted J.","job_title":"","user_url":"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/tedjchiappari.html","description":"Read Ted's bio.<\/a>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/immigrationlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/immigrationlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/immigrationlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/immigrationlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/640"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/immigrationlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/immigrationlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":404,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/immigrationlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions\/404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/immigrationlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/immigrationlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/immigrationlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/immigrationlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Advocacy Through Congressional Offices and Business Groups<\/h1>\n
Bottom Line<\/h1>\n