Here is a link to the announcement (which actually uses more extreme language than the actual memo). There is a link to the actual memo at the bottom of this page.

Adjustment of status (“AOS”) is the common process of applying for and receiving a green card in the U.S. rather than having to return to one’s home country (that process is called “immigrant visa processing” or “IVP” for short). The IVP process is much longer, costlier and inefficient. Also, due to our complex immigration systems, some individuals that are eligible for AOS are not eligible for IVP since the moment they leave the U.S., they are subject to onerous penalties (often a 10-year penalty before becoming eligible to return to the U.S.).

AOS eligibility is relatively straightforward for individuals with no grounds of inadmissibility (such as criminal convictions and serious immigration violations), though there are different requirements for different pathways and categories of immigration. Most relevant to this memo, if an individual meets the requirements, AOS cases have always been approved as long as there are no negative discretionary factors. If there are negative discretionary factors, they must be outweighed by positive factors.

The new policy memorandum attempts to unlawfully change this standard by instructing immigration officers to only grant AOS cases if the applicant shows “extraordinary circumstances” and explains why it is not possible to consular process.

This creation of a new standard out of thin air directly contradicts the actual law. This change affects a great number of our clients and we are closely monitoring how USCIS will try to implement this new policy. In the meantime, there will be many lawsuits challenging this new policy since it clearly violates the law. We hope this new policy will be stopped by the Courts and/or USCIS will back off on fully enforcing it (at a minimum, we hope USCIS will be  generous with what circumstances can justify an AOS grant). We will be posting additional content and videos on this subject as it continues to develop.

The post Trump’s Adjustment of Status Memo – How Far Does it Actually Go? appeared first on Shaftel Law.

y “NEW” H-1b petitions, individuals seeking H-1b status for the first time, and filed after September 21.

The post Does the H-1b Proclamation effect Extensions of Status and Visa Stamping appeared first on Shaftel Law.

The post Trump’s New H-1b Proclamation – Restricting Some New H-1b Petitions appeared first on Shaftel Law.

The post New N-400 Naturalization (Citizenship) Test Required by Trump appeared first on Shaftel Law.

[EDIT: EB1 India Filing Date did jump by a year. I mistakenly said it did not at the end of the video.]

The post October 2025 Visa Bulleting and Filing v. Final Action Dates appeared first on Shaftel Law.

The post Department of State Changes Policy on Third Country National NIV Processing appeared first on Shaftel Law.

The post Trump Travel Ban – Exceptions and Waivers appeared first on Shaftel Law.

The post Travel Ban Basics appeared first on Shaftel Law.

My response to anyone who criticizes the H-1b program is threefold:

(1) H-1bs are the basic visa that allow a U.S. company to employ a foreign national worker with at least a Bachelor’s degree. Absent this visa, most companies would have absolutely no way to employ a talented foreign national worker who often went to school in the U.S. and may have already formed valuable business relationships with U.S. companies and U.S. citizens (maybe they are already working on starting a successful company – example: Musk and Paypal!)

(2) H-1b visas are capped at 85,000 annually. This number was set in 1990! – before the internet was even known to most people. The amount of technological development, particularly in computing, and the need for more software engineers and related professions (e.g. Data Scientists, Network Architects, Computer Systems Analysts, ect.) is staggering.

(3) If you divide the number of H-1b visas by the U.S. workforce (85,000/168,000,000), H-1b visas amount to .05% (.ooo5) of the U.S. labor force. The U.S. is one of the largest, globally integrated economies in the world. This number is incredibly small and needs to be increased. H-1b employees help companies thrive which in turn produces more U.S. jobs, not less.

Other statements reported in this CNN article are equally encouraging; namely, that foreign national students that complete degrees in the U.S. should be given longer term status in the U.S., even permanent residency, after they graduate. Trump himself is reported as saying”

• “What I want to do, and what I will do is – you graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country,” Trump said on the “All In” podcast.

This would be incredible and a departure of what some of his advisors, namely Stephen Miller, have said in the past. Stephen Miller has shown animosity to all parts of our immigration system, including foreign students in the U.S.

The logic of granting longer term status to foreign students in the U.S. is also unassailable. Why would the U.S. educate talented foreign nationals, train them in the U.S. (the optional practical training period attached to F-1 student status) and then send them home? When we do this, we are effectively training some of the brightest, young talent in the world and sending them home, sometimes to our political or economic adversaries.

While obviously these are early days, before the true dawn of the second Trump presidency, we are seeing some glimmers of hope in immigration policy.

The post Will Trump Change His Tune on H-1b Visas and Foreign Students with the Influence of Musk? appeared first on Shaftel Law.

The post Trump Appears on “Meet the Press” and Talks Immigration appeared first on Shaftel Law.