The NAFSA Fall 2020 Immigration Review provides a brief overview of changes in immigration law, policy, procedure, and practice over the past 6 months. Subjects include recent policy revisions affecting F students and J exchange visitors, scholar- and employment-based updates, cross-category topics, and COVID-19-related developments. Free to NAFSA members.

USCIS announced that effective October 19, 2020, it will it will raise the premium processing fee for Form I-140 and most Form I-129 premium processing requests from $1,440 to $2,500 as authorized by the Emergency Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act.

On October 8, 2020, DHS published an interim final rule (IFR) titled Strengthening the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Classification Program. The IFR becomes effective automatically on December 7, 2020, but there are concurrent public comment periods. Changes include revised definitions of and standards for a "specialty occupation" and "employer-employee relationship," limited petition validity for third-party placements, and other changes that make use of the H-1B category more challenging.

On October 8, 2020, the Department of Labor (DOL) published an interim final rule that changes how the DOL the National Prevailing Wage Center (NPWC) applies its four wage-level system to generate prevailing wage determinations when Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) data is used as the wage data source. This will result in higher NPWC prevailing wage determinations in each OES-based wage level. The rule is effective on the date of publication, October 8, 2020, but as an interim final rule the public is able to comment for 30 days even though the rule is already in effect. Comments are due on or before November 9, 2020.

The Emergency Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act authorizes USCIS to expand its premium processing program to include applications to change or extend nonimmigrant status and applications for employment authorization.

On September 29, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a nationwide preliminary injunction and stay on implementation of the 2020 final USCIS fee rule in its entirety. New fees and form versions associated with that rule that were to be required on October 2, 2020, as well as all other aspects of the rule, are now on hold.

The DHS proposed rule to eliminate duration of status (D/S) for F students and their dependents, J exchange visitors and their dependents, and I media representatives is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on Friday, September 25, 2020. A public inspection copy (256 pages) is available now. There will be a 30-day comment period.

COVID-19 news and updates are maintained on NAFSA's Coronavirus Critical Updates page. Visit that page frequently for the latest information.

The conversion from CIP 2010 to CIP 2020 in SEVIS, initially planned for SEVIS Release 6.54 (now a maintenance release scheduled for September 26, 2020), is now part of SEVIS Release 6.55, scheduled for implementation on October 16, 2020.

On September 11, 2020, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) finished its review of a DHS proposed rule titled, Establishing a Fixed Time Period of Admission and an Extension of Stay Procedure for Nonimmigrant Academic Students, Exchange Visitors, and Representatives of Foreign Information Media. This item at the proposed rule stage, which means that future rule making will proceed through normal APA public notice and comment procedures before any final rule is published. Now that OMB/OIRA has finished its review of the rule and returned it to DHS, the next step is for DHS to send the proposed rule to be published in the Federal Register, and open it for public comment. The first time we will be able to see the content of the proposed rule is when the Office of the Federal Register makes a public inspection copy of the rule available on its website at least 24 hours before it’s scheduled to be published.