Share this article

The U.S. Embassy and Consulates General in China announced a new nonimmigrant visa appointment schedule.

U.S. embassies and consulates across the Middle East will be implementing a new visa services system effective Feb. 8 and Feb. 9, 2025.

Key Points:

• The U.S. Embassy and Consulates General in China will open new nonimmigrant visa interview appointments according to the following schedule:
  • Embassy Beijing: Thursdays at 11:00 a.m.
  • Consulate General Guangzhou: Wednesdays at 9:30 a.m.
  • Consulate General Shanghai: Mondays at 3:00 p.m.
  • Consulate General Shenyang: Thursdays at 12:00 p.m.
  • Consulate General Wuhan: Thursdays at 4:00 p.m.
• A new visa services system will go into effect Feb. 8 and Feb. 9, 2025 for certain countries across the Middle East. The countries include but are not limited to:
  • Pakistan
  • Egypt
  • Nepal
  • Qatar
  • Kuwait
• During the transition to the new system on or around Feb. 4 to Feb. 7, fee payment services, call center services, interview scheduling and rescheduling will be unavailable in the respective countries.
• Applicants and interested parties should check the relevant embassy or consulate office website for further details.

Additional Information: For country-specific updates and details on obtaining nonimmigrant visas for travel to the U.S., interested parties can visit ustraveldocs.com and choose their location.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

Copyright © 2025 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Reprinting or digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with the express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. For inquiries, please contact copyright@bal.com.

Share this article

The Labor Department has posted updated processing times for permanent labor certification (PERM) applications and prevailing wage determination (PWD) requests.

PERM Processing Times: As of Feb. 1, the department was still adjudicating PERM applications filed in September 2023 and earlier and reviewing appeals for reconsideration filed in July 2024 and earlier.

Average Number of Days to Process PERM Applications

PWD Processing Times: As of Feb. 1, the National Prevailing Wage Center was processing PWD requests filed in July 2024 and earlier for H-1B visa Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) and non-OEWS cases, and for PERM OEWS cases and non-OEWS cases.

Redeterminations were being considered on appeals filed in November 2024 and earlier for H-1B visa cases and October 2024 and earlier for PERM cases.

Center Director Reviews were being conducted for H-1B visa cases filed in August 2024 and earlier, and PERM cases filed in April 2024 and earlier.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

Copyright © 2025 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Reprinting or digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with the express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. For inquiries, please contact copyright@bal.com.

Share this article

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year (FY) 2026 H-1B cap will open at noon Eastern on March 7 and run through noon Eastern on March 24, 2025.

Key Points:

• The FY 2026 H-1B cap will use the beneficiary-centric selection process launched in FY 2025. Under the beneficiary-centric process, registrations are selected by unique beneficiary rather than by registration.
• Prospective petitioners and representatives must register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and pay the associated $215 H-1B registration fee for each beneficiary using a USCIS online account.
• H-1B petitioning employers who had an H-1B registrant account for the FY 2021 – FY 2024 H-1B registration seasons, but did not use the account for FY 2025, will have their existing account converted to an organizational account after their next login.
• Representatives may add clients to their accounts at any time, but both representatives and registrants must wait until March 7 to enter beneficiary information and submit the registration with the $215 fee.
• An H-1B cap-subject petition, including a petition for a beneficiary who is eligible for the advanced degree exemption, may only be filed by a petitioner whose registration for the beneficiary named in the H-1B petition was selected in the H-1B registration process.
• Selections take place after the initial registration period closes, so there is no requirement to register on the day the initial registration period opens.
• If USCIS receives registrations for enough unique beneficiaries by March 24, they will randomly select unique beneficiaries and send selection notifications to users’ USCIS online accounts (and employers’ organizational accounts).
• If USCIS does not receive registrations for enough unique beneficiaries, all registrations for unique beneficiaries that were properly submitted in the initial registration period will be selected. Notifications to prospective petitioners and representatives whose accounts have at least one registration selected are anticipated to be sent by March 31.
• H-1B petitioning employers who do not have a USCIS online account must create an organizational account here. First-time registrants can create an account at any time.

Additional Information: Additional information and resources on organizational accounts, including step-by-step videos, can be found here.

The U.S. Department of Treasury has approved a temporary increase in the daily credit card transaction limit from $24,999.99 to $99,999.99 per day for the FY 2026 H-1B cap season. Transactions of more than $99,999.99 may be made via Automated Clearing House (ACH).

Employers can use the BAL USCIS fee calculator for free to help determine expenses for their foreign national employees.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

Copyright © 2025 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Reprinting or digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with the express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. For inquiries, please contact copyright@bal.com.

Share this article

The U.S. Consulate General Amsterdam announced that due to a scheduled building upgrade project it will be unable to provide visa services from March through May 2025.

Key Points:

• It will not be possible to schedule a visa interview at U.S. Consulate General Amsterdam during this pause of routine visa services, even if an applicant has paid the visa application (MRV) fee. MRV fees are nonrefundable, nontransferable and valid for one year.
• Visa applications may be submitted to any U.S. embassy or consulate providing visa services.
• Visa applicants with imminent travel during this period need to seek appointments at alternate U.S. embassies or consulates in other countries.
• Although limited routine visa appointments are anticipated to resume in June, increased wait times and limited appointment availability are expected throughout 2025.

Additional Information: Applicants should always carefully review U.S. Consulate General Amsterdam’s operational status before paying any MRV fee or submitting visa applications to U.S. Consulate General Amsterdam.

Relevant building timeline updates and appointment availability can be found on the Mission Netherlands website and Global Support Services website.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

Copyright © 2025 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Reprinting or digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with the express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. For inquiries, please contact copyright@bal.com.

Share this article

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman of Maryland issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against President Trump’s executive order (EO) aimed at limiting birthright citizenship.

Key Points:

• In her ruling, Judge Boardman said Trump’s EO “conflicts with the plain language of the 14th Amendment.”
• While the EO had already been temporarily blocked by U.S. District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle, Judge Boardman is issuing a longer-lasting preliminary injunction against it.
• Trump signed the “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship” EO on his first day in office, directing agencies not to recognize birthright citizenship for a child born in the U.S. if the father is not a citizen or green card holder and the mother is either in the U.S. unlawfully or in the U.S. lawfully but temporarily. The EO is the subject of multiple federal lawsuits.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

Copyright © 2025 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Reprinting or digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with the express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. For inquiries, please contact copyright@bal.com.

Share this article

The Department of Homeland Security announced the termination of the 2023 Temporary Protected Status designation of Venezuela, after taking steps to vacate the previous secretary’s extension of the designation.

Key Points:

• Venezuela was newly designated for TPS on Oct. 3, 2023, based on the determination that conditions in the country prevented the safe return of Venezuelan nationals.
• Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem determined that Venezuela “no longer continues to meet the conditions for the 2023 designation” and that “it is contrary to the national interest to permit the covered Venezuelan nationals to remain temporarily in the United States,” resulting in the termination of the TPS designation.
• The notice states that the termination of the 2023 TPS designation will take effect 60 days after the notice is published in the Federal Register, which is expected Feb. 5, 2025. These actions could be subject to court challenges, like previous TPS termination efforts under the first Trump administration.
• The termination does not apply to the 2021 designation of Venezuela for TPS, which remains in effect until Sept. 10, 2025.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

Copyright © 2025 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Reprinting or digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with the express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. For inquiries, please contact copyright@bal.com.

Share this article

The Department of Labor (DOL) reported that as of Jan. 30, 2025, a total of 5,829 cases were issued Final Decision for fiscal year (FY) 2025 (first half of the visa cap) with a Requested Date of Need from Oct. 1, 2024, through March 31, 2025. Certified positions for this period were allocated for 108,189 workers.

The chart below indicates the number of Final Decisions issued and Positions Certified for filing windows from July 2024 to January 2025:

As of Jan. 7, 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received enough petitions to reach the additional 20,716 H-2B visas made available for returning workers for the first half of FY 2025 with start dates on or before March 31, 2025.

DOL is still processing Group A for applications received for Requested Date of Need from April 1, 2025.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

Copyright © 2025 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Reprinting or digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with the express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. For inquiries, please contact copyright@bal.com.

Share this article

On Jan. 17, the U.S. and Indian governments dedicated a new U.S. consulate site in Bengaluru, India.

Key Points:

• The Bengaluru site will be the fifth U.S. consulate in India.
• The initiative to expand the U.S. presence in Bengaluru will broaden and deepen the long-standing ties, diplomatic engagement and strategic partnership between the United States and the state of Karnataka.
• Consular services will continue to be performed at the U.S. Consulate in Chennai and other U.S. diplomatic posts in India until site completion.

Additional Information: Bengaluru (formerly called Bangalore) has been called “the Silicon Valley of India.” The U.S. government first established an office in Bengaluru in 1993. As the capital of the southern state of Karnataka, it is home to nearly 700 U.S. companies, including aerospace ventures.

Planned launches for 2025 include the jointly developed NASA-ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite and a U.S. mission to bring NASA-trained Indian astronauts to the International Space Station.

A fact sheet detailing business investments and developments in Karnataka can be downloaded here.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

Copyright © 2025 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Reprinting or digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with the express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. For inquiries, please contact copyright@bal.com.

Share this article

On Jan. 29, President Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law, mandating that the Department of Homeland Security detain certain undocumented foreign nationals who have been arrested for certain crimes and authorizing states to sue the federal government for certain alleged failures related to immigration enforcement.

Key Points:

• The bill mandates that DHS detain individuals who (1) are unlawfully present in the United States or did not possess the necessary documents when applying for admission; and (2) have been charged with, arrested for, convicted of or admit to having committed acts that constitute the essential elements of burglary, theft, larceny or shoplifting.
• States are authorized to sue the federal government for injunctive relief over:
  • A decision to release a non-U.S. national from custody.
  • Failure to fulfill requirements relating to inspecting individuals seeking admission into the United States, including requirements related to asylum interviews.
  • Failure to fulfill a requirement to stop issuing visas to nationals of a country that unreasonably denies or delays acceptance of nationals of that country.
  • Violation of limitations on immigration parole, such as the requirement that parole be granted only on a case-by-case basis.
  • Failure to detain an individual who has been ordered removed from the United States.
• The full text of the bill can be read at congress.gov.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

Copyright © 2025 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Reprinting or digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with the express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. For inquiries, please contact copyright@bal.com.

Share this article

The Department of State announced that all visa interview and Applicant Service Center appointments in Colombia are canceled for Jan. 27-29, 2025.*

*Note that this alert has been updated to reflect the announcement that the cancelations have been extended to Jan. 29, 2025.

Key Points:

• All scheduling and rescheduling of visa appointments have also been suspended.
• The cancellations are due to the Colombian government’s initial refusal last week to accept repatriation flights of Colombian nationals from the U.S.

Additional Information: Following Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s refusal to accept two repatriation flights he previously authorized, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered a suspension of visa issuance on Jan. 26 at the U.S. Embassy Bogota consular section. Secretary Rubio also authorized travel sanctions on individuals and their families who were responsible for the interference of U.S. repatriation flight operations.

President Petro released a statement later on Jan. 26 confirming the Colombian government would accept all deportation flights.

The White House followed with a statement that declared penalties such as visa sanctions will remain in effect until the first planeload of deportees has arrived in Colombia.

BAL will continue to monitor the situation and report on updates as more information becomes available.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

Copyright © 2025 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Reprinting or digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with the express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. For inquiries, please contact copyright@bal.com.