immigration
Every record this desk has filed under immigration, newest first, each with the number of sources it can still show you.
DHS suspends the CNMI visa-exempt travel program for Chinese nationals from October 30
DHS will suspend the Northern Mariana Islands' EVS-TAP program at 2 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on October 30. The change covers new applicants and existing travel authorizations for Chinese nationals. People already admitted under the program and legally present on that date may finish their authorized stays; future visits generally require an appropriate visa unless another lawful exception applies.
Also filed undertravelnorthern-mariana-islandsvisa-policyhomeland-security
ORR health-form request describes limited sharing with DHS when children leave for repatriation
An ORR information-collection notice published October 26 describes sharing limited health information with DHS when a child with healthcare needs leaves ORR custody for DHS-led repatriation. The stated purpose is continuity of care, and the notice says data is not shared for immigration enforcement. Comments on the proposed collection are due November 25.
Also filed underchildrenhealth-recordsprivacypublic-comments
Final rule on immigration civil penalties for failing to depart or entering unlawfully, scheduled to publish October 14, finalizes a 15-business-day appeal to DHS and adds a mail-delay exception
The Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review filed a final rule October 9, scheduled to publish and take effect October 14. It finalizes a 2025 interim rule on civil penalties for not departing as ordered or entering unlawfully. An appeal must be postmarked within 15 business days of service. The one change lets ICE accept a late appeal when it finds a documented mail delay was beyond the person's control.
Also filed undercivil-penaltiesremoval-ordersvoluntary-departureicefederal-register
The bank gets 90 days and a sentence that says it admits nothing. The immigrant gets 15 business days and a postmark.
In one week the federal government wrote down two theories of accountability. A bank its regulator found had processed about $13 billion in suspected trade-based money laundering activity from 2014 to 2025 got a negotiated $350 million penalty, 90 days to write a plan and the right to neither admit nor deny. A person who willfully fails to leave after a removal order faces up to $998 a day, assessed at the maximum as a uniform practice, with 15 business days to get an appeal postmarked to the same agency. That is not two policies. It is one.
Also filed underopiniontwo-tier-justicebankingenforcement
A $70,000 fee gets a 30-day comment period; the paperwork that would record it gets 60, in one DATES line
DHS's Optional Practical Training fee proposal sets two deadlines in a single DATES line: November 9, 2026 for the rule, December 7 for its information collection. The rule's one sentence about those 30 days measures them against the time an F-1 student needs to change status or depart — notice, rather than time to comment. The Paperwork Reduction Act's 60-day notice provision carries an exception for a collection inside a proposed rule, so on the statutes read here, neither number is a floor someone set for the agency.
Also filed underrulemakingpublic-commentpaperwork-reduction-actfederal-register
DHS proposes a $70,000 fee for a student's first period of Optional Practical Training work and $30,000 for each one after, paid by the school.
The Department of Homeland Security proposes charging a school $70,000 the first time it recommends an F-1 student for Optional Practical Training work authorization, and $30,000 for every OPT period after that, before the recommendation can be filed. The fee would start only once a final rule takes effect and would not reach OPT already approved or already recommended. Comments on the proposal are due November 9, 2026.
Also filed underinternational-studentsdhs-icework-authorizationhigher-education
Treasury holds the ICE immigration bond interest rate at 3 percent, but for the second year the October window runs four months instead of three
The Treasury Department set the interest rate on cash deposited with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to secure an immigration bond at 3 percent a year, unchanged, for October 1, 2026, through January 31, 2027. That is the second year running the October notice has covered four months instead of the three-month calendar quarter used in every October notice from 2015 through 2024. The notice does not say why, and does not say how or when a depositor collects the interest.
Also filed underimmigration-detentionbondsinterest-ratestreasury-department
Census Bureau proposal would drop noncitizens without lawful permanent residency from the apportionment count and bar race, ethnicity and sexual-orientation questions from the census form
A Census Bureau proposed rule published September 10 would change who counts for apportionment, the count that divides U.S. House seats among the states: foreign citizens would be counted only if they are also U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, a change from the 2020 criteria, which counted them regardless of legal status. A second, independent part would bar race, ethnicity and sexual-orientation questions from the short-form census questionnaire. In a notice scheduled to publish October 5, the Bureau extended the comment deadline to November 2.
Also filed undercensusresidence-criteriaapportionmentdemographic-questionsfederal-register
The fiscal 2027 refugee limit is up to 17,500, the level fiscal 2026's was raised to in May, with admissions to be allocated primarily among Afrikaners from South Africa
Presidential Determination No. 2026-24, signed September 25 and published October 2, says up to 17,500 refugees may be admitted in fiscal year 2027. It says admissions shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa and gives no split by region or category. Fiscal 2026's limit was 7,500 until a May 21 determination raised it to 17,500. The document describes no step for the public.
Also filed underrefugeespresidential-determinationfederal-registerfiscal-2027south-africa
USCIS finalizes new EB-5 investor-visa fees, including a $44,115 regional center application charge, for any filing postmarked on or after November 30
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services published a final rule September 30 raising most fees in the EB-5 investor-visa program, which the agency says it is setting to recover the program's full cost under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022. A regional center's application fee (Form I-956) rises to $44,115 from $17,795, and the annual EB-5 Integrity Fund fee regional centers pay rises to $22,000, or $11,000 for centers with 20 or fewer investors. The new fees apply to any filing postmarked on or after the rule's November 30 effective date.
Also filed undereb-5uscisvisa-feesregional-centers
A Homeland Security notice scheduled to print October 1 raises six immigration fees by $3 to $30 for requests postmarked 15 days after publication or later
A Homeland Security notice on public inspection, scheduled to be published October 1, adjusts fees that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services collects under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Of 13 fees in its table, six rise by $3 to $30, including parole ($1,020 to $1,050) and the annual asylum fee ($102 to $105). A request postmarked 15 days after publication or later without the proper fee will be rejected.
Also filed underimmigration-feesuscishomeland-securityasylumone-big-beautiful-bill-actfederal-register
A September 18 proclamation extends the $100,000 H-1B payment for another year, to September 21, 2027, citing payments on over 700 petitions and a 92 percent drop in outsourcing-firm registrations, and does not mention that a federal court vacated the guidance used to collect it; USCIS's page still says DHS will comply with that ruling.
Proclamation 11069, signed September 18 and published in the Federal Register on September 23, extended for 12 months, to September 21, 2027, the $100,000 payment required with new H-1B petitions for workers outside the United States. It says the payment has been made for over 700 petitions since September 21, 2025, that the largest IT staffing and outsourcing firms cut their combined registrations from 24,946 to 2,055, and that consular processing requests fell nearly 97 percent. It does not mention that on June 8, 2026 a federal court in Massachusetts vacated the agency guidance used to collect the payment, or that the First Circuit refused to pause that ruling on July 24. USCIS's H-1B page, last reviewed September 21, still says DHS will comply with the court's order. A companion order, Executive Order 14431, tells State, Labor and DHS to weigh a sponsor's layoffs in the previous year, or planned ones, and gives the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division until October 18 to begin reviewing labor condition applications already on file.
Also filed underh-1bwhite-housedhslabor-departmentfederal-courtsfederal-register
DHS proposes taking away the 60 days a laid-off H-1B worker has to find a new job. Comments close November 10.
The Department of Homeland Security published a proposed rule on September 11 that would remove the discretionary grace period of up to 60 days that workers in E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1 and TN status currently get after their employment ends. Without it, the proposal would require a worker to depart the United States immediately upon failing to maintain the employment. DHS's own analysis says some workers may lose income and some may be issued Notices to Appear, and it offers a qualitative assessment rather than a count of the people affected. Nothing has changed yet: this is a proposal, the current rule still applies, and written comments are open until November 10, 2026.
Also filed underdhsuscish-1bfederal-registerrulemakingcomment-period
A record appears here because it carries immigration in its own tags. If a record you expected is missing, it was filed under a different subject — the full list is on the topics index.