Practical guidance for the teams who run sponsorship programs day to day. Filing windows, renewal budgets, I-9 practice, work authorization gaps and what each policy change means for the people already on your payroll.
A federal court in California has set aside the rule ending automatic EAD extensions, but only for the seven H-4 spouses who sued. For every other renewal applicant, the rule remains in force, and employers should keep running reverification exactly as before.
Daniel Lopez, Esq.Accurate as of October 19, 2026Proclamation 11069, signed September 18, extends the $100,000 H-1B entry payment for another 12 months, to September 21, 2027. It says nothing about the court judgment that has kept the payment from being collected, and the proposed $103,265 fee would be charged on top of it.
Daniel Lopez, Esq.Accurate as of September 24, 2026A proposed rule published September 11 would remove the 60-day grace period for E, H-1B, L-1, O-1 and TN workers. If it is finalized, the termination date becomes the status termination date. Comments are due November 10, 2026.
Lidice Samper, Esq.Accurate as of September 25, 2026DHS removes the 2022 public charge framework effective September 18, 2026. Applications postmarked or filed electronically on or after that date are judged under officer discretion instead of the old definitions. Two lawsuits are pending in the Southern District of New York, and neither has stopped the rule.
Prarup Ghimire, Esq.Accurate as of September 24, 2026On September 14, 2026, a federal court postponed the effective date of the DHS rule replacing duration of status with fixed admission periods. The rule did not take effect on September 15. It was not struck down, and the planning work it forced is still worth doing.
Daniel Lopez, Esq.Accurate as of September 16, 2026The 50/50 fee reached same-employer extensions on September 9: $4,000 per H-1B renewal and $4,500 per L-1 for covered employers. The window to file ahead of it has closed.
Daniel Lopez, Esq.Accurate as of September 11, 2026Proclamation 10973's $100,000 H-1B fee is not being collected, but it did not expire: Proclamation 11069 extended it to September 21, 2027. DHS has proposed a broader replacement: $103,265 payable at filing on every cap-subject petition.
Daniel Lopez, Esq.Accurate as of September 2, 2026EB-2 India is marked unavailable in the September 2026 Visa Bulletin, closed for the remainder of FY2026. Annual limits reset October 1, but a fiscal-year reset does not fix a structural backlog.
Daniel Lopez, Esq.Accurate as of September 2, 2026ICE moved roughly fifteen categories of I-9 error from technical to substantive on March 16, 2026 by editing a web page. Each one is now immediately fineable at $288 to $2,861 per form.
Maeve Healy, Esq.Accurate as of September 2, 2026USCIS restored officers’ full discretion to deny petitions outright on August 5, 2026, without first issuing an RFE. The twelve-week response period is gone, and the change applies to everything already pending.
Lidice Samper, Esq.Accurate as of September 2, 2026DHS eliminated the automatic EAD extension on October 30, 2025 and cut maximum validity to eighteen months. Against a 10.2-month I-765 backlog, green card applicants will stop being able to work.
Daniel Lopez, Esq.Accurate as of October 19, 2026Project Firewall lets the Secretary of Labor personally certify reasonable cause and open an H-1B investigation with no complaint at all. By November 2025, DOL indicated at least 175 were underway.
Maeve Healy, Esq.Accurate as of September 2, 2026Nearly every nonimmigrant visa applicant must now appear in person, including children under 14 and applicants over 79. H-1B, L-1 and O-1 renewals that qualified for dropbox a year ago no longer do.
Prarup Ghimire, Esq.Accurate as of September 24, 2026