On December 16, 2025, President Trump expanded the travel ban to include 20 additional countries (Proclamation of December 16, 2025 published on whitehouse.gov and White House Fact Sheet on Proclamation of December 16, 2025). This latest proclamation further restricts entry into the United States and follows the travel restrictions first announced on June 4, 2025 (New Presidential Proclamation Bans […]
On December 12, 2025, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) updated its policy regarding the reuse of photographs for immigration benefit requests. The policy change replaces prior COVID-era flexibilities and previous rules that allowed photographs to be reused for up to 10 years or more. The change will also disallow self-submitted physical photographs and require all photographs to be taken at a USCIS Application Support Center (ASC) or through an […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced several impactful updates regarding Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and the Family Reunification Parole (FRP) Program. 1. TPS Terminations Since November 2025 The DHS has terminated the following TPS designations in November and December 2025, summarized in the table below: Country Termination Published in Federal Register TPS Ends South Sudan Nov 6, 2025 Jan 5, 2026 […]
On December 8, 2025, applicants with H-1B and H-4 visa interview appointments scheduled at U.S. consular posts in a number of countries began receiving notifications that their appointments were being rescheduled. While the initial notifications came from U.S. consular posts in India, similar notifications by posts in other countries seem to indicate that the practice is expanding worldwide. The affected appointments were originally scheduled to take place on or after December 15, 2025, and they were pushed back several months. Notifications sent by the U.S. consular posts attribute these changes to “operational […]
