Headlines:
WHD Releases Information on ‘Challenge Firewall’ Enforcement Initiative to Maximize Compliance with H-1B Visa Program – The announcement notes that the Division of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division prioritizes investigations the place employers could also be displacing U.S. employees, failing to recruit U.S. employees in good religion, giving choice to H-1B employees when certified U.S. employees can be found, retaliating in opposition to employees who elevate issues about employers’ noncompliance, or misrepresenting job duties, necessities, or working circumstances.
USCIS Releases Steerage on ‘Maintain and Launch’ Insurance policies and Procedures – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers (USCIS) launched memoranda on “maintain and launch” insurance policies and procedures for all pending asylum functions, USCIS profit functions filed by people from “high-risk” international locations, and Range Visa adjustment-of-status functions.
February Visa Bulletin Notes Imminent Expiration of ‘Sure Spiritual Employees’ Class – The Employment Fourth Desire Sure Spiritual Employees class is scheduled to run out on January 30, 2026.
EOIR Raises Charges for Immigration-Associated Filings – The brand new charges are efficient February 1, 2026.
DHS Will increase Self-Deportation ‘Exit Bonus’ – The Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) has briefly elevated the “exit bonus” for self-deportation via the U.S. Customs and Border Safety (CBP) Dwelling app from $1,000 to $2,600.
Particulars:
WHD Releases Information on ‘Challenge Firewall’ Enforcement Initiative to Maximize Compliance with H-1B Visa Program
The Division of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) just lately launched an announcement and a flyer on “Challenge Firewall,” a WHD “enforcement initiative to guard extremely expert U.S. employees and maximize compliance with the H-1B visa program.”
The announcement notes that WHD prioritizes investigations the place employers could also be displacing U.S. employees, failing to recruit U.S. employees in good religion, giving choice to H-1B employees when certified U.S. employees can be found, retaliating in opposition to employees who elevate issues about employers’ noncompliance, or misrepresenting job duties, necessities, or working circumstances.
The flyer contains the next reminders about authorized protections for U.S. employees underneath the H-1B program.
All H-1B employers:
- MUST present discover of the Labor Situation Utility to related U.S. employees on or earlier than the date of submitting.
- MUST NOT intimidate, threaten, restrain, coerce, blacklist, discharge, or discriminate in another method in opposition to a U.S. employee or applicant who has exercised whistleblower rights underneath this system.
- MUST NOT make use of an H-1B employee at a worksite the place a strike/lockout of their occupational classification is in progress.
- MUST NOT make use of H-1B employees in such a method that the working circumstances (e.g., hours, shifts, trip intervals, and seniority-based preferences) of its equally employed U.S. employees are adversely affected.
- MUST NOT undercut U.S. employee wages by paying H-1B employees lower than an relevant collectively bargained wage, a statistically derived prevailing wage, or the wage it pays to U.S. employees with the identical job and with related expertise and {qualifications}.
- MUST NOT undercut U.S. employee advantages by providing H-1B employees fewer advantages than U.S. employees.
H-1B dependent employers and willful violators who make use of nonexempt H-1B employees:
- MUST take good religion steps to recruit U.S. employees for the provided job.
- MUST supply the job to an equally or better-qualified U.S. employee earlier than hiring an H-1B employee.
- MUST NOT lay off or displace the U.S. employee from a job that’s basically equal to the job for which the H-1B employee is sought.
USCIS Releases Steerage on ‘Maintain and Launch’ Insurance policies and Procedures
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers (USCIS) has launched memoranda on “maintain and launch” insurance policies and procedures for all pending asylum functions, USCIS profit functions filed by people from “high-risk” international locations, and Range Visa adjustment-of-status functions. The memoranda embrace:
- Maintain and Launch of All Pending Asylum Purposes and All USCIS Profit Purposes Filed by Aliens From Excessive-Threat Nations (PM-602-0194). This steerage outlines the adjudicative maintain, procedural necessities, and processes for the re-review, interview, or re-interview of affected people. The memo specifies which circumstances are topic to the adjudicative maintain, identifies exemptions, and descriptions the components to contemplate when assessing profit eligibility in the course of the re-review, interview, or re-interview of affected people. USCIS personnel are instructed to prioritize nationwide safety and public security issues and guarantee compliance with relevant legal guidelines and laws in the course of the adjudication course of.
- Maintain and Launch of Pending USCIS Adjustment of Standing Purposes Filed by Aliens Beneath the Range Immigrant Visa Program. This directive mandates that every one individuals with pending adjustment of standing, ancillary advantages, and waiver functions assembly sure standards bear a radical evaluate course of, together with an interview for the Utility to Register Everlasting Residence or Regulate Standing (Kind I-485) and, if vital, a re-interview, to totally assess all nationwide safety, prison, and associated grounds of inadmissibility and deportation.
February Visa Bulletin Notes Imminent Expiration of ‘Sure Spiritual Employees’ Class
The Division of State’s Visa Bulletin for February 2026 notes that the Employment-Based mostly Fourth Desire Sure Spiritual Employees (SR) class is scheduled to run out on January 30, 2026.
The bulletin states that the SR class is listed as “Unavailable” for all international locations for February. If legislative motion extends the class, “it’s possible it is going to develop into obtainable efficient instantly. If prolonged, the class can be topic to the identical dates for submitting and remaining motion dates as the opposite Employment Fourth Desire classes per relevant international state of chargeability,” the bulletin notes.
EOIR Raises Charges for Immigration-Associated Filings
On January 21, 2026, the Division of Justice introduced “inflationary changes” to immigration-related charges for filings with the Govt Workplace for Immigration Overview (EOIR) underneath the One Huge Stunning Invoice Act (OBBBA) for Fiscal Yr 2026.
The brand new charges are efficient February 1, 2026. Any submitting with an Immigration Courtroom or the Board of Immigration Appeals postmarked on or after February 1, 2026, with out the correct submitting payment or an relevant request for payment waiver can be rejected.
As examples, the OBBBA payment for Kind I-485, Utility to Register Everlasting Residence or Regulate Standing, will improve from $1,500 to $1,540 (with FY 2026 EOIR complete charges of $2,980).
DHS Will increase Self-Deportation ‘Exit Bonus’
On January 21, 2026, the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) introduced that it has briefly elevated the “exit bonus” for self-deportation via the U.S. Customs and Border Safety (CBP) Dwelling app from $1,000 to $2,600, along with a free flight residence.
DHS mentioned that since January 2025, 2.2 million individuals have voluntarily self-deported and “tens of 1000’s” have used the CBP Dwelling app. DHS famous that utilizing the CBP Dwelling app “additionally qualifies recipients for forgiveness of any civil fines or penalties for failing to depart the nation.”
It’s unclear how lengthy the rise can be in impact. The announcement mentioned it “might not final lengthy.”
