On May 5th, 2019, the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina enjoined “in all applications,” the USCIS memo titled “Accrual of Unlawful Presence and F, J, and M Nonimmigrants,” issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) on August 9, 2018, as well as the memorandum with […]
USCIS announced on May 11, 2018 that it intends to make a major policy change relating to how it calculates the accrual of unlawful presence for students and exchange visitors in F, J and M nonimmigrant status in the United States. USCIS is accepting comments on this planned policy change […]
The U.S. Department of State (“DOS”) has made several revisions to the Foreign Affairs Manual (“FAM”) directly reflecting the “Buy American and Hire American” Executive Order (“EO”) 13788 that was signed by President Trump in April 2017. The FAM is the authoritative source containing policies and procedures to guide DOS consular officers to effectively carry out […]
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released today the STEM OPT Regulations, titled Improving and Expanding Training Opportunities for F-1 Nonimmigrant Students With STEM Degrees and Cap-Gap Relief for All Eligible F-1 Students. The new regulation goes into effect May 10, 2016.
The regulations confirm that eligible F-1 students can extend OPT for two […]
On March 2, 2016, the Office of Management and Budget announced that it has approved the final version of the STEM OPT regulation. Based upon this approval, we expect to see the rule published in the Federal Register within a matter of days. There is likely to be a 60 day implementation period, which […]
On January 23rd, 2016 the United States District Court for the District of Columbia extended through May 10th, 2016 the current STEM OPT program. This means that F-1 students can continue to work pursuant to valid STEM OPT documents and can continue to apply for the 17-month STEM OPT extension until May 10th, 2016, […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it had received more than 50,000 comments on the proposed STEM OPT rule, which is discussed in SPS Immigration’s October 26, 2015 post. Many of the comments were from individuals, but a number of businesses and industry groups also provided comments, including the U.S. Chamber […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently published for notice and comment proposed new rules relating to the STEM extension of Optional Practical Training for F-1 students. DHS undertook this regulatory process due to the ruling by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, discussed in SPS Immigration’s August 13, […]
In an August 12, 2015 decision, a federal District Court ruled in Washington Alliance of Technology Workers v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not follow the proper procedures under the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) in issuing the current STEM Optional Practical Training (OPT) rule. The STEM OPT […]
