USCIS: limits legal immigration and H-1B in 2025

USCIS: Citing fraud investigations, new regulatory restrictions, and a larger enforcement campaign described in a year-end evaluation published, US immigration officials claim they are strengthening their monitoring of H-1B visas and other legal immigration programs.

According to US Citizenship and Immigration Services, it has increased scrutiny of family, student, and employment-based immigration, notably via Operation Twin Shield, the agency’s greatest enforcement initiative to date.

Thousands of workplace inspections, almost 1,500 in-person interviews, benefit rejections, and USCIS arrests resulted from the operation, which revealed what the agency claimed as rampant misuse of H-1B and student visas as well as false marriage-based petitions.

Additionally, according to USCIS, it has modified the employment authorization regulations, eliminating automatic extensions for certain work permits while renewal applications are still processing.

In order to allow for more regular screening and vetting of candidates, the agency lowered the maximum validity of various job authorization papers from five years to eighteen months.

A proposed regulation to give preference to higher-skilled, higher-paid individuals for H-1B visas was highlighted by USCIS. According to the government, the modification is meant to safeguard American workers’ pay, working conditions, and employment prospects. In order to promote the nation’s “vital agricultural industry,” USCIS has released a new regulation to expedite agricultural work visas.

Immigration based on family has also been scrutinized more closely. In order to make sure that marriages and family ties mentioned in immigration petitions are real and not fraudulent schemes to get benefits, USCIS said it has increased screening.

The actions are a part of a larger movement toward what USCIS Director Joseph B. Edlow and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called a “America First” immigration policy that prioritizes national security and public safety.

In the evaluation, Edlow said, “Under Secretary Noem’s leadership, USCIS has adopted a ‘America First’ strategy, bringing order, security, integrity, and accountability back to America’s immigration system.”

The report states that since January 20, USCIS has sent over 14,400 individuals to ICE due to concerns about fraud, national security, and public safety. 182 of them were recognized as either verified or suspected threats to national security. Over 2,400 arrests were made in USCIS field offices throughout the year, according to the agency, thanks to collaboration with other law enforcement agencies.

USCIS said it temporarily stopped processing asylum applications for some groups, ordered a re-examination of green card applications from designated high-risk countries, and paused processing of some immigration petitions from Afghanistan and other countries of concern in response to an attack on Nov. 26 that involved an Afghan national. Officers were instructed to consider risk indicators unique to each of the 19 high-risk countries while screening applications.

On December 5, the agency also announced the opening of a new vetting center with the goal of improving immigration application screening by using cutting-edge technology and collaborating more closely with law enforcement and intelligence organizations.

Since January 20, USCIS has reported more than 29,000 fraud referrals, claiming to have “declared war on immigration fraud.”