USCIS Will Now Only Accept Credit Card and ACH Payments for Filing Fees
This past October, USCIS transitioned away from accepting checks and money orders as payment for form filing fees. USCIS now requires that all payments be made with a credit card via Form G-1450 or with an ACH debit from a bank account via Form G-1650.
The credit card payment form has historically been unreliable due to manual data entry errors at USCIS Service Centers and Lockboxes, and IDC is still seeing some credit card forms being rejected for unknown reasons. To ensure the highest likelihood that USCIS accepts your payment forms, we recommend the following precautions:
If you are planning to make an ACH payment, confirm: (1) your bank will permit the US Department of Homeland Security to debit funds from your account by removing the ACH debit block; (2) your bank will permit the Department of Homeland Security’s Agency Location Codes (the Location Codes are available on USCIS’s filing fee webpage under “ACH Debit Block"); and (3) any daily maximum charge allowance is set higher than the total fees authorized.
If you are planning to make a credit card payment, confirm: (1) the filing fees can be covered by your card’s currently available line of credit; (2) any daily maximum charge allowance is set higher than the total fees authorized; and (3) your credit card company has noted the following entities as authorized parties so that your payment is not flagged as fraudulent: (a) USCIS; (b) US Department of Homeland Security; and (c) US Department of Treasury Pay.gov Trusted Collection Service (TCS).
IDC Welcomes 10th Attorney: Lindsay Nichols!
We are pleased to announce that we have added a 10th immigration attorney to our firm. Attorney Lindsay J. Nichols first joined IDC last fall as a law student intern (“co-op") and has since been promoted to Attorney upon her admission to the Massachusetts Bar this past November. Lindsay started working in immigration law in 2018 as an administrative assistant and paralegal at a private immigration firm in Boston, where she gained experience with a large variety of business immigration cases for companies of all sizes and in numerous industries. During law school at Northeastern University, Lindsay also completed co-ops with Northeastern’s Office of the General Counsel and Greater Boston Legal Service’s Immigration Unit. Additionally, Lindsay worked in her school’s immigration clinic as a student and Research Assistant. Lindsay earned her Juris Doctor from Northeastern University in 2025 and her bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Economics, magna cum laude, from Simmons University in 2018. Lindsay grew up in a working-class household and is the first person in her family to become a lawyer.
AP: US Revokes visas for 6 foreigners over Charlie Kirk-related speech
Reporting from AP on October 14, 2025, found that the U.S. has revoked visas for at least six foreign nationals “deemed by U.S. officials to have made derisive comments or made light of the assassination” of Charlie Kirk. The State Department said it made the decision to revoke their visas based on the foreign nationals’ social media posts and clips about Kirk.
Read the AP article here.
ICE publishes February 2025 policy update to Expedited Removal
In late October 2025, ICE made publicly available a February 28, 2025 memorandum that provided a policy update for expedited removal, the legal mechanism DHS uses to quickly deport certain noncitizens without a deportation hearing. This policy guidance is the implementation of a January 24, 2025 Executive Order, “Designating [Noncitizens] for Expedited Removal.” The ICE guidance is available here.
ProPublica: “We found that more than 170 US Citizens have been held by immigration agents. They’ve been kicked, dragged, and detained for days.”
On October 16, 2025, ProPublica reported that more than 170 U.S. citizens have been detained by immigration agents since the beginning of the second Trump Administration. The article notes that the U.S. government does not keep track of the number of U.S. citizens who are arrested or detained by immigration agents, so ProPublica started its own count by conducting research in lawsuits, court records, local media, and social media. ProPublica notes that a separate 130 U.S. citizens have been arrested for allegedly interfering in immigration enforcement actions or for assaulting agents.
The 170 detained U.S. citizens in ProPublica’s reporting include 20 children, two of whom had cancer, and three pregnant women, one of whom “had already had the door of her home blown off while [DHS] Secretary Kristi Noem watched.
Read ProPublica’s article here.
ICE's Operation “Freaky Friday” targets unaccompanied minors
On Friday, October 3, 2025, ICE launched Operation “Freaky Friday” which targets unaccompanied minors aged fourteen years old and older. Initial reports received by the American Immigration Lawyers Association confirmed that, under the operation:
Children detained and released will be sent a “threat” letter from ICE threatening indefinite detention and immediate transfer to ICE upon age-out if they do not waive jurisdiction under the TVPRA and withdraw applications for relief, including withdrawing their request for admission with EOIR.
Children will be offered $2,500 to return to their countries of origin.
If children do not comply with the “offer”, the letter indicates their parents/family living in the US will be arrested.
ICE plans to detain all age-outs, and they anticipate legal challenges.
It is possible that the age threshold for this threat letter may be lowered to youth 10 years old and older.
ICE will first target detained children but will also target children released from custody.
AILA Texas Chapter. View the alert shared by AILA here.
DHS Proposes Rule Requiring More Extensive Biometric Collection
On November 3, 2025, DHS published a Proposed Rule that will substantially expand biometrics collection and use by DHS. Under the Proposed Rule, DHS seeks to require biometric submission “by any individual, regardless of age, filing or associated with an immigration benefit request, other request, or collection of information, unless exempted.” The Proposed Rule also aims to:
Expand biometrics collection authority when a noncitizen is arrested;
Define the term “biometrics;”
Codify requirements for reusing biometrics;
Codify and expand DNA testing, use, and storage;
Establish an “extraordinary circumstances” standard to excuse failures to appear at a biometrics appointment;
Modify how VAWA self-petitioners and T nonimmigrant applicants demonstrate good moral character; and
Clarify the purposes for biometrics collection.
Read the Proposed Rule here, which will be published on November 3, 2025.
American Medical Association Urges DHS to Exempt Physicians from $100,000 H-1B visa fee
In a September 25, 2025, letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, the American Medical Association and 53 medical societies urged DHS to exempt physicians from the new $100,000 payment requirement for certain H-1B petitions. The letter reasons that the United States relies heavily upon foreign physicians for healthcare, especially in Medically Underserved Areas and Health Professional Shortage Areas, which frequently overlap with rural areas. Many physicians working in these areas rely on the H-1B program to maintain their status and employment authorization, and the limited resources available to these communities makes it highly unlikely that that the communities can afford the $100,000 payment.
Read the AMA’s letter here.
The New York Times: International Student Arrivals to U.S. Drop Nearly 20% in 2025
An October 6, 2025 article from The New York Times reported that “the number of international students arriving in the U.S. in August fell by 19% this year compared to last year – the largest decline on record outside of the pandemic.” The Times’s reporting is based on federal arrival records for international student visitors, and SEVIS data shows similar declines. The New York Times predicts that the decline is likely caused by a variety of factors, including visa delays, travel bans, increased student uncertainty in the US being a “welcoming or reliable option for study,” and less overall international student travel.
Read The New York Times article here.
District Court Rules that International Students Have the Same Free Speech Protections as American Citizens
On September 30, 2025, a U.S. district court in Massachusetts held that international students have the same free speech protections as American citizens and that the Trump Administration violated the rights of international students and faculty when it targeted them for arrest and deportation due to their pro-Palestinian political speech.
View the announcement from AILA and the court decision here.