Bipartisan legislation, Keep Innovators in America Act, introduced to codify Optional Practical Training and allow F-1 students with pending green card applications to maintain F-1 status
On March 19, 2026, a bipartisan group of legislators introduced the Keep Innovators in America Act, which would codify currently existing DHS regulations that allow international students up to one year of employment authorization under the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program. Under the current regulations, F-1 students are eligible for one year of OPT in connection to their recent completion of their higher education program; however, DHS may withdraw those regulations and require that F-1 students change status or leave the US at the end of their programs. Congress’s codification of the OPT program would protect the program from future withdrawal.
This bill has not yet picked up significant support in the House of Representatives or Senate. We will continue to provide updates on this legislation as they come.
Read NAFSA: Association of International Educator’s press release and summary of the bill here.
USCIS authorizes new organization to issue credentials for immigrant healthcare workers
On March 27, 2026, USCIS announced in the Federal Register that they have approved a new credentialing organization, The Evaluation Company (TEC), to issue healthcare credentials for certain immigration workers. TEC is now authorized to issue certifications and certified statements for noncitizens looking to work in the US as nurses, practical nurses, and vocational nurses. See the Federal Register notice here.
Bipartisan legislation, H-1Bs for Physicians and the Healthcare Workforce Act, introduced to exempt physicians/healthcare workers from $100k H-1B payment
On March 17, 2026, a bipartisan group of legislators introduced the H-1Bs for Physicians and the Healthcare Workforce Act, which would exempt physicians and healthcare workers from President Trump’s $100,000 payment requirement for certain H-1B workers. For more information on the $100,000 fee, see our previous post here. As noted by the American Medical Association, international medical graduates makes up about one quarter of practicing physicians in the United States and often work in medically underserved areas throughout the country.
"The $100,000 filing fee for H-1B petitions adds significant costs for hospitals and private practices, making it more difficult to hire physicians and other health care professionals,” states the American Medical Association. “The added cost will worsen shortages, increase wait times, and force patients to travel farther for care.”
The text of the bill is as follows: “(a) The restriction imposed, pursuant to the Presidential Proclamation entitled ‘Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers’ . . . shall not apply with respect to any such alien who is employed (or has received an offer of employment) in the health care workforce (as such term in defined in §5101 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) . . . (b) No fee may be imposed on an alien described in subsection (a)) that exceeds the fee set forth in § 214(c)(9)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act [].”
This bill has not yet picked up significant support in the House of Representatives or Senate. We will continue to provide updates on this legislation as they come.
Read the bill here and the American Medical Association’s press release here.
TPS updates for March 2026: Haiti and Yemen
Haiti: On February 2, 2026, a federal district court judge in Washington, D.C. temporarily blocked TPS termination for Haitians. TPS for Haitians was set to end on February 3, 2026, but the court order indefinitely postpones the termination. See the updated information available on the USCIS website here.
Yemen: On February 13, 2026, USCIS announced that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem had terminated TPS for Yemen. The termination is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on March 3, 2026. Monitor the USCIS website here for publication of the last day of TPS status for Yemeni nationals.
Lawsuit filed against Trump Administration for 75-country immigrant visa ban
On February 2, 2026, several US citizens and immigration and legal organizations sued the Trump Administration for its January 14, 2026, immigrant visa (green card) approval ban for consular posts in 75 countries. See our previous post about the ban here, which is based on a public charge argument that individuals from these 75 countries are more likely to become dependent on public benefits like Medicaid and SNAP. The lawsuit, CLINIC v. Rubio, asserts that the ban’s public charge basis is “‘unsupported and demonstrably false,’”* as most of the affected would-be new green card holders will not become eligible for public benefits for years. *CLINIC v. Rubio (via The New York Times). The lawsuit instead asserts that the public charge rationale is a stand-in for previous race-based immigrant visa quotas that were abolished during the Civil Rights Movement.
Read an overview of CLINIC v. Rubio from the National Immigration Law Center (with a link to the lawsuit complaint) here and a summary from the New York Times here.
Summary of Current Travel Bans from CLINIC
On February 6, 2026, the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (“CLINIC”) published an article summarizing the current status of all of the Trump Administration’s travel bans to date. Access the article here.
AILA Practice Pointer: removal of one-year abroad requirement for religious workers
On February 23, 2026, the American Immigration Lawyers Association published a practice pointer on DHS’s January 16, 2026 Interim Final Rule that removes the one-year abroad requirement for religious workers seeking to extend their stay in the US. See our alert from last month about the Interim Final Rule here. AILA’s practice pointer discusses several aspects of the Interim Final Rule such as when the “five year clock” restarts for the R-1 visa, petition filing timing, potential consular processing issues, applicability to R-2 dependents, and retaining priority dates for religious workers.
Read AILA’s Practice Pointer here.
AILA Flyer: Birthright Citizenship Executive Order: What you Need to Know
On February 20, 2026, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (“AILA”) published a one-page flyer summarizing President Trump’s Executive Order on birthright citizenship, its current status, and its impacts if the Supreme Court allows the Order to become effective later this year. Access the flyer here.
DHS proposes rule to extend work permit waiting period for asylum applicants from 6 months to 1 year
On February 20, 2026, DHS proposed a new Rule that would double the amount of time asylum applicants must wait before becoming eligible to apply for a work permit while their asylum application is pending with the government. Asylum applicants are currently eligible to apply for a work permit after their case has been pending with the government for six months, but the Proposed Rule would extend the waiting period to one year.
The Trump Administration states that the move is intended to “reduce the incentive for [noncitizens] to file fraudulent asylum claims so they can obtain work authorizations.” With over 1.4 million pending asylum applications and extensive adjudication timelines, asylum applicants typically become eligible for employment authorization months or years before the government starts working on their asylum claims; due to this, the Trump Administration claims that “nearly every illegal [noncitizen] attempts to exploit the system by applying for asylum” with a frivolous claim in order to become eligible for employment authorization.
The Proposed Rule will likely substantially negatively impact asylum seekers, who would have to double the amount of time they rely on family, friends, and community aid organizations to support them while they await work authorization, putting a strain not only on asylum seekers but also our communities who benefit from their employment.
Read the press release from USCIS here and the Proposed Rule in the Federal Register here.
Goldman Sachs report finds 80% decline in immigrant employment for 2026 in comparison to 2010’s
A February 16, 2026, report from Goldman Sachs found that net immigrant employment rates have dropped by 80% in 2026 compared to the 2010’s, as published by Fortune. During the 2010’s, the United States netted an average immigrant employment increase of 1,000,000 people per year. In 2025, that rate fell to a net increase of 500,000, and this year it is expected to fall further to just a net increase of 200,000. The report states that the decline has been caused by President Trump’s anti-immigration crusade of elevated deportations and travel and visa bans. Goldman Sachs cautions that the dramatic decline “is fundamentally altering the nation’s labor supply mathematics and lowering the threshold for job growth needed to maintain economic stability.” Fortune.
Read Fortune’s reporting on the Goldman Sachs report here.