2025
Year in Review

As 2025 comes to a close, we have to reflect on the most chaotic year for immigration law practice in memory.

Let’s look at some of the things that happened in US immigration in 2025:

• During President Donald Trump’s first week in office, he signed numerous executive orders seeking to limit channels for legal immigration and initiate enforcement actions against anyone in the U.S. without legal status.

• USCIS and the US Dept of State adopted policies requiring trans visa applicants to report their “sex at birth” on visa and other benefits applications.

• USCIS policy now directs the agency to automatically initiate removal proceedings against anyone with denied benefits requests if they do not have any underlying status, resulting in far more cases being referred to immigration court. 

• Temporary Protected Status, which provided work authorization to citizens of countries that have suffered disasters was cancelled for Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Syria, Afghainstan, Cameroon, South Sudan, Burma (Myanmar), Venezuela and Ethiopia (though termination is still being litigated for some of these countries)

• The government required anyone in the U.S. without status to “register” their physical address with the U.S. government.

• Student visas were cancelled and reinstated

• Humanitarian parole programs for Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela were cancelled, though the U4U program that is available for citizens of Ukraine remains intact.

• A $100,000 fee was imposed on US employers seeking to sponsor foreign nationals for H-1B visas. Though the fee will not apply to anyone changing status to H1B within the U.S., the $100,000 fee still applies to any applicants who are abroad.

• The Gold Card was announced in September and launched in December, allowing any foreign national who gifts the U.S. $1,000,000 and passes stringent vetting procedures to obtain a green card in the EB-1 or EB-2 category.

• The government shut down, but O-1 petitions, EB-1 green cards, and family-based immigration cases continued processing.

• ICE took green card applicants whose status expired while the adjustment of status was pending with no criminal history into custody at their green card interviews. 

• The State Department announced that all non-immigrant visas must be obtained in the applicant’s country of citizenship or residency.

• USCIS announced suspension of adjudication of all immigration benefits, including non-immigrant visa petitions such as H-1B, O-1, and L-1 for citizens of 19 countries (which was expanded to 39 countries on Jan 1). 

• The U.S. State Department issued guidance to deny visas, specifically H-1B visas for highly skilled workers, to individuals with a history of fact-checking or content moderation.

• The U.S. State Department issued guidance that requires consular officers to take into consideration the health of visa applicants and their dependents and deny visas to those with health conditions that may be costly to the U.S. government, including obesity.

• The number of ICE arrests soared. Though the stated purpose is to remove criminals who are present in the U.S. without authorization, many subject to these enforcement actions have no criminal record.