In Federal Register notices published on September 8, 2022, DHS extended the availability of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Special Student Relief (SSR) to eligible citizens of Venezuela. The prior Venezuela SSR notice expires on September 9. The new notice makes Venezuela SSR available until March 10, 2024. Read more about SSR on NAFSA's page, Special Student Relief For F-1 Students: Essential Concepts.

OFLC Administrator Brian Pasternak says, “By integrating the permanent labor certification process into the Foreign Labor Application Gateway... we will make it easier, faster, and cheaper for employers to access permanent labor certification services and create a more seamless immigrant visa processing experience." No timeline was mentioned.

The Department of State (DOS) informed Exchange Visitor Program sponsors in an email that it will soon issue a Federal Register notice describing the details of Special Student Relief (SSR) arrangements for eligible Ukrainian J-1 college and university students. NAFSA confirmed with the BridgeUSA Office of Private Sector Exchange Designation that sponsors must wait until the Federal Register notice is published before approving Special Student Relief benefits for eligible J-1 students. It is hoped that the Federal Register notice will be published in the next two or three weeks.

In a July 28, 2022 news alert, USCIS announced that it "has published additional online resources on uscis.gov to provide an overview of some of the temporary and permanent pathways for noncitizens to work in the United States in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). This guide also highlights some of the most important considerations for STEM professionals who want to work in the United States."

ICE's current Special Student Relief (SSR) notice for F-1 students from Syria is effective April 22, 2021 until September 30, 2022, for F-1 students who were in the United States as of April 22, 2021. A Federal Register notice scheduled to be published on August 1, 2022 will extend SSR until April 1, 2024, for Syrian F-1 students who will be in the United States as of August 1, 2022. DHS will also be extending Syrian Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for eligible individuals.

In a July 25, 2022 notice, USCIS stated: "In an effort to take the lessons learned from our pandemic posture, USCIS has been evaluating which flexibilities can and should be extended permanently. As a result of this evaluation, the reproduced signature flexibility announced in March, 2020, will become permanent policy on July 25, 2022."

"On November 15, 2021, the Employment and Training Administration issued a Federal Register notice (FRN) informing the public that the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) was updating Appendix A to the Preamble–Education and Training Categories by Occupational Information Network (O*NET)–Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Occupations. Appendix A is a list of professional occupations that serves as a guide for employers to distinguish between professional and non-professional occupations in order to comply with the professional recruitment requirements of the PERM program. The FRN stated that OFLC intends to review BLS's occupational and education data each year to publish a new list of occupations on its website, even when BLS data remain the same from the previous year... OFLC is releasing this year's Appendix A, implementing the new list of professional occupations, effective July 1, 2022."

The Spring 2022 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions was posted on Reginfo.gov on June 21, 2022. NAFSA has compiled the immigration-related regulatory actions most relevant to institutions that invite international students and scholars to the United States.

All prevailing wage determinations issued on or after July 1, 2022 will be issued with the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code and with the latest Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) data set, regardless of the date of submission.

As of 12:01AM ET on June 12, 2022, CDC will no longer require air passengers traveling from a foreign country to the United States to show a negative COVID-19 viral test or documentation of recovery from COVID-19 before they board their flight. Nonimmigrants entering the United States will, however, still be subject to the requirement to be fully vaccinated with an acceptable COVID-19 vaccine.