On November 4, NAFSA joined the American Council on Education and nearly a dozen other higher education associations on a comment letter regarding DHS’s proposal to include questions on its forms asking for additional identifying and social media presence information.

The Fall 2019 NAFSA Immigration Review is available in the NAFSA shop.It provides a brief overview of changes in immigration law, policy, procedure, and practice over the past 6 months (as of September 25, 2019). Free to NAFSA members.

On October 9, 2019, the president issued Executive Order 13891, titled Promoting the Rule of Law Through Improved Agency Guidance Documents, "to ensure that Americans are subject to only those binding rules imposed through duly enacted statutes or through regulations lawfully promulgated under them."

Beginning December 2, 2019, USCIS will raise its premium processing fee to $1,440 from the current fee of $1,410, for Form I-129 and Form I-140.

Under Presidential Proclamation 9945, effective November 3, 2019, immigrant visa applicants must establish to the satisfaction of a consular officer, that they will be covered by an approved health insurance plan within 30 days of entry into the United States, unless they can establish that they have sufficient financial resources to otherwise cover reasonably foreseeable medical costs. A DOS information collection request notice describes how DOS will initially elicit the information required to make a determination under the proclamation. Comments on that DOS notice are due on October 31, 2019, the day after the notice was published.

DHS published its final public charge rule in the Federal Register on August 14, 2019.

On October 10, 2019, USCIS posted revised versions several forms to add questions relating to the public charge regulation that was scheduled to become effective October 15, 2019. USCIS planned to accept the current unrevised editions of these forms only if they were postmarked on or before October 14, 2019. However, on October 11, 2019, a U.S. District Court in New York issued a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking the enforcement of the DHS public charge rule. The order also enjoins DHS from “Implementing, considering in connection with any application, or requiring the use of any new or updated forms whose submission would be required under the Rule…”

SEVP Broadcast Message 1910-01 gives notice that SEVP Portal upgrades planned to begin in October 2019 will limit student access to their portal accounts to only six months after their OPT ends. SEVP recommends that students make a copy of their portal record now for future reference.

On September 27, 2019, the Student and Exchange Visitor Program issued policy guidance on the obligations of schools and students regarding the direct relationship between the student's major field of study and the work the student does on pre-completion OPT, standard post-completion OPT, and STEM OPT.

On September 27, 2019, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia granted a nationwide preliminary injunction that blocks DHS from implementing the expanded expedited removal policy that DHS sought to implement in a July 23, 2019 policy notice. Until resolved, DHS must follow its prior expedited removal policy.