Adviser's Manual 360

Two DHS Acquisition Planning Forecast System notices show that in 2024 DHS plans recompetition solicitations for two contracts that support SEVP and SEVIS.

Twice per year, in the Spring and Fall, all agencies must prepare a regulatory agenda that lists each regulatory action the agency expects to work on within the next 12 months. On December 7, 2023, the administration published the Fall 2023 regulatory agenda.

NAFSA and its partners in the U.S. for Success Coalition sent a letter to DOS and DHS urging them to make permanent important visa interview waiver authorities scheduled to expire on December 31, 2023. The letter asks in the alternative that the waiver authority be extended "until the agencies produce and implement a plan to maintain and improve current visa interview appointment wait times."

Starting November 13, 2023, petitioners filing Form I-140 (immigrant visa petition) and Form I-907 (premium processing) concurrently should use USCIS lockbox filing addresses rather than USCIS Service Center addresses. This change in filing location does not yet apply if you are filing Form I-907 for a currently pending Form I-140, or if you are filing Form I-140 with an associated application (such as Form I-765, Form I-131, or Form I-485).

NAFSA has joined with several other organizations and industry partners to form a new coalition dedicated to supporting international students throughout each step of their journey in the United States. The U.S. for Success Coalition will engage with members of Congress and government officials to remove barriers and find solutions focused on increasing and diversifying the community of international students choosing the U.S. for study, research, and work.

Starting November 13, 2023, the USCIS Potomac Service Center (PSC) "can no longer receive paper responses to correspondence such as Notices of Intent to Deny (NOID), Notices of Intent to Revoke (NOIR), Intents to Deny (ITD), Requests for Evidence (RFE) or supporting documentation for filings currently pending at the PSC... All mailed correspondence intended for cases processed by the PSC must be mailed to the Texas Service Center (TSC), unless otherwise noted... To avoid any processing delays, applicants and their representatives should instead upload their responses to their USCIS online account (for receipt notices that start with IOE-) or mail them to the Texas Service Center."

In a Federal Register notice published on October 31, 2023 but retroactively effective on October 20, 2023, the Department of State (DOS) extended special student relief (SSR) benefits for J-1 college and university students until April 19, 2025.

On October 30, 2023 President Biden signed an Executive Order titled Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence. The executive order contains several immigration-related initiatives.

On October 17, 2023, DOS sent to OMB for review a Notice titled Pilot Program to Resume Renewal of H-1B Nonimmigrant Visas in the United States for Certain Qualified Noncitizens.

USCIS updated the stand-alone Form I-140 filing addresses on October 24, 2023. Now, a petitioner filing Form I-140 filed by itself should filed at one of two locations, depending on where the beneficiary will work.