U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a policy update on December 12th, 2025 introducing enhanced photo and identity verification procedures for certain immigration benefit applications, including Form I-765 (Application for Employment Authorization), which is used for Optional Practical Training (OPT).
On December 16, 2025 the White House issued a modification to Presidential Proclamation 10949 expanding the restriction on entry for specific foreign nationals to include 7 additional new countries and Palestinian issued travel documents to the full ban list and placing partial restrictions on 15 additional countries. This expanded ban takes effect at 12:01 AM EDT on January 1st, 2026. The following countries will be added to the original list shared earlier in the article:
On December 2, 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a Policy Memorandum titled “Hold and Review of all Pending Asylum Applications and all USCIS Benefit Applications Filed by Aliens from High-Risk Countries.” The memorandum includes the following directives, which go into effect immediately:
On August 28, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a proposed rule to change the current I-94 Duration of Status (D/S) to instead issue an exact date in which an individual can be in the U.S. lawfuly for F and J nonimmigrants students and scholars.
On September 19, 2025, the White House signed a proclamation titled, "Restrictions on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers." However, since the proclamation's issuance, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Department of State (DoS) have provided important clarifications on the scope and implementation of this proclamation, which can be found on USCIS' memo, USCIS' frequently asked questions, CBP's memo, and DoS' frequently asked questions.