U.S. Immigration Policy & Regulatory Updates

Requirement to Carry Immigration Registration Document

All international visitors, including those that are permanent residents of the United States, age 18 or older must carry their immigration documentation that shows their lawful status at all times. This is a law from Section 264(e) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Failure to comply can result in a federal misdemeanor. Any of the applicable documents should be carried at all times: 

• Valid state identification/drivers license
• Passport
• Most Recent I-94 arrival and departure record (NOT the travel history)
• F-1 Form I-20 or J-1 Form DS-2019
• Passport bio page
• Visa issued by the U.S. consulate (Canadian citizens do not need a visa)
• I-797 Approval notice (for those in H-1B or O-1 status)
• EAD card (for those who are currently on F-1 OPT or STEM OPT)

We strongly advise our international visitors and U.S. permanent residents to keep copies of their immigration documents. In the event that any or all of your original documents are lost or stolen, you will still have a copy of the document that was issued to you. The most recent I-94 arrival record can be retrieved from the I-94 website.

In addition to the guidance above about carrying your immigration documents at all times, we also recommend making copies and keeping them in a separate safe place where someone you trust can access them. Make sure to share the location of your document copies with this trusted person so they know where to find them in case of an emergency.

On January 14, 2026, the State Department announced that, effective January 21, 2026, the issuance of immigrant visas will be indefinitely paused for applicants from 75 countries while the agency reassesses procedures for determining whether applicants are likely to become financially dependent on the U.S. government.

On January 1, 2026, USCIS issued new policy guidance to place a hold on final adjudication of immigration benefits for individuals with a nationality or country of birth that is covered by the December 16, 2025 Presidential Proclamation titled: Restricting and Limiting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States. USCIS also announced it will conduct a comprehensive review of “all policies, procedures, and screening and vetting processes for benefit requests” for individuals from affected countries as well as a “re-review” of benefit requests that were approved on or after January 20, 2021.

In effect, this new guidance revises and expands the existing pause on adjudication of benefit requests that USCIS announced on November 27, 2025 to include additional countries. Petitions and applications can still be filed.  However, as a result of this new policy guidance, decisions on existing and new benefit requests (such as H-1B petitions or F-1 OPT applications) for citizens of and individuals born in the affected countries may be delayed. 

On December 16, 2025, President Trump signed a presidential proclamation, Restricting and Limiting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States. The Proclamation expands and revises the June 2025 travel ban proclamation, imposing visa restrictions on nationals from a new group of countries as well as continuing or modifying restrictions for existing travel ban countries. The Proclamation goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on January 1, 2026.

Please review the lists below carefully as some countries from June 2025 have moved from partial to full ban.

Fully Restricted Countries. Nineteen countries (previously 12 countries) are subject to a full ban that suspends “entry into the United States” of nationals of those countries as “immigrants and nonimmigrants.” The 19 “full ban” countries are:

• Afghanistan
• Burkina Faso*
• Burma
• Chad
• Republic of Congo
• Equatorial Guinea
• Eritrea
• Haiti
• Iran
• Laos**
• Libya
• Mali*
• Niger*
• Sierra Leone**
• Somalia
• South Sudan*
• Sudan*
• Syria*
• Yemen

*Newly added to list
**Moved from partial ban list

In addition, under the new proclamation, foreign nationals seeking to travel to the United States with travel documents issued or endorsed by the Palestinian Authority will be ineligible for U.S. nonimmigrant or immigrant visas, unless they qualify for an exception.

Partially Restricted Countries. Nineteen countries (previously 7 countries) are subject to a partial ban that suspends “entry into the United States” of immigrants and nonimmigrants with “B-1, B‑2, B-1/B-2, F, M, and J visas.” The 19 “partial ban” countries are:

• Angola*
• Antigua and Barbuda*
• Benin*
• Burundi
• Côte d’Ivoire*
• Cuba
• Dominica*
• Gabon*
• The Gambia*
• Malawi*
• Mauritania*
• Nigeria*
• Senegal*
• Tanzania*
• Togo
• Tonga*
• Venezuela
• Zambia*
• Zimbabwe*

*Newly added to list

The proclamation also instructs consular officers to limit the validity of visas issued to nationals of the above countries in non-suspended nonimmigrant categories (such as H-1B or L-1). The State Department has already reduced the maximum validity for many of these nonimmigrant visas to three months with a single entry to the United States, and additional countries on the list are likely to be subject to similar restrictions.

Exceptions. The ban provisions are applicable only to nationals of the subject country who are outside the U.S. without a valid visa as of January 1, 2026, at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Individuals who are inside the United States on January 1, 2026, or who are outside the United States on that date and have a visa that is valid as of January 1, 2026, should not be restricted by the ban based upon the language of the proclamation. The proclamation also states: “No immigrant or nonimmigrant visa issued before the applicable effective date of this proclamation shall be revoked pursuant to this proclamation.”

Guidance. Students and Scholars from countries affected by the recent travel restrictions are encouraged to review whether the new guidelines may apply to their situation. Consulting with an immigration attorney may be helpful for those who have questions or concerns. 

U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) has published new guidance clarifying the September 19 Presidential Proclamationthat established an entry ban on H-1B employees unless their employer has paid a $100,000 fee.

The entry ban and fee do not apply to:

• H-1B petitions filed prior to September 21, 2025.
• H-1B petitions approved for a change of status, extension of stay, change of employer or amendment filed after September 21, 2025.

The entry ban and fee will apply to:

• H-1B petitions filed or approved for consular processing, whether or not the employee was in the United States at the time of filing the H-1B petition. This impacts new employees coming from outside the United States and those who USCIS has determined are ineligible for a change of status or extension of stay within the U.S.

Lawsuits have been filed to challenge the Proclamation, and we will provide updates as they become available.