Immigration Newsletter

May 2025

In this month's newsletter, T&R provides updates and information about (1) the pause in scheduling student visa interviews; (2) the June 2025 visa bulletin; and (3) T&R's participation at the Lawyers Have Heart event.
 

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE PAUSES VISA INTERVIEWS FOR STUDENTS

 

The administration has ordered U.S. embassies and consular sections to pause the scheduling any new interviews for F-1, J-1 and M-1 students. This was first reported by POLITICO that obtained a diplomatic cable of May 27, 2025, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to implement procedures to expand social media screening and vetting of the students applying for visas. See here. It is being reported that this applies to all J-1 visa applicants, including physicians, and not just students.

 

What does this mean?

•    Impact on New Applicants: The suspension affects all new student visa applicants, including those applying for F, M, and J visas. Applicants with existing appointments are not affected and should attend their scheduled interviews, but could experience delays in visa issuance due to administrative processing. 


•    Expanded Social Media Vetting: The administration is implementing a comprehensive social media screening process to assess online social media activities of student visa applicants to identify potential security threats. This has raised concerns about privacy and the potential for political profiling. 


•    Legal Challenges: The policy faces criticism from various groups, including universities and civil liberties organizations, arguing that it may suppress free expression and disproportionately affect certain groups. Legal challenges are already underway in response to recent visa cancellations and revocations.

 

 •    Travel: Anyone in F-1, J-1, or M-1 status who has an expired visa in their passport should not travel outside of the United States.


We can expect increasing delays in scheduling and obtaining visas for students in the future, as well as increased scrutiny of their online presence as part of the visa application process. But for now, students should not try to schedule visa appointments at any U.S. Consulates around the world.


T&R will keep you updated on any developments.

JUNE 2025 VISA BULLETIN


The June 2025 visa bulletin shows minimal movement in all employment based categories. The June 2025 visa bulletin can be found here. USCIS will honor Final Action date chart for June for employment-based cases and Dates of Filing chart for all family based categories. 

 

Overall, there is slight forward movement in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories for most countries. Here are the dates for Final Action chart:

 

EB-1:  All countries are current except India and China that continue to remain unchanged (India at February 15, 2022, and China at November 8, 2022).  

 

EB-2: All countries move forward by almost four months to October 15, 2023; China moves forward by two months to December 1, 2020; and India remains at January 1, 2023.   

 

EB-3: Professional and Skilled workers moves forward by five weeks to February 8, 2023; India remains the same at April 15, 2013; and China moves ahead to November 22, 2020.   

 
EB-4: This category continues to show “unauthorized ” or “unavailable” meaning numbers are not authorized for issuance. 


NOTE: As an important note, the “Certain Religious Workers” program was due to sunset on March 14, 2025. Since no legislation has been passed to extend it beyond this date, it is “unavailable.” 

 

EB-5: All countries are current except India and China that remain unchanged from last month (India unreserved at January 14, 2022; China unreserved at November 19, 2019). 

 

 

Only foreign nationals with priority dates prior to the dates indicated on the visa bulletin can file applications to adjust status or consular process for an immigrant visa.

T&R – Lawyers Have Heart


Thank you to all who supported and donated to the T&R Lawyers Have Heart team that participated in the 5K and 10K events held on Saturday, May 17th. The day was a huge success that raised over $900,000 to support life-saving research, education, and community programs of the American Heart Association. We look forward to doing it again next year!