What You Missed In Immigration: Layoffs Now Count Against Your H-1B, Social Media Goes Public & Filing Deadlines Get a Rewrite
Trump Orders New H-1B Scrutiny for Employers With Recent Layoffs
President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to factor an employer's recent and planned layoffs into H-1B case reviews. The policy reaches across the entire H-1B lifecycle: labor condition applications, petitions, visa applications, and admission at the border. Agencies must now consider whether a sponsoring employer directly or indirectly conducted layoffs within the past year, plans future reductions, or has layoffs that negatively affected "similarly situated" U.S. workers. The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division has 30 days to begin reviewing data from previously filed LCAs, which means existing filings are also on the table. Implementation guidance has not been released, and the administration has not defined how agencies will determine whether U.S. workers are "similarly situated" to a sponsored H-1B employee.
The PERM Takeaway: The PERM process already requires employers to prove that no qualified U.S. worker is available for the sponsored role. This executive order adds a second layer: even if the recruitment test is clean, agencies can now look at whether the company laid off people in comparable positions within the past year. That creates real exposure for employers who went through workforce reductions and are now sponsoring foreign workers in the same or adjacent job categories. Until the agencies define "similarly situated," the safe assumption is that the standard will be read broadly. If your company cut headcount in the last 12 months, counsel should be mapping every affected position against every active H-1B and PERM filing. Build a documented record showing the differences in duties, qualifications, department, and geography between laid-off roles and sponsored positions. The retroactive LCA review is the part that should keep compliance teams up at night. Applications filed months ago under the old standard could face new scrutiny. Get ahead of that audit before it arrives.
$100,000 H-1B Fee Extended Through 2027, Still Blocked by Courts
Trump extended the administration's policy requiring a $100,000 payment for certain H-1B petitions involving workers outside the United States. The extension runs through September 21, 2027. The fee is not being collected. A federal judge ruled it unlawful in June, and the First Circuit Court of Appeals declined to reinstate it while the government appeals. USCIS confirmed it would comply with the court order and stop collecting the payment. The proclamation keeps the policy alive on paper without overriding the injunction.
The PERM Takeaway: The fee is blocked, but the extension signals the administration plans to enforce it the moment the courts allow it. If the government wins its appeal, that $100,000 charge snaps back for H-1B petitions filed from outside the U.S. Employers who use consular processing as their default pathway should be running the numbers on what that fee does to their per-hire sponsorship costs. For PERM cases where the employee will eventually need an H-1B filing from abroad, this cost variable needs to be part of the planning conversation now, not after a ruling drops. Adjustment of status within the U.S. avoids this fee entirely, which makes the domestic filing path look more attractive with each extension.
State Department Expands Social Media Vetting to More Visa Categories
Starting October 1, the State Department is expanding its social media screening requirements to additional visa categories. Applicants for I visas (foreign media representatives) and TN/TD visas (USMCA professionals and their dependents) will now be instructed to set all social media profiles to "public" or "open" for review. This type of screening already covers a wide range of categories, including F, J, H-1B, H-4, and K visas. The expansion continues a broader push to incorporate online presence reviews into the standard visa vetting process.
The PERM Takeaway: Social media vetting is now a standard part of the visa process for most employment-based categories, and the addition of TN visas brings USMCA professionals into the same screening framework as H-1B holders. Employers should make sure sponsored employees understand that consular officers will be reviewing their public social media profiles as part of the visa application. This is a conversation that needs to happen before the employee walks into the interview, not after a case gets flagged. Counsel should be advising sponsored workers to review their own profiles for anything that could raise questions or create delays. The expansion to I visas also matters for companies that bring foreign media professionals into the U.S. for assignments. Every new category added to the screening list makes social media review a more embedded part of immigration compliance rather than an edge case.
USCIS Changes How It Handles Filing Deadlines That Fall on Weekends
USCIS announced a policy change to how it treats immigration filing deadlines that land on weekends or federal holidays. Starting October 23, the agency will still allow some paper filings due within a specified number of days to arrive on the next business day. But the extension no longer applies to eligibility deadlines tied to a specific event, such as an applicant reaching a certain age. If the cutoff is event-based, the filing must reach USCIS before the eligibility window closes, regardless of whether that date falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or holiday.
The PERM Takeaway: This is the kind of procedural change that creates real problems if it catches an employer off guard. For PERM-related filings and adjustment of status cases, any deadline tied to an aging-out date, a visa bulletin cutoff, or another event-triggered eligibility window no longer gets a weekend buffer. If the deadline falls on a Sunday, the filing needs to be received before that Sunday. Counsel and HR teams should be reviewing every pending case with an event-based deadline and adjusting their internal timelines accordingly. The October 23 effective date gives employers about a month to update their processes. Build in earlier submission targets for anything with an eligibility clock, and do not assume the next-business-day grace period will save a weekend filing.
Stay sharp, stay compliant, and we'll see you next week.
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