What You Missed In Immigration: Retrogression, Iris Scans & the Lottery's New Math

USCIS Tightens the Screws on Adjustment of Status

A new USCIS policy memo is sending ripple effects through the immigration bar. The guidance reminds officers that adjustment of status, applying for a green card from within the U.S. is a discretionary benefit, not an entitlement, and directs them to more carefully weigh positive and negative factors before approving applications. Translation: more scrutiny, more Requests for Evidence, and longer wait times. The memo doesn't change the law or eliminate adjustment of status outright, but immigration attorneys are already bracing for a noticeable shift in how cases are adjudicated. Some applicants may even be pushed toward consular processing abroad instead. Learn more about what this might mean for employers and families.

The PERM Takeaway: This is a direct hit to the final stage of the PERM-to-green-card pipeline. Employers who have invested months (or years) in labor certification and I-140 approval now face a rockier adjustment of status process at the finish line. More RFEs mean more attorney hours, more documentation, and more time your sponsored employee is stuck in limbo. Employers should work with counsel to front-load adjustment applications with comprehensive supporting evidence don't submit the minimum and hope for the best. And given the increased unpredictability, it's worth having a serious conversation about whether adjustment of status or consular processing is the smarter path for each individual case. The days of defaulting to one approach are over.

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H-1B Lottery Data Confirms It: Higher Wages Win

The numbers are in from the first H-1B cap season under the new wage-weighted selection system, and the results are exactly what critics and supporters alike predicted. According to Boundless data from the FY2027 season, Level III positions were selected at a 68% rate and Level IV at 64%, while entry-level Level I roles came in at just 40%. The system is doing what it was designed to do prioritizing higher-paid positions, but for employers hiring early-career foreign talent, the math just got significantly harder.

The PERM Takeaway: If you're sponsoring workers for H-1B visas as a precursor to PERM, this data reshapes your entire workforce planning strategy. Entry-level positions are now a coin flip at best in the lottery, which means employers need to think earlier about alternative visa pathways or consider whether to start the PERM process on a different visa status altogether. For companies that can offer higher wages, the lottery odds are solidly in your favor, but that also means the competition for mid-to-senior level foreign talent is about to intensify. Either way, the PERM recruitment strategy and prevailing wage analysis need to account for this new reality. If you're building a sponsorship pipeline, build it with the lottery math baked in.

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India EB-1 and EB-2 Retrogress in June Visa Bulletin

The June 2026 Visa Bulletin delivered bad news for Indian nationals in the EB-1 and EB-2 categories, both moved backward. Meanwhile, India EB-3 and China EB-3 inched forward slightly, offering a small consolation to applicants in those backlogs. Family-based categories were mostly flat, with modest F-2B progress and slight F-4 retrogression. For employment-based applicants already in the U.S., USCIS is directing them to the Final Action Dates chart, while family-based filers should reference the Dates for Filing chart.

The PERM Takeaway: Retrogression in EB-1 and EB-2 India means longer waits between PERM approval and green card issuance potentially years longer. Employers sponsoring Indian nationals need to set realistic expectations with their employees and plan for extended H-1B maintenance, including timely extensions and consistent compliance with the terms of the original labor certification. This is also the moment to evaluate whether EB-3 downgrading makes strategic sense for certain cases, given that EB-3 India actually moved forward. It's counterintuitive, but sometimes a "lower" category with a moving line beats a "higher" one that's going backward. Work with counsel to run the numbers.

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DHS Drops $25 Million on Iris Scanning — Biometric Enforcement Gets Personal

The Department of Homeland Security just invested $25 million in iris-scanning technology from BI2 Technologies, adding more than 1,500 scanners and access to a growing database of stored iris data. DHS says the tech helps ICE accurately identify individuals during enforcement operations. Privacy advocates and immigration attorneys see it differently, calling it an expansion of biometric surveillance with limited oversight and unanswered questions about data storage, retention, and access.

The PERM Takeaway: Biometric expansion is part of a larger trend: the government is building a more sophisticated enforcement infrastructure, and it's not limited to border operations. Sponsored employees who interact with any immigration touchpoint USCIS appointments, airport reentry, even routine check-ins are now generating more data points that feed into this system. For PERM employers, the practical takeaway is straightforward: make sure your employees' immigration records are consistent and up to date across every filing and every agency. In a world where AI cross-references and iris scans are standard tools, any discrepancy between what's on file at DOL, USCIS, and DHS becomes a bigger liability than it was a year ago.

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Administration Floats Killing International Flights in Sanctuary Cities

In what might be the most dramatic policy trial balloon of the year, the Trump administration is reportedly considering a plan to halt the processing of international flights at airports in certain sanctuary cities. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the administration is "drawing up plans" in response to local jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. No formal policy exists yet, and serious questions remain about whether the government has the legal authority to follow through. But if enacted, the proposal could disrupt international travel operations in some of the country's busiest airports.

The PERM Takeaway: If this moves from concept to policy, the ripple effects for employers would be enormous. Major sanctuary cities ,think New York, San Francisco, Chicago are also major business hubs where sponsored employees regularly travel internationally for work, visa stamping, and consular appointments. Losing international flight processing at those airports would force rerouting through other cities, adding cost, time, and logistical headaches to every trip. Even as a floated idea, it's a signal that employers should have contingency plans for travel disruptions. Know which airports your sponsored employees use, understand the consular processing geography, and have backup routing plans ready. In this environment, the unthinkable keeps becoming thinkable.