As of October 1st, the U.S. federal government has entered a shutdown pending Congressional approval of a budget for the new federal fiscal year.
ISO and government agency processes that will be affected:
- U.S. Department of Labor processing
ISO cannot draft or submit ETA-9035 Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) for H-1B/E-3 sponsorship, or ETA-9141 Prevailing Wage Determinations or ETA-9089 Applications for Permanent Employment Certification for permanent residence sponsorship. DOL will not certify or issue any of these applications that have already been submitted.
Any H-1B visa request that has not had an LCA submitted yet will not be able to move forward until the shutdown is resolved. See How to Sponsor an H-1B at Steps 8 and 9 for more information.
Most ISO and government agency processes should not be affected:
- Initial ISO review and processing
Units can still submit H and J visa requests, and ISO can still review and approve them.
- Processing in SEVIS
ISO can still issue DS-2019s for J-1 exchange visitors.
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services processing
ISO can still file I-129 petitions for H-1B/E-3 sponsorship and I-140 immigrant petitions in cases where U.S Department of Labor action is already complete.
(But note that new petitions will still be held pending further clarification of the new H-1B visa fee.)
- U.S. Department of State visa processing
Scholars can still apply for visa stamps at U.S. consulates.
- U.S. Customs & Border Protection admissions
Scholars can still be admitted or readmitted to the U.S., subject to guidance on our scholar travel pages.
ISO will reach out to units with affected, in-flight H visa requests within the next week. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you have.