On January 1, US Citizenship and Immigration Services published internal guidance to (1) place a hold on immigration benefits requests by nationals of countries affected by the expanded December 2025 entry ban, and (2) conduct a retrospective review of approved benefits requests for nationals of those countries who entered the U.S. on or after January 20, 2021. This represents an expansion of the adjudication hold USCIS implemented in December 2025.
The hold now affects persons born in or holding citizenship from the following countries (including countries listed in the June 2025 entry ban):
Afghanistan, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, The Gambia, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
This guidance applies to all benefits requests, including petitions processed through ISO (like the I-129 Petition for Temporary Worker used for H-1Bs, E-3s, and TNs, or the I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker used for permanent residence sponsorship), as well as personal applications like the I-765 Application for Employment Authorization, I-485 Application to Adjust Status, and the N-400 Application for Naturalization. USCIS processing of H-1Bs and other UW-sponsored visas will be affected. J-1 exchange visitors should be unaffected unless they are applying for other immigration statuses/benefits through USCIS.
ISO has identified all in-process H visa requests that may be affected and reached out to the associated units and scholars directly to discuss possible ramifications for visa processing. Affected scholars who do not have an in-process visa request may reach out to acadvisa@uw.edu for more information.