Immigration Update – September 16, 2025
Headlines:
DOS Ends Third-Country Nonimmigrant Visa Appointments – Nonimmigrant visa applicants, with a few exceptions, must schedule their appointments at the U.S. embassy or consulate in their country of nationality or residence.
Annual Cap Reached for EB-1 Immigrant Visas; October Visa Bulletin Released; Religious Workers Category to Expire – U.S. embassies and consulates cannot issue additional immigrant visas in the EB-1 green card category until the start of the new federal fiscal year on October 1, 2025. The Visa Bulletin for October also notes that the E-4 Certain Religious Workers green card category expires on September 30, 2025.
Supreme Court Says Government Can Continue to Detain People in Los Angeles Area for Now; Sotomayor Dissents – The Supreme Court granted, without explanation, an application for stay of a district court’s injunction in a case that challenged immigration officers’ practice of detaining individuals in the Los Angeles area based on certain characteristics.
Details:
DOS Ends Third-Country Nonimmigrant Visa Appointments
On September 6, 2025, the Department of State (DOS) announced that nonimmigrant visa (NIV) applicants generally must schedule their appointments at the U.S. embassy or consulate in their country of nationality or residence. Third-country visa appointment scheduling is generally no longer permitted, with limited exceptions. Applicants must be able to demonstrate legal residence in the country where they are applying, if eligibility is based on residency.
DOS updated instructions on its website over the weekend accordingly. Applicants with existing NIV appointments that were scheduled before the September 6 update will generally not be canceled, but going forward, applicants who apply outside their country of nationality or residence “might find it more difficult to qualify for the visa,” DOS said, and visa fees will not be refunded or transferred. Applicants who need to apply outside their country of nationality or residence should expect longer wait times. Nationals of countries without routine NIV operations must apply at a designated U.S. embassy or consulate as listed in the chart on the DOS website.
DOS outlined exceptions for applicants seeking A, G, C-2, C-3, NATO visas, diplomatic/official visas, or travel under the UN Headquarters Agreement. Limited exceptions may also apply for humanitarian, medical, or foreign policy reasons.
Annual Cap Reached for EB-1 Immigrant Visas; October Visa Bulletin Released; Religious Workers Category to Expire
On September 8, 2025, the Department of State (DOS) announced that all immigrant visas in the Employment-Based First Preference (EB-1) category for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 have been issued. As a result, U.S. embassies and consulates cannot issue additional immigrant visas in the EB-1 category until the start of FY 2026 on October 1, 2025. This follows a similar announcement by DOS regarding immigrant visas in the EB-2 category last week.
DOS has released the October Visa Bulletin. As of October 1, 2025, new visa numbers will become available, and processing will resume for qualified applicants, including those in the EB-1 category.
The Visa Bulletin for October also notes that the E-4 Certain Religious Workers (SR) category expires on September 30, 2025. No SR visas may be issued overseas, or final action taken on adjustment of status cases, after midnight on September 29, 2025. Visas issued before that date will be valid only until September 29, 2025, and all individuals seeking admission in the non-minister special immigrant category must be admitted into the United States by midnight on September 29, 2025.
The bulletin notes that the SR category is listed as “Unavailable” for all countries for October. If Congress extends the category, DOS said “it is likely it will become available effective immediately.”
Supreme Court Says Government Can Continue to Detain People in Los Angeles Area for Now; Justice Sotomayor Dissents
On September 8, 2025, the Supreme Court granted, without explanation, an application for stay of a district court’s injunction in Noem v. Perdomo, a case that challenged immigration officers’ practice of detaining individuals in the Los Angeles area based on characteristics such as their apparent race or ethnicity, whether they spoke Spanish or English, the location where they were found (such as a car wash or bus stop), and the type of job they appeared to work. The stay means that the federal government can continue to stop and detain people under these conditions in Los Angeles while litigation continues.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred. He said there was illegal immigration in the Los Angeles area in “extraordinary numbers” and that U.S. immigration officers therefore have prioritized immigration enforcement there. “The Government sometimes makes brief investigative stops to check the immigration status of those who gather in locations where people are hired for day jobs; who work or appear to work in jobs such as construction, landscaping, agriculture, or car washes that often do not require paperwork and are therefore attractive to illegal immigrants; and who do not speak much if any English,” he said. “If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U. S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, they promptly let the individual go. If the individual is illegally in the United States, the officers may arrest the individual and initiate the process for removal.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, noting that during the raids, “teams of armed and masked agents pulled up to car washes, tow yards, farms, and parks and began seizing individuals on sight, often before asking a single question,” in some cases handling people roughly and detaining them. She said people, including U.S. citizens, also were taken from Home Depots, tow yards, farms, recycling centers, churches, and parks. She noted that the federal government’s practices have intimidated people in the area and that the government is likely violating the Fourth Amendment and relying solely on generalizations that treat large segments of the population with suspicion. “The Government, and now the concurrence, has all but declared that all Latinos, U. S. citizens or not, who work low wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time, taken away from work, and held until they provide proof of their legal status to the agents’ satisfaction.” Justice Sotomayor opined, “We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job. Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”
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