Immigration Update – October 05, 2026

Headlines:

Preliminary Injunction Blocks $100,000 Fee Implementation for New H-1B Applications – A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s agency policies implementing a $100,000 fee for new H-1B applications. The decision is not directly related to the separate proposed imposition of a $103,265 fee for H-1B cap-subject petitions.

DHS Agencies Announce Changes in Fees –U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced new fee changes.

Supreme Court Rules Trump Administration Can Resume Mass Deportations to Third Countries – The Supreme Court issued a one-page, unsigned ruling allowing the Trump administration to resume mass deportations of immigrants to third countries temporarily while litigation is pending.

Afrikaners Prioritized in FY 2027 Refugee Admissions, Trump Announces – President Trump announced the admission of up to 17,500 refugees to the United States during Fiscal Year 2027, to “primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa.”

Passport Redesign, Online Process Announced – Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced several upcoming changes to the U.S. passport and related processes.

Details:

Preliminary Injunction Blocks $100,000 Fee Implementation for New H-1B Applications

On September 30, 2026, a federal judge in Global Nurse Force v. Trump temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s agency policies implementing a $100,000 fee for new H-1B petitions based on Presidential Proclamation No. 10973 and its extension, No. 11069. In partially granting a temporary injunction, the court said that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claims that the policies violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The court therefore enjoined the agencies from enforcing or implementing the policies “until notice-and-comment rulemaking under the APA and regulatory flexibility analyses under the [Regulatory Flexibility Act] have been conducted.”

The court noted that related litigation is proceeding on several fronts and that the issue may ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. The decision is not directly related to the separate proposed imposition of a $103,265 fee for H-1B cap-subject petitions.

Back to Top

DHS Agencies Announce Changes in Fees

Several Department of Homeland Security agencies have announced changes in fees:

• S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that, effective October 16, 2026, fees will increase for several benefits. Any request postmarked on or after that date without the proper filing fee will be rejected, USCIS said. The agency provided the following information:

• S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced increases in the fees for parole into the United States (from $1,020 to $1,050), Electronic System for Travel Authorization (from $40.27 to $40.62), and Electronic Visa Update System enrollment (from $30.75 to $31.75). There is no change in the fee for an application for CBP Form I-94, Arrival/Departure Record, at land border ports of entry ($30).
• USCIS announced that under a final rule effective November 30, 2026, fees for the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program will be adjusted “to ensure EB-5 fees fully recover the cost of operating the program, meet statutory processing time goals, and support integrity measures such as audits and site visits.” In most cases, the fees are increasing, with a few decreasing.

A table in USCIS’s Federal Register final rule summarizes the current, proposed, and final fees for the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. As examples, the fee for Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Standalone Investor, will increase from $3,675 to $7,615, and the fee for Form I-527, Amendment to Legacy Form I-526, will increase from $0 to $10,330.

Back to Top

Supreme Court Rules Trump Administration Can Resume Mass Deportations to Third Countries

On September 29, 2026, the Supreme Court issued a one-page, unsigned ruling allowing the Trump administration to resume mass deportations of immigrants to third countries temporarily while litigation is pending. The Court said that it would hear oral arguments in December, with a final decision expected next year.

A brief filed on September 28, 2026, on behalf of a group of immigrants by the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Human Rights First, and the National Immigration Litigation Alliance argued that U.S. laws “prohibit removal to any country where a person faces likely persecution or torture. Yet [the Trump administration’s] policy permits removal to any newly selected third country without meaningful notice of the destination or a meaningful opportunity to raise a country-specific fear claim. And, where the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) relies on a non-individualized diplomatic assurance, the policy permits removal without any notice or process at all.”

Back to Top

Afrikaners Prioritized in FY 2027 Refugee Admissions, Trump Announces

On October 2, 2026, President Trump announced the admission of up to 17,500 refugees to the United States during Fiscal Year 2027, to “primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa.”

President Trump has previously claimed that white Afrikaners are being invited to resettle in the United States due to the “genocide that’s taking place,” a position that has been disputed by South Africa’s government and others.

Back to Top

Passport Redesign, Online Process Announced

On September 29, 2026, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced several upcoming changes to the U.S. passport and related processes, including:

• A transition to online applications in 2027 through the newly launched gov, including for first-time applications, with a tracker showing an estimated delivery date for the passport and the ability to get updates through Login.gov.
• A redesign of the passport for 2028, standardizing at 38 pages and including the ability to use a self-photo taken from a personal device (including the ability to retake the photo) or upload an existing photo rather than having to get a passport photo at a drugstore or elsewhere.
• In keeping with the theme of “Flight of the Eagle,” the addition of graphic features, such as an eagle in different positions appearing to fly when the pages are flipped through selected images from U.S. history.

Back to Top