Pabian Law Clients,
It looks like we may be headed toward another government shutdown – but the good news is that this one should have very few (if any) practical impacts on immigration or visa processing. Specifically, while the government avoided a full and prolonged shutdown last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) remains unfunded due to the disagreement regarding funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). DHS is the department that controls ICE, along with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). If Congress cannot come to an agreement on funding by 11:59pm on Friday (tomorrow), DHS functions that require government funding will shut down.
Specific impacts are as follows:
- USCIS: one piece of great news is that USCIS is fee-funded and does not rely on government funding to operate. Therefore, visa processing at USCIS should continue as normal. If the shutdown is prolonged for several weeks or months, there could be some delays in processing times, but we do not anticipate this in the short term.
- CBP and ICE: the majority of CBP and ICE personnel are considered “essential,” and operations will continue, including border processing for admission of visa holders to the U.S. by CBP.
- E-Verify: This is the one area where employers could be impacted. E-Verify will likely cease operations during a shutdown, which would mean that employers that normally use E-Verify would have to perform manual I-9 processing during this time. Employers would still be required to complete Form I-9 within three days of a hire but would not be able to create a case in E-Verify while the system is shutdown. Once the shutdown ends, employers would need to enter into E-Verify any cases that were pending during the shutdown and follow any USCIS guidance about how to proceed.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Keith