Pabian Law Clients,
I hope all is well and that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! Below, please find our latest update on the recent immigration actions that have occurred in the last two weeks:
Termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Myanmar (Burma) and Haiti
On November 24th, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the termination of TPS for Myanmar effective on January 26, 2026. Myanmar foreign nationals in the U.S. who relied on TPS for protection and employers employing Myanmar workers will be affected as workers will no longer have valid legal status or work authorization under this TPS designation.
Subsequently, on November 26th, DHS announced the termination of TPS for Haiti effective on February 3, 2026. This will be felt by hospitality employers, as there are many Haitian nationals in the industry that are currently legally working on TPS status. Similar to the Myanmar nationals mentioned above, Haitian workers will no longer have valid legal status or work authorization under this TPS designation as of February 3rd.
Recent Approvals for TN Culinary Roles for Mexican Nationals
We have some encouraging news to start the month. As we have communicated, the government has been increasingly denying visa petitions for Mexican nationals working in culinary roles who are applying under the TN visa Hotel Manager category. I believe that this is largely due to many recruiters and agents filing petitions that are not transparent, and potentially fraudulent, for back-of-house workers.
We have worked tirelessly to understand what the government is seeking in order to approve these petitions. As a result of these efforts, we have seen a number of approvals for TN visa culinary roles. While nothing is ever guaranteed in the world of immigration law, we are feeling encouraged that we have a viable path forward for our clients seeking to employ TN visa holders in culinary management positions.
A big takeaway here – regardless of whether you work with Pabian Law on your TN visa petitions, do not work with non-lawyers on immigration applications. It often leads to denials and non-compliance issues.
Asylum Decisions Paused
On Friday, November 28th, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it is pausing all asylum decisions. USCIS said that this pause will remain in effect “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.” It is currently unknown how long this pause will last and what additional vetting measures could be introduced.
Conclusion
We hope that this update is helpful to understand the impacts to the hospitality industry stemming from ongoing immigration-related actions and. We will continue to email these updates to Pabian Law’s clients every other week.
Thanks, everyone, and have a great week!
Best regards,
Keith and the Pabian Law Team