The federal government’s current temporary funding legislation will expire at midnight on March 14, 2025. While Congress is currently considering another continuing resolution that will fund the federal government through September 30 2025 (the end of the fiscal year). If it fails to do so, many government agencies will be required to cease operations immediately. Only government employees in those agencies deemed essential personnel are allowed to work. Based on prior government announcements pertaining to budget-related funding shutdowns, the following is a summary of how we believe the shutdown will affect immigration related government operations.
USCIS is largely funded by user fees so a government shutdown should have limited impact on daily operations. The exceptions to this are programs that are funded by appropriations, such as E-Verify, Conrad 30 J-1 doctors, and non-minister religious workers, all of which may be suspended on March 14, 2025. In the past, when the government reopened, USCIS accepted late Form I-129 filings if the primary reason for the failure to file a timely extension of stay or change of status request was the government shutdown.
H-1B CAP Registration – USCIS has confirmed that the government shutdown should not affect the H-1B cap registration process or the ability of users to submit filing fees via pay.gov. USCIS has not yet shared any information regarding an extension of the H-1B Cap registration period should there be a government shutdown.
In the event of a government shutdown, companies are still obligated to complete Forms I-9 for new hires. However, the E-Verify platform will likely be unavailable. For companies that use E-Verify and are now utilizing the remote document verification benefit, they can continue to complete the remote document verification of Forms I-9 and then subsequently complete the E-Verify inquiries when the platform is operating again.
Customs and Border Protection operations at ports of entry are considered critical to national security. International travel will not be disrupted and petitions at ports of entry (i.e. TN and L-1) will continue to be reviewed.
The Department of State’s visa and passport operations are also largely fee-funded and should not normally be impacted by a shutdown. If for some reason there are insufficient fees to support normal operations at a particular post, consular posts will generally only handle diplomatic visas and “life or death” emergencies.
The Department of Labor’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) would immediately cease processing of all applications in the event of a government shutdown, including labor condition applications for H-1B, H-1B1, and E-3, prevailing wage requests, and PERM labor certifications. DOL’s websites would be deactivated. To the extent that PERM filers with impending deadlines can file now, they should do so before 11:59 pm (ET) on March 14.
However, USCIS should still be able to access OFLC data that is required for adjudication of Form I-129 H-2 and Form I-140 PERM-based petitions. If there is a shutdown, OFLC may issue guidance with respect to filing flexibility for employers that may have missed a filing deadline due to the shutdown.
For additional questions about how a government shutdown may impact your company or existing immigration processes, please reach out to your Meltzer Hellrung attorney.
