Penn International Student and Scholar Services posted guidance for the University community last week regarding a federal court decision vacating United States immigration policies.<\/p>\n
The June 17 update<\/a>, written by ISSS Executive Director Rodolfo Altamirano, comes after the chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island struck down policies that \u201csuspended, delayed, or subjected certain immigration benefit applications.\u201d U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has indicated it will comply with the order while the federal government\u2019s appeal is processed.<\/p>\n According to the ISSS update, affected individuals \u2014 primarily from the 39 countries<\/a> facing restrictions on travel \u2014 may notice progress on some employment authorization applications, green card applications, and other USCIS benefit requests.<\/p>\n In a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, Altamirano wrote that the decision is \u201cgenerally a positive development\u201d for Penn \u201cstudents, scholars, employees, and departments,\u201d as it \u201cmay allow some previously delayed immigration benefit applications to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, it is important to emphasize that the ruling does not automatically approve any pending applications, significant processing backlogs remain, and the appellate process is ongoing,\u201d Altamirano added.<\/p>\n Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n He wrote that \u201cmajor immigration, employment, and travel decisions\u201d should be made \u201con a case-by-case basis\u201d after consulting the appropriate resources.<\/p>\n ISSS\u2019s guidance noted that the \u201cappeal remains active\u201d and the travel bans remain in place.<\/p>\n \u201cISSS will continue monitoring developments and providing updates to the Penn community as additional information becomes available,\u201d Altamirano wrote to the DP.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, ISSS issued<\/a> a notice recommending continued caution after a federal court ruled that the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s $100,000 supplemental fee for H-1B visas was unlawful.<\/p>\n Altamirano, who wrote the notice, added that Penn departments and those holding H-1B visas should \u201cfollow existing institutional guidance\u201d as \u201cfurther government action is anticipated.\u201d<\/p>\n The federal government is currently appealing the decision, arguing that the fee is a legitimate application of its power.<\/p>\n On June 12, \u201cthe same court issued an administrative stay of its ruling,\u201d according to another ISSS advisory<\/a>. As a result, the $100,000 fee is \u201ceffectively back in force pending further judicial action.\u201d<\/p>\n Last June, ISSS urged<\/a> students from 12 countries to immediately return to the U.S. after the Trump administration imposed travel restrictions. Six months later, the restrictions were expanded<\/a> and went into effect on Jan. 1.<\/p>\n At the time, ISSS recommended that those affected by the restrictions avoid non-essential international travel.<\/p>\n Staff reporter James Wan covers academic affairs and can be reached at wan@thedp.com<\/a>. At Penn, he studies communication and computer science. Follow him on X @JamesWan__<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penn International Student and Scholar Services posted guidance for the University community last week regarding a federal court…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-718388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}