Nurse immigration policy tracker

Rules affecting international nurses moved more in 2026 than in the previous decade. Most of what circulates about them is out of date, overstated, or written for software engineers.

This page tracks what has actually changed, with the date we last checked each item. Where reputable sources disagree, we say so. Where we could not confirm something, we say that too.

Last full review: September 9, 2026.

What is coming

Three things that are not happening

People arrive at this page having read something alarming. These three come up constantly and all three are wrong.

Nobody is paying the $100,000 H-1B fee. A federal court vacated the policy implementing Proclamation 10973 in June 2026 and the First Circuit declined to pause that ruling in July. It is not being collected. The proclamation also expires by its own terms in the second half of September 2026.

The $103,265 fee is not payable. It is a proposed rule published August 25, 2026. Nothing is owed unless and until a final rule issues, and the comment period was still open when we last checked.

The consular interview pause does not touch adjustment of status. If you are inside the United States with a pending I-485, the pause on immigrant visa interviews at consulates does not affect your case. It also does not affect F-1 or H-1B status.

Entries

Fixed admission periods replace duration of status

Status: In force September 15, 2026. Challenge pending, no ruling. Dates: Published July 17, 2026 (91 FR 44976). Effective September 15, 2026. Argued September 3, 2026. Checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. F-1 admission becomes a fixed period equal to program length, capped at four years, instead of open-ended “duration of status.” Extending beyond that date requires Form I-539 with a fee and biometrics; schools can no longer extend students internally. The same rule cuts the post-completion departure grace period from 60 days to 30.

NAFSA v. Department of Homeland Security was argued before Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV in the District of Massachusetts on September 3, 2026. As of September 9 no ruling, injunction or stay had issued. Filing a lawsuit does not pause a rule.

If you studied in the US. Two dates. Re-entering the country on or after September 15 converts your I-94 from “D/S” to a fixed date and costs you the transitional treatment, so take advice before travelling. And if your I-94 says “D/S,” filing the I-765 for OPT on or before March 18, 2027 means you do not need a concurrent I-539. Students already here and in status are not converted on September 15; they may remain until the later of their I-20 end date or work permit expiry, subject to the four-year cap.

If you studied overseas. Relevant only if you are or were on F-1. It does not touch H-1B or EB-3.

Sources: 91 FR 44976, July 17, 2026. NAFSA and Presidents’ Alliance statements, September 3, 2026.

Proposed $103,265 fee on cap-subject H-1B petitions

Status: Proposed only. Comments close September 24, 2026. Dates: Published August 25, 2026 (91 FR 54817). Comments close September 24, 2026. Checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. DHS proposes a $103,265 fee on every cap-subject H-1B petition, including advanced degree cases. Cap-exempt petitions are excluded, as are extensions, amendments and transfers for workers already counted against the cap. It would sit on top of any proclamation payment rather than replacing it. Nothing is payable unless a final rule issues. Anyone can comment at regulations.gov under docket USCIS-2026-0298; it showed roughly 6,600 comments when we looked.

If you studied in the US. Watch this one. The old $100,000 proclamation exempted people changing status inside the US. This proposal does not. If finalized as written it reaches F-1 students. What protects you is your employer being cap-exempt, not where you are standing.

If you studied overseas. Only matters if the employer is cap-subject. A cap-exempt sponsor sits outside it either way.

Sources: 91 FR 54817, August 25, 2026. Docket USCIS-2026-0298.

Proclamation 10973 and the $100,000 payment

Status: Implementing policy vacated. Not being collected. Appeal live. Expires late September 2026. Dates: Signed September 19, 2025. Policy vacated June 8, 2026. Stay denied by the First Circuit July 24, 2026. Expires on its own terms September 20 or 21, 2026. Checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. A $100,000 payment on certain new H-1B petitions. In State of California v. Mullin the District of Massachusetts vacated the agency policy implementing the proclamation, not the proclamation itself, which formally remains on the books. The First Circuit refused to stay that ruling pending appeal, so the vacatur stands and the payment is not being collected. Briefing on the appeal runs into late October 2026.

Two things get reported wrongly and often. No appellate court has ruled on the merits, despite at least one headline saying so. And the expiry date is disputed by a day: the proclamation text says 12:01 a.m. September 21, while much commentary says September 20.

If you studied in the US. It never applied to a change of status filed inside the United States. The successor proposal is the one to watch.

If you studied overseas. It was an entry restriction, so consular cases were the exposed group. Not currently being collected.

Sources: 90 FR 46027. State of California v. Mullin, No. 1:25-cv-13829-LTS, D. Mass., June 8, 2026. First Circuit order, July 24, 2026.

Weighted H-1B selection by wage level

Status: In force. Dates: Published December 29, 2025. Effective February 27, 2026. First applied to the FY 2027 season. Checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. Cap registrations are entered into the selection pool according to Department of Labor wage level: four entries at Level IV, three at Level III, two at Level II, one at Level I. Each beneficiary is still counted once against the cap.

If you studied in the US. Staff nursing prices at Level I. DHS projected a 15.3% selection rate for Level I registrations when it wrote the rule. USCIS has not published actual selection rates by wage level, and the figures circulating in law firm blogs are either client samples or shares of selections rather than selection rates. Treat 15.3% as a projection, and treat the lottery as something you do not control.

If you studied overseas. Same mechanics. An advanced practice role or a specialty role prices higher and fares better.

Sources: Final rule, December 29, 2025, DHS Docket USCIS-2025-0040.

New editions of Form I-765 and Form I-539

Status: In force September 15, 2026. Dates: Announced August 2026. Mandatory September 15, 2026. Checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. New editions dated 09/15/26. USCIS will reject earlier editions received on or after September 15, with no grace period. Postmark governs for mail, submission date for online filing.

If you studied in the US. This is the most immediately actionable item on the page. If you are filing for OPT in the next week, check the edition date printed on the form.

If you studied overseas. Same, for any I-765 or I-539 filing.

Sources: USCIS alert, August 2026.

USCIS is issuing fewer requests for evidence

Status: In force. Dates: Announced August 11, 2026. Checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. Applicants must establish eligibility and submit complete evidence at initial filing. Denials may issue without a request for evidence or a notice of intent to deny first.

If you studied in the US. It raises the cost of a defective OPT filing from a delay to a denial, inside a twelve-month window you cannot extend. Have someone check the package before it goes.

If you studied overseas. Same, and it compounds for petitions with complex evidence.

Sources: USCIS alert, August 11, 2026.

SEVP tightened CPT

Status: In force. Schools pausing approvals. Dates: Broadcast messages August 12 and August 24, 2026. Checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. Two SEVP messages. The first restated that CPT must be an integral, required part of an established curriculum and reminded designated school officials of their liability. The second clarified that where practical training is integral, participation must be required of every student in the program regardless of citizenship, and that an optional elective involving CPT does not meet the standard.

Neither changed the regulation. Both changed enforcement posture, which is why several universities, UC Davis among them, paused categories of CPT approval in late August and early September.

If you studied in the US. If your CPT arrangement was an elective, assume it no longer qualifies and talk to your DSO. Remember that twelve months or more of full-time CPT destroys OPT eligibility at that level, and that full-time CPT from a previous school at the same level counts toward the total.

If you studied overseas. Not applicable unless you are or were on F-1.

Sources: SEVP broadcast messages 2608-01, August 12, 2026, and 2608-02, August 24, 2026.

Adjustment of status treated as discretionary

Status: In force. Dates: Policy memorandum PM-602-0199, May 21, 2026. Checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. USCIS directs officers to treat adjustment of status as a discretionary, extraordinary form of relief rather than an entitlement, weighing the whole record even where the technical requirements are met. Categories requiring nonimmigrant intent, F-1 and TN among them, get heightened scrutiny of intent and prior conduct. The memo expressly preserves dual intent for H-1B and L-1. F-1 is not on that protected list.

If you studied in the US. This lands squarely on the F-1 to green card path, which is most of this audience. Keeping status clean matters more than it did, and gaps or irregularities that used to be survivable now get weighed.

If you studied overseas. Relevant if you adjust status inside the US rather than consular process.

Sources: USCIS PM-602-0199, May 21, 2026. We relied on law firm summaries; we could not open the memorandum directly. Read it before relying on exact wording.

Immigrant visa interviews paused at consulates

Status: Unclear. No confirmation of resumption. Dates: Began August 25, 2026. Status as of September 9, 2026 not verified.

What it is. The State Department directed posts worldwide to pause immigrant visa appointments while consular officers were trained on new public charge screening guidance. Reporting put the number affected at around 200,000 and indicated family-based, employment-based and diversity categories were all included. Nonimmigrant visas were not affected.

We could not verify the current status. No source we found post-dates September 1, the State Department has published nothing about it directly, and reports of its expected duration conflict. Check before relying on either answer.

Do not confuse this with the “Temporary Pause of Visa Operations” notice on the State Department site dated May 18, 2026, which concerns an Ebola outbreak at three African posts and is unrelated.

If you studied in the US. It does not affect a pending adjustment application filed inside the United States, and it does not affect F-1 or H-1B status.

If you studied overseas. If you are waiting on a consular immigrant visa interview, this is your item. Ask your employer’s attorney for the current position at your post.

Sources: Press reporting and law firm alerts, August 26 to September 1, 2026. No official State Department posting located.

The 75-country immigrant visa suspension was vacated

Status: No longer in effect. Dates: Court order August 21, 2026. Confirmed by the State Department August 28, 2026. Checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. A January 2026 suspension of immigrant visa issuance to nationals of 75 countries was vacated by a federal court in CLINIC v. Rubio. The State Department confirms on its own site that the suspension is no longer in effect. The worldwide interview pause that began four days later is a separate thing.

If you studied in the US. Relevant only if you were in one of the affected nationalities and processing abroad.

If you studied overseas. Same.

Sources: travel.state.gov, updated August 28, 2026.

Proposal to eliminate the 60-day nonimmigrant grace period

Status: Cleared review. Not published. No comment period yet. Dates: Cleared OMB August 27, 2026. Checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. A DHS proposed rule that would remove the discretionary 60-day grace period following the end of employment for nonimmigrant workers, including H-1B holders. It has cleared interagency review but has not appeared in the Federal Register, so there is nothing to comment on yet.

Do not confuse it with the separate reduction of the F-1 post-completion grace period from 60 days to 30, which takes effect September 15, 2026.

If you studied in the US. Watch it. If you reach an H-1B and the job ends, the cushion may not be there.

If you studied overseas. Same.

Sources: OMB clearance reported August 27 to September 3, 2026. Not yet published.

Prevailing wage levels may rise

Status: Proposed. Comments closed. No final rule. Dates: Published March 27, 2026. Comments closed May 26, 2026. Checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. The Department of Labor proposes raising prevailing wage percentiles for Levels I through IV from 17/34/50/67 to 34/52/70/88. In effect it would remove the bottom of the wage scale.

If you studied in the US. Two-edged and worth understanding. Combined with the weighted lottery, a higher Level I could change where staff nursing sits. It would also raise what an employer has to pay to sponsor. Schedule A nurses skip labor certification but still need a prevailing wage determination, so it reaches EB-3 too.

If you studied overseas. Same.

Sources: 91 FR, March 27, 2026, RIN 1205-AC30, Docket ETA-2026-0001.

9/11 Response fee extended to extension petitions

Status: In force. Dates: Rule dated August 10, 2026. Effective September 9, 2026. Checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. The $4,000 H-1B and $4,500 L-1 fee, previously limited to certain initial petitions by large employers with a high proportion of visa workers, now applies to their extension petitions as well, including extensions with the same employer.

If you studied in the US. An employer cost rather than yours, but it lands on exactly the large employers most able to sponsor, and cost changes move sponsorship appetite.

If you studied overseas. Same.

Sources: Final rule dated August 10, 2026, effective September 9, 2026.

EB-3 visa bulletin position for nurses

Status: Static. October bulletin pending. Dates: September 2026 bulletin current. October 2026 not published when checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. EB-3 final action dates as of the September 2026 bulletin: all other areas and Mexico September 1, 2024; Philippines August 1, 2023; China January 1, 2022; India January 1, 2014. EB-3 did not move at all in September.

There is a second, more generous chart called dates for filing, on which EB-3 is current for most of the world. USCIS is accepting employment-based adjustment applications against the final action dates, not the filing dates, so the generous chart does not currently help. Check which chart USCIS has adopted each month.

If you studied in the US. For most of the world this is a wait of roughly two years, spent in some other status. For an India-born nurse it is more than a decade, which means EB-3 is closed for planning purposes and the conversation has to be about a nonimmigrant route.

If you studied overseas. Same dates, but consular processing is also subject to the interview pause above.

Sources: Visa Bulletin for September 2026, travel.state.gov.

Schedule A still covers registered nursing

Status: Unchanged. Dates: Last amended December 2004. Request for information closed May 2024. Checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. Registered nursing remains in Schedule A, Group I at 20 CFR 656.5, so an employer skips labor certification and files the immigrant petition directly. The Department of Labor asked in December 2023 whether to modernize Schedule A and add occupations, took more than 2,000 comments, and has published nothing since. That effort was about expansion, not removal.

If you studied in the US. This is the structural advantage nursing has that most occupations do not. It saves a year or more.

If you studied overseas. Same, and it is the backbone of most overseas nurse recruitment.

Sources: 20 CFR 656.5. Request for information, 88 FR, December 21, 2023.

Nursing is still not on the STEM OPT list

Status: Unchanged. Dates: List last updated July 2024. Request made September 2024. Checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. Nursing does not appear on the DHS STEM designated degree program list, so there is no 24-month OPT extension. Several other health professions do appear. The American Nurses Association wrote to DHS in September 2024 asking that nursing be added; we found no evidence the request was granted.

If you studied in the US. This is the single fact that shapes your whole timeline. Twelve months, one lottery attempt, no extension.

If you studied overseas. Not applicable.

Sources: DHS STEM designated degree program list. ANA letter to DHS, September 3, 2024.

VisaScreen is required, including for US-educated nurses

Status: Standing requirement. Widely missed. Dates: Regulation last amended 2020. Fees and processing checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. Federal law requires registered nurses to hold a health care worker certificate, commonly called VisaScreen, before being admitted or granted status to work. It applies to H-1B, TN and EB-3. TruMerit issues it. The current fee is $740 and the certificate is valid five years.

Graduating from a US program does not exempt you. It streamlines you: an ACEN or CCNE accredited entry-level program means you skip both the educational comparability review and the English proficiency test. TruMerit also accepts NLN CNEA accreditation. The regulation still names “NLNAC,” which was renamed ACEN in 2013.

There is a shorter route for nurses called a certified statement under section 212(r), open to those holding an active license in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan or New York who have passed the NCLEX and studied in English at an approved institution.

If you studied in the US. Plan the timing. TruMerit issues most certificates within a few business days once it holds every document, but says collecting those documents takes about 14 weeks on average, and it cannot start until you hold the RN license. Inside a twelve-month OPT window that is the sequencing item most likely to hurt.

If you studied overseas. You need the full process, including credential comparability and English testing, unless you qualify for the 212(r) route.

Sources: 8 CFR 212.15, including (g)(2), (h), (i) and (n)(4). TruMerit fee schedule and processing pages, retrieved September 9, 2026.

NCLEX registration fee rises

Status: Announced. Takes effect February 1, 2027. Dates: Announced August 21, 2026. Effective February 1, 2027. Checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. NCSBN raises the NCLEX registration fee from $200 to $350 in the United States, the first increase since 2000. Candidates who complete registration before February 1, 2027 pay $200.

If you studied in the US. Register before the date if your timeline allows. It costs nothing to register early and saves $150.

If you studied overseas. Same, and the Canadian fee rises to CAD 570.

Sources: NCSBN announcement, August 21, 2026.

NCLEX pass rates by education route

Status: Annual data. Dates: 2025 calendar year. Published 2026. Checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. First-attempt NCLEX-RN pass rates for 2025: US-educated baccalaureate 87.6% across 100,258 candidates; US-educated associate degree 86.1% across 89,549; US-educated diploma 83.3%; all US-educated 86.7%; internationally educated 47.3% across 52,827 candidates.

One inconsistency worth flagging: NCSBN’s landing page describes the publication as covering 2024 while the tables inside are headed 2025. We read the tables as authoritative.

If you studied in the US. You sit in the 87.6% or 86.1% column. Most of the anxious NCLEX advice online is calibrated to the 47.3% group.

If you studied overseas. The gap is about where the program was taught, not about ability. It reflects an exam built around American practice, drug names and scope.

Sources: NCSBN 2025 NCLEX Examination Statistics.

Nurse Licensure Compact status

Status: 43 members, 40 issuing. Dates: Checked September 9, 2026.

What it is. Forty-three jurisdictions belong to the compact and forty have implemented it and are issuing multistate licenses. Guam, Massachusetts and the US Virgin Islands have enacted without implementing; Massachusetts is targeting 2027. Outside it altogether: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York and Oregon, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The compact’s uniform licensure requirements include holding a valid United States Social Security number.

If you studied in the US. That Social Security requirement is the trap. You cannot get the number until your work permit arrives, so a new graduate on OPT can often obtain a single-state license but not a multistate one. Get the single-state license, start work, upgrade later.

If you studied overseas. Same requirement, same sequencing.

Sources: nursecompact.com and NCSBN uniform licensure requirements. The official compact map PDF would not extract reliably for us; verify your own state against the live map.

State measures

Two states now condition a nursing license on immigration status. Both follow a February 2025 federal executive order directing agencies to enforce a 1996 statute treating a professional license as a public benefit. Expect others, and check your own state rather than assuming.

The Texas problem, stated plainly. The nine accepted documents do not include an Employment Authorization Document, an I-20, or the F-1 category. The only item that fits a nonimmigrant is an I-94 showing a departure date after the license expires, and an F-1 admitted for “duration of status” has an I-94 with no departure date at all.

The fixed-admission-period rule effective September 15, 2026 replaces duration of status with a date certain, which is exactly what that item contemplates. That may resolve the problem. We are not willing to promise it.

Meanwhile the Board may process the whole application, administer the NCLEX and the jurisprudence exam, and issue a written certification that an applicant meets every requirement except the documentation. The license itself will not issue until the documentation arrives, and a pending application expires after a year.

The Board publishes separate guidance on acceptable documents which we could not retrieve. This is the largest open question on this page. Anyone planning around Texas should call the Board.

States moving the other way

Note that these are not all recent. California’s dates from 2014 and Illinois from 2018. Washington and Wisconsin are the recent ones.

These laws and the Texas and Iowa measures point in opposite directions on the same question, which is unlikely to stay unresolved. Do not present any of it as settled.

How this is maintained

Every entry carries the date we last checked it, and that date changes when someone reviews the entry, whether or not anything else changed. An undated tracker is worse than no tracker.

Where reputable sources disagree, we say so rather than picking the tidier answer. Where we could not confirm something, we say that too. The items currently in that category are the status of the consular interview pause, the exact wording of the May 2026 adjustment of status memorandum, the Texas Board of Nursing guidance on acceptable documents, and current USCIS processing times for the I-765.

Items that move fastest and should be reviewed monthly: the fixed-admission-period litigation, both H-1B fee measures, the visa bulletin, and the state licensure table.

This page is not legal advice. It is a record of what public sources said on a given date.