The staff of the International Center would like to express our sympathy and concern for U-M international students, scholars, and employees affected by the recent earthquake in the Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. Our thoughts are with you, your families, and friends.
Effective August 1, 2026, the Department of State will transfer routine visa services from Antananarivo, Abuja, Asmara, Bamako, Banjul, Brazzaville, Bujumbura, Conakry, Cotonou, Durban, Freetown, Gaborone, Harare, Juba, Libreville, Lilongwe, Lusaka, Maputo, Maseru, Mbabane, N’Djamena, Niamey, Nouakchott, Ouagadougou, and Windhoek to regional visa hubs.
On Friday, July 17, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published the final rule in the Federal Register to end “duration of status” (D/S) for F and J nonimmigrants.
The Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs has completed its review of the proposed rule on Duration of Status. The rule is now designated as “consistent with change”, meaning that some changes were made during the review. We do not know yet what those changes entail nor how they will impact international students and scholars.
On March 27, 2026, the Department of Labor’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) published a proposed rule, titled Improving Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Foreign Nationals in the United States, that would change how prevailing wages are calculated for H-1B, H-1B1, E-3, and PERM-based green card applications. These changes would generally increase the wages required for those petitions.
On 5/22/2026 USCIS announced a new Policy Memorandum related to the final step of the green card application process.
On May 18, 2026, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced targeted travel restrictions “to protect the health of the United States from the serious risk posed by the introduction of Ebola disease into the United States by covered aliens based on the emergent outbreak of Ebola disease caused by the Bundibugyo virus strain confirmed present in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda.” The travel restrictions apply for a period of 30