immigration updates: October 21, 2026

The lottery is back onThe diversity visa lottery offers a path to permanent residence for people from countries with relatively low immigration to the United States (that’s the ‘diversity’ part), who can register in the hopes of being randomly selected (that’s the ‘lottery’ part) in a process administered by the Department of State. A fixed number of visas are allocated for each fiscal year, and registration normally takes place roughly a year in advance. Those who are selected must complete the process before that fiscal year ends on September 30. Thus, the timing of the lottery is crucial in permitting selectees to process their applications. For example, DV-2026 registration opened October 2, 2024—almost a year before its visa year began.

The Trump administration had not opened registration for DV-2027, leading to a lawsuit filed in August in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. Last week the court issued a preliminary injunction, ordering the DOS to run the 2027 program. Registration must open by November 1st, 2026, remain open for 30 days, selectees must be notified by December 3rd, and visas issued by September 30, 2027 (subject to availability).

As of now, registration has not opened, and DOS has not published anything identifying the electronic entry site, the participation requirements, or otherwise; their last update is about a year old. Any further delays will essentially guarantee that those selected towards the end of the lottery will not be able to process their applications, as the FY began on October 1, 2026. More here.

sanctuary and standingThe Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 required local law officers to run background checks for gun purchases. When sheriffs challenged that provision in Printz v. United States, the Supreme Court held that the federal government could not compel state or local officials to act on its behalf.

In New York City, unless a a judicial warrant has been issued for a foreign national, an agency may not hold that person for ICE to take them into custody. Nor may agencies provide a person’s location or release date, and city resources cannot be used for immigration enforcement (with exceptions).

In July 2025, the administration sued the city in the Eastern District of New York, alleging a violation of the Supremacy Clause in that it’s ability to regular immigration was hampered by city’s policies. Last week the EDNY dismissed the lawsuit, holding that “there is nothing within federal law that obligates states to participate in federal immigration enforcement or compels states to comply.”

As a threshold matter, it found that the administration lacked standing to bring the lawsuit given that, even if the city’s prohibitions were removed, the agencies would still be unable to comply with the administration due to the fact that city and state officers are not anyway authorized to make immigration arrests. Moreover, the mere inconvenience of the city provisions, which primarily involve allocation of its own resources, did not rise to the level of an unlawful conflict with the federal immigration scheme.

phone tree updateUSCIS updated its Contact Center page, specifying that a request made to the person who answers the phone, Tier 1, can address case-specific service requests, including expedite requests within USCIS jurisdiction, appointment rescheduling, missing notices or secure documents, accommodations, USCIS typographical errors, and withdrawal requests.

Requests that that require escalation to Tier 2 include requests to expedite a biometrics appointment, certain military matters, and requests for in-person document-service appointments. These are not resolved on the call; the Tier 1 office will submit the request for escalation, and the response may arrive by email or a call-back.

What remains missing was its greatest feature: it’s former, proprietary hold music, which does not seem to be discoverable anywhere. Though if someone were to search it’s historical customer-service telephone contracts or a records request seeking the audio file and any commissioning or licensing records, the newsletter would be immensely grateful.

In the meantime, we can still enjoy the widely-used Opus No.1 on YouTube, previously utilized by the National Visa Center, among others

of Microsoft, medals, and moronsOn October 8, the Trump administration suspended Microsoft’s access to the PERM green-card sponsorship process, then a few hours later awarded its immigrant CEO, Satya Nadella, the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Last week, Microsoft president Brad Smith clearly disputed the administration’s claim that the company had laid off U.S. workers in favor of immigrants. In regards to its H-1B employees, the company states that the majority of its filings are either extensions or changes of employer: not new visas for new workers. PERM, meanwhile, already requires a labor test of the U.S. job market for each case in which the employer must first advertise the job to U.S. workers before being able to proceed with the sponsorship.

If the administration is unhappy with the manner in which the labor market test is conducted, it could attempt to update the 20 year-old regulations or push Congress to update the 60 year-old statute that introduced the labor certification. Though in all likelihood it will continue to lash out at the same companies it relies on to prop up the stock market.

Matthew Blaisdell, Esq.
Sunset Immigration PLLC
219 36th Street, Ste 511
Brooklyn, NY 11232
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