Immigration news updates for AMER and EMEA regions
Americas
United States: EB-4 Visas Exhausted for FY 2025
The State Department, in close collaboration with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), has announced that all available immigrant visas in the Employment-Based Fourth Preference (EB-4) category for fiscal year (FY) 2025 have been issued.
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), there is a cap on the number of employment-based preference immigrant visas that can be issued each fiscal year. Specifically, INA 203(b)(4) stipulates that the annual limit for EB-4 visas is set at 7.1 percent of the worldwide employment limit.
With the exhaustion of all available EB-4 visas for FY 2025, embassies and consulates are now unable to issue any further visas in this category for the remainder of the fiscal year. This means that applicants who were hoping to secure an EB-4 visa will need to wait until the start of the new fiscal year.
The annual limits will reset with the commencement of FY 2026 on October 1, 2025. At that time, embassies and consulates will be able to resume issuing immigrant visas in the EB-4 category to qualified applicants.
This summary was prepared using information obtained from the Bureau of Consular Affairs
United States: Possible government shutdown
The Republicans and Democrats in Congress are struggling to reach an agreement to prevent a government shutdown. A government shutdown would suspend the Department of Labor’s immigration services, including LCA, prevailing wage, and PERM processing, until Congress enacts a new stopgap funding measure or the FY 2025 budget.
In the coming two weeks, Congress must agree on an appropriations bill or another stopgap measure to prevent a partial government shutdown.
This summary was prepared using information obtained from Reuters
Disclaimer: The above information is provided for general information purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. If you have any further inquiries regarding the applicability of this information, please contact Roberta Carnaccini (Global Operations Director, Immigration).
Europe, Middle East and Africa
United Kingdom: Extension for eVisa transition period
The Home Office has reported that over 4 million UK visa holders have successfully created accounts to access their eVisas. However, an estimated 600,000 individuals have yet to transition from physical documents to eVisas.
To ensure a smooth transition, the Home Office has extended the grace period for the use of expired biometric residence permits (BRPs) and EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) biometric residence cards (BRCs) for international travel until June 1, 2025. From June 2, 2025, these expired documents will no longer be accepted for travel.
This summary was prepared using information obtained from the UK Government
United Kingdom: ETA requirement for EU nationals
As previously advised, the EU nationals will be able to apply for the electronic travel authorisation (ETA) from March 5, 2025, to use to travel to the United Kingdom from April 2, 2025. List of all affected countries can be found using  this link:
Check if you can get an electronic travel authorisation (ETA) – GOV.UK
This summary was prepared using information obtained from the UK Government
Disclaimer: The above information is provided for general information purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. If you have any further inquiries regarding the applicability of this information, please contact Joanna Sogeke (Immigration Team Leader) and Roberta Carnaccini (Global Operations Director, Immigration).
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