June 2024 Newsletter

Welcome to our June 2024 Immigration Newsletter, which covers select immigration developments in the past month.

We start with President Biden's Executive Actions to control the high number of unlawful crossings at the Southern border. On June 4, President Biden announced that he was suspending entry of foreign nationals who crossed the Southern border unlawfully by restricting their access to the asylum process. The President also directed border officials to remove the foreign nationals instead of detaining them in the US.

Critics express concerns that these adjustments may lead to individuals being removed without proper assessment of their asylum claims, potentially raising questions about US obligations under international human rights law. While President Biden's recent executive actions address immediate border challenges, the ultimate solution lies in Congressional action to modernize our immigration laws.?

We also cover the State Department's monthly immigrant visa bulletin, which tells us where the government is with respect to processing each immigrant visa category. In June 2024, we primarily see forward movement in the family-based immigrant visa categories. There is almost no movement in the employment-based immigrant visa categories. Fortunately, none of the categories retrogressed. ?More information is below.

Insofar as the H-1B lottery, USCIS released the number of registrations it received for this year’s H-1B visa lottery: 479,953, resulting in 120,603 selected registrants. This is nearly 300,000 less than last year’s numbers: 780,884. In comparison to last year’s chance of selection of approximately 15%, the chances of being selected in the H-1B lottery for the upcoming fiscal year increased to 25.13%. Our blogpost below provides more data and insights.

Finally, with May being Mental Health Awareness Month, I recorded a podcast on how moving to a new country impacts mental health. I invited Dr. Lorraine Ehlers-Flint, a psychologist and immigrant herself, to talk with me about the impact of immigration on mental health and ways to support mental well-being through this major life transition. More information is below.

We hope you find our updates helpful. Please contact us if you would like to discuss any of these developments further.

June 2024 Visa Bulletin Released

The Department of State (DOS) has issued its June 2024 Visa Bulletin. Like in May, we primarily see forward movement in the family-based immigrant visa categories in June. There is almost no movement in the employment-based immigrant visa categories. Fortunately, none of the categories retrogress.

Read more here.

Nearly 500,000 H-1B Lottery Registrations Submitted in March 2024

USCIS has released the number of registrations it received for this year’s H-1B visa lottery: 479,953, resulting in 120,603 selected registrants.*? This is nearly 300,000 less than last year’s numbers: 780,884. In comparison to last year’s chance of selection of 15%, the chances of being selected in the H-1B lottery for this fiscal year 2025 increased to 25.13%.

Read more here.

Episode 19: Immigration and Mental Health: A Conversation with Dr. Lorraine Ehlers-Flint

Moving to a new country can be stressful, even if we are excited about the change. In this episode of Inside Immigration, I invited Dr. Lorraine Ehlers-Flint, a psychologist and immigrant, to discuss the impact of immigration on mental health and ways to improve mental well-being.

Listen to the podcast here.

Thank you for reading! Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss any of these developments further. Wishing you a wonderful summer.