Government Shutdown 2013: How Your Immigration Services Will Be Affected

The impending shutdown of the U.S. federal government on October 1st will impact immigration services across a number of different government agencies. In this alert we address the impact of a shutdown on petitions, visas, and labor certifications.

Immigration-related services can be broken down into three basic categories: security, fee-paying, and non-fee paying. We expect continued service for immigration services considered vital to national security, delays in fee-paying activities, and stoppage of work for non-fee paying services.

Security Services

Security and enforcement functions as well as agencies considered essential to national security, such as border security (CBP) and customs (ICE), will likely continue operations near normal capacity.