As published in the Immigration Daily on July 15, 2025
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July 1, 2025, level I prevailing wage changes for various occupations
New prevailing wages by the Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational and Wage Statistics (OEWS) which are used in determining prevailing wages in PERM labor certification applications and H-1B labor condition applications (LCAs) came out on July 1, 2025, and valid until June 30, 2026, https://flag.dol.gov/wage-data/wage-search show many more category rises than falls in pay. The below compilation includes many of the categories in the New York area at level I, the lowest of four wage levels used by the Department of Labor in its O*Net system:
- General and operations managers – + 1K – $77,293
- Marketing managers – minus 3K – $114,379
- Sales managers – plus 3K – $129,896
- Public relations managers – plus 3K – $125,819
- Computer & info systems managers – + 2K – $148,450
- Purchasing managers – + 2K – $126,506
- Architectural/engineering managers –minus 3K – $135,928
- Lodging managers – minus 7K – $55,869
- Medical & health services managers – plus 4K – $103,293
- Managers, all others – minus 3K – $103,064
- Management analysts – minus 1K – $74,402
- Market research analysts – + 1K – $61,797
- Accountants and auditors – + 2K – $73,070
- Credit analysts – plus 8K – $84,677
- Financial and investment analysts – + 2K – $87,838
- Financial specialists, all other – plus 4K – $73,195
- Computer systems analyst –minus 1K – $80,600
- Information security analysts – minus 2K – $94,016
- Computer & information research scientists – +27K – $110,011
- Computer network architects – same – $103,938
- Database administrators – +12 K – $77,438
- Database architects – minus 8K – $93,226
- Network and computer systems administrators – + 6K – $79,331
- Computer programmers – minus 6K – $74,714
- Software developers – + 8K – $103,210
- Software quality assurance analysts and testers – minus 1K – $78,624
- Web developers – minus 7K – $40,893
- Computer occupations, all other – plus 4K – $62,525
- Actuaries – minus 2K – $90,750
- Operations research analysts – + 1K – $68,869
- Statisticians – + 3K – $81,557
- Data scientists – minus 3K – $79,456
- Architects except landscape and Naval – + 2K – $67,309
- Landscape architects – minus 8K – $69,326
- Bioengineers & biomedical engineers – plus 7K – $87,630
- Chemical engineers – plus 3K – $82,597
- Civil engineers – plus 4K – $78,811
- Computer software engineers – minus 8K – $90,605
- Electrical engineers – plus 6K – $84,490
- Electronic engineers, except computer – +11 K – $101,878
- Environmental engineers – plus 1K – $71,906
- Industrial engineers – plus 6K – $81,037
- Materials engineers – +13 K – $83,054
- Mechanical engineers – + 7K – $81,432
- Engineers, all other – +17 K – $83,346
- Biochemists & biophysicists – minus 1K – $74,963
- Microbiologist – plus 3K – $63,378
- Biological scientists, all other – minus 2K – $74,838
- Epidemiologists – minus 1K – $73,694
- Medical scientists, except epidemiologists – same – $71,282
- Life scientists, all others – minus 3K – $63,814
- Chemists – plus 1K – $64,230
- Environmental sciences & specialists, including health – same – $57,200
- Economists – plus 6K – $92,082
- Lawyers – plus 5K – $98,114
- Fashion designers – minus 6K – $62,691
- Graphic designers – + 2K – $53,955
- Interior designers – + 5K – $51,022
- News analysts, reporters and journalists – + 7K – $63,128/level 2 = $181,064
- Public relations specialists – + 2K – $54,995
- Editors – + 4K – $63,606/level 2 = $90,563
- Technical writers – minus 5K – $47,195
- Registered nurses – plus 6K – $88,941
- Nurse practitioners – same – $113,630
- Acupuncturists – plus 1K – $64,979
- Medical and clinical laboratory technologists – minus 1K – $49,483
- Medical and clinical laboratory technicians – $49,483
- Chefs and head cooks – plus 5K – $47,154
- Restaurant cooks – plus 1K – $34,611
- Sales engineers – plus 7K – $101,171
The bottom lines appear to be that the pluses far exceed the minuses; premiums are on individuals with professional technical skills; managers do not to command the level of increases as persons with professional technical skills; and hiring in certain computer occupations may be adversely affected by the rise of generative artificial intelligence.
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Checking to see whether the new medical form is being used
The new edition of the I-693 Instructions for Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record came into effect on July 2, 2025, and submitting a medical examination on the former edition may be cause for rejection of the I-485 adjustment of status application. The rule is that If the civil surgeon signs your form on or before July 2, 2025, you must use the 03/09/23 or the 01/20/25 edition. If the civil surgeon signs your form July 3, 2025 or later, USCIS will accept only the 01/20/25 edition. https://www.uscis.gov/i-693 This may be concerning to law firms as some designated physicians and clinics may still be issuing medical findings on the former edition in the first days of new edition use, and the law firm cannot open the medical (closed medical required). In case of doubt, the client can be asked what edition was used and date of signature as the client is usually given a copy of the medical by the physician/clinic. If not, the client could check with the doctor’s office to ensure that the correct edition was used.
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Online H-1B cap filing reminder
This year saw an increase in the number of H1B selections https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/temporary-workers/h-1b-specialty-occupations/h-1b-electronic-registration-process due to the reforms instituted by USCIS in the H-1B Modernization Rule which included enhanced registration payments per candidate from $10 to $215 and that, regardless of how many organizations submitted individual registration applications for one person, that person would only be counted once. Many law firms handling H-1B cap petitions worked until the last week to submit selected H-1B registration petitions by the deadline of June 30, 2025. Online filings were encouraged to reduce the possibilities of error. A reminder is that in the latter circumstance – especially when dealing with smaller sized companies, they should be given warning well ahead of time that they must have sufficient monies on their credit cards for online case filings, and they should perhaps even notify the credit card companies ahead of time that they will be putting heavy charges on their cards. USCIS charges are no longer a few hundred dollars, rather over $3000 and $4000 on many occasions and with premium processing over $6000 for most companies – serious money to the credit card companies, especially where organizations are sponsoring multiple beneficiaries. Even if the company credit card does not exceed the credit line, the charges may be rejected as abnormal by the credit card company necessitating last-minute communications between the designated person on the credit card and the credit card company. In one situation involving a last-minute online filing, the designated person could not be reached, and the petitioning organization had to reach out to its second bank after the first bank rejected its request for ACH transfer to pay for the filing.
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Warning on what to look out for in nonimmigrant visa interviews – most likely applicable also to CBP at ports of entry
The State Department restarted FMJ visa interviews again on June 18, 2025, with heavy vetting on social media. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/state-dept-restarts-student-visa-interviews-with-tougher-social-media-rules/ar-AA1GYPGN The Marco Rubio cable said for officers to examine student profiles “to identify applicants who bear hostile attitudes towards our citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles; who advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to US national security; or who perpetrate unlawful antisemitic harassment or violence.” Applicants must make public and accessible all portions of their social media accounts and should be penalized if they refuse. If portions of accounts remain set to private or are otherwise limited, officers should treat the case as any other where an applicant fails to provide certain information on request – “You must consider whether such failure reflects evasiveness or otherwise calls into question the applicant’s credibility.” The new guidelines affect new applicants; those whose cases are currently in progress –that includes applicants who have not yet been interviewed and those whose interviews have been waived; and those who have already been interviewed and are otherwise approvable but have not yet been finalized as approved.
It is clear that in this Administration, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) closely follows the lead of the Department of State. Thus, nonimmigrants who are traveling internationally should be aware that the above guidelines may apply to them even if they are not applying for visas at American consulates or embassies. They and even permanent residents and US citizens who fear intrusive searches at ports of entry may consider taking proactive steps. If you fear border searches of your phone, advice from a New York Times columnist [Sorry, cannot locate article] is to consider wiping your data or even buying a cheap backup device. If a US citizen, turn off biometrics such as fingerprint and facial recognition sensors and only rely on the passcode because it is legally more difficult for the government to compel you to share a passcode that it is for an officer to take your phone and hold it up to your face to unlock it.