President Trump announced on Friday, 35 days after the initial shutdown, that a continuing resolutions bill has been tabled to reopen the government for 3 weeks until February 15. This will allow government workers who have missed a month of paychecks to be paid while the debate over border security continues. Funding for the wall, which was one of the key cogs in the impasse, is not included in this continuing resolution. This announcement comes after news that airports and flights were severely affected by the lack of ground staff and safety personnel.
The continuing resolution bill was introduced without change, USCIS is expected to resume processing of the EB-5 Regional Center Program and other visa programs that were awaiting funding will be available again. USCIS still accepted EB-5 applications during the shutdown, but were not adjudicating the application. To learn more about the EB-5 program, please click here. Visa applicants should expect longer wait times as government officials return to a backlog of applications during the shutdown. This also applies to SS4 applications with IRS which was suspended during the shutdown. If at the end of the 3 weeks an agreement still has not been reached, the president has alluded that he will declare a national emergency to build the wall.
Update on January 28: E-Verify is now back online. Employers will have until February 11 to create an E-Verify case for employees hired during the shutdown. Companies should expect longer processing times as the agency processes the accumulated cases.
