☀️ Happy Thursday afternoon! Today’s newsletter is a crisp 629 words, a 3-min read.

📅 Immigration Insiders Meeting with Michael Valverde: If you’re interested in the topic of today’s newsletter, go register for our meeting on October 1 with Michael Valverde, former Associate Director of Field Operations at USCIS.

Until recently, Michael led all 89 field offices at USCIS and is going to help us break down:

• The implications of the October VB advancements

• Lawfully’s data on I-485 adjudication trends for FY 2025—and what’s coming in FY 2026

• N-400 adjudication trends

• Social media reviews & new officer discretion at USCIS field offices

• The reality of the new ‘Good Moral Character’ guidance for naturalizations

1 big thing: I-485 processing times stabilize for EB-1 and EB-2 in August

I-485 processing times have generally decreased or stabilized for most employment-based categories since January, according to new data from Lawfully.

Why it matters: USCIS selected the Dates for Filing chart for October 2025—which means there will be a huge influx of I-485 submissions with the significant advancements for several EB categories in the October visa bulletin.

Here’s where things stand now:

Shout out to the team at Sapochnick Law Firm for doing the math on the MoM advancements used in this chart. You can read their blog here.

At Lawfully, we track processing time shifts for thousands of I-485 petitions each month—measured in months from the receipt date to the final decision (approval or denial).

Here are the trends we’ve seen since January 2025:

In the October 1 meeting with Michael, we’ll break down why USCIS felt ready to take on an influx of I-485 cases—and what that could mean for processing times over the next 6–12 months.

📍Interested in a detailed analysis of I-485 case processing times for EB-1, EB-2, EB-2 NIW, and EB-3 through August 2025?

In October, we’re launching Lawfully Intelligence, a monthly subscription featuring a report with USCIS case processing data across 23 employment-based case types—including processing times, approval rates, RFE rates, and more—plus exclusive analysis from former USCIS officials, a subscriber-only Immigration Insiders meeting with those officials, and one complimentary custom report per month.

If you’re interested, shoot me an email at [email protected]—we can set up a call and I’ll show you a sneak peak of the report and share more details about the subscription.

Note: this offering is designed for immigration law firms and corporate immigration teams, not individuals.

2. My interview with Simon Hankinson, Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation

Last week, I sat down with Simon for a wide-ranging and fascinating interview on immigration policy in the first 9 months of the Trump administration.

Until 2022, Simon was a career Foreign Service Officer—serving at nearly a dozen posts overseas as a consular officer, as well as in a variety of other positions inside of the State Department.

In our conversation, Simon shared his perspective on a range of visa programs—including F-1/OPT, B-1/B-2, L-1, H-1B, and O-1—and where he thinks changes are needed.

As a researcher at a private institution like Heritage, Simon does not speak for the Trump administration on immigration policy.

That said, his views on reforming programs like H-1B and OPT are often echoed by prominent figures in the administration—including USCIS Director Joseph Edlow.

This conversation offers a lot of detail and insight into what to watch more closely from the Trump administration. I think it’s a worthwhile listen for immigration practitioners who want a clearer sense of the administration’s approach to employment-based immigration policy.

🎙️ Listen to the full episode here.

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📅 Programming Note: I’m off on vacation until 9/29, so no newsletter next week. I’ll be back on October 2nd to share some of our latest case processing data for September!

📩 That’s it for this week! I want to hear your feedback and questions, so drop me a note anytime at [email protected].

See you in two weeks!