(UNITED STATES) A wave of delayed cases is set to hit employment immigration after the federal government’s November 2025 shutdown stalled key labor certifications and choked filing pipelines for employers. Immigration lawyers and corporate HR teams say the bottleneck centers on Labor Condition Applications (LCAs)—a mandatory step for any new H‑1B petition or many H‑1B change of status filings—that the Department of Labor paused during the closure and only resumed processing around October 31, 2025.
With the USCIS backlog already at a reported record high of 11.3 million pending cases in 2025, the forced pause compounded existing slowdowns and is now spilling into late 2025 and early 2026. Petitioners, especially those seeking an H‑1B change of status, face longer queues, as newly certified LCAs feed into a surge of filings that reached U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services just as the agency was contending with extended processing times.
How the pause created a bottleneck
Employers point to a simple chain reaction: the Department of Labor’s certification is required before a company can submit any H‑1B petition to USCIS. When LCA processing stops, filings stop. During the shutdown, companies could prepare packages but couldn’t file new petitions that needed fresh LCAs.
When DOL systems came back online around October 31, a backlog of pending LCAs flowed through at once. That produced a “whiplash” effect—quiet weeks with no filings followed by a wall of new submissions landing at USCIS in a compressed window. The result, according to attorneys tracking receipts, is a predictable spike in volume that crowds adjudication lines and prolongs waits for decisions on H‑1B change of status requests and other employment cases reliant on LCAs.
“A large object moving slowly through each stage,” attorneys say—describing the phenomenon as a snake in the pipeline that delays everything behind it.
Agency responses and limits of relief
USCIS has indicated it will treat the shutdown as an “extraordinary circumstance” for certain late filings. That relief can help workers and employers who fell out of time due to the pause by reducing the risk of penalties for missing deadlines when the cause wasn’t within the applicant’s control.
Key points about this relief:
– It may excuse certain late H‑1B extensions or change of status filings if documented properly.
– It does not make the stack of cases disappear—accepted late filings still enter the same overloaded queue.
– Agencies cannot instantly expand adjudication capacity; manpower, training, and statutory sequencing still constrain processing.
Why the DOL LCA step matters
The Department of Labor’s role is often invisible to workers, but it is central to the timeline:
– Employers file an LCA that outlines wage levels and worksite details.
– DOL must certify that the offered wage meets prevailing standards.
– Without a certified LCA, USCIS will not accept most H‑1B filings.
When DOL paused, that gatekeeping function was effectively closed. Even after reactivation, DOL had accumulated submissions to process. As it cleared pending LCAs, those certifications fed a bulge of petitions headed to USCIS service centers, further crowding adjudication pipelines.
Concrete impacts on workers and employers
The timing is particularly sensitive for international graduates and in‑country workers who rely on H‑1B change of status approvals to start or continue employment. Many are on OPT or other time‑limited statuses.
Impacts include:
– Delayed start dates, payroll onboarding, and project schedules.
– Recruiters and employers waiting months for adjudications, prompting longer internal timelines.
– Conditional offers, staggered cohorts, and reassigned projects to avoid idle time—leading to downstream crunches when approvals finally arrive.
VisaVerge.com analysis suggests late 2025 and early 2026 will be especially difficult windows for planning start dates and transitions to H‑1B.
Premium processing: what it can and cannot do
Premium processing (Form I‑907) can speed a USCIS decision once a petition is filed, but it:
– Does not bypass the DOL certification step.
– Does not make up for time lost while LCAs could not be filed.
– Does not increase overall adjudication capacity or prevent RFEs, which can still arrive in high volumes.
Employers often use premium processing tactically to get a faster answer (yes, no, or an RFE), but it’s not a systemic fix.
Wage, location verification and additional internal delays
The DOL pause also affected wage and location planning:
– Employers unable to secure LCAs couldn’t lock in prevailing wage data used in filings.
– Many had to revalidate wage levels and worksites after the shutdown, adding internal review days.
– When hundreds or thousands of employers revalidate simultaneously, filings are pushed into the same post‑shutdown window.
These revalidation steps, small individually, magnify when performed en masse and further crowd intake at USCIS.
Risk management and alternative strategies
This period reshapes conversations about risk and alternatives:
– Some employees consider travel and consular processing, but that introduces visa appointment delays and consulate backlogs.
– Many employers prefer in‑country change of status on Form I‑129 (to be filed with change of status) rather than sending workers abroad.
– H‑4 dependents’ timing (Form I‑539) adds complexity for families and schooling decisions.
Employers are collecting evidence (LCA receipts, internal emails, DOL notices) to support extraordinary circumstance claims and documenting all steps taken.
Sector variations and institutional experience
- Some cap‑exempt institutions (universities, affiliated nonprofits) reported slightly smoother paths due to differences in hiring cycles, but they still rely on LCAs.
- Nonprofit healthcare providers and university labs faced challenges when grant timelines or funding windows were tight.
- Small and mid‑sized companies feel the impact more acutely than large firms with in‑house immigration teams.
Practical advice from practitioners
Immigration practitioners recommend:
1. Assume longer tails on every case tied to LCAs.
2. Build longer lead times for job postings and start‑date planning.
3. Document thoroughly the shutdown’s impact for extraordinary circumstance claims.
4. Consider premium processing selectively where the strategy and budget allow.
5. Prepare employees for extended waits and adjust staffing plans accordingly.
Compliance and amendments
Delays also affect compliance:
– Onboarding pushes may require checking that wage levels and worksite disclosures still match reality at the employment start date.
– Changes in client sites or remote policies can trigger amendments—adding filings to an already constrained environment.
– Employers often follow conservative practices to avoid piecemeal amendments, but shifting timelines increase mid‑stream changes.
Student and F‑1 transitions
For F‑1 students moving to H‑1B via change of status:
– Work authorization can hinge on narrow windows (program end dates, STEM extensions).
– Advisors urge keeping clean records of program end dates, employment offers, and LCA submission timelines to support extraordinary circumstance claims if needed.
– Campus hiring programs are documenting each step closely to explain later arrivals of filings.
The bigger picture: backlog and timelines
The background numbers are critical. The USCIS backlog of roughly 11.3 million pending cases in 2025 spans work permits, family petitions, and employment applications.
Consequences:
– Even after DOL clears LCAs, the wave hitting USCIS must compete with other categories on strained dockets.
– Service centers have limited prioritization options; staffing and statutory sequencing still govern throughput.
– Expect longer wait times for H‑1B change of status petitions in late 2025 and early 2026 as agencies absorb the spike.
Resources and official links
- Department of Labor’s LCA program and the Foreign Labor Application Gateway H‑1B LCA: Department of Labor’s LCA program and the Foreign Labor Application Gateway H‑1B LCA
- USCIS Form I‑129 (core H‑1B petition): USCIS Form I‑129 (core H‑1B petition)
- USCIS Form I‑539 (dependents): USCIS Form I‑539 (dependents)
- USCIS Form I‑907 (premium processing): USCIS Form I‑907 (premium processing)
Bottom line
The shutdown lasted weeks; its immigration consequences will last far longer. The Department of Labor’s LCA pause created a stacked queue that has now reentered the system, producing a surge USCIS must process alongside an already substantial backlog. Workers pursuing an H‑1B change of status should expect longer waits than hoped. Employers should plan around uncertainty, document shutdown impacts for extraordinary circumstance claims, and use available tools—early filing, premium processing, and contingency staffing—to manage the disruption.
VisaVerge.com reports companies and candidates should brace for continued delays into early 2026 as both the Department of Labor and USCIS work through the stacked dockets that built up around the November pause.
Frequently Asked Questions
This Article in a Nutshell
The November 2025 shutdown halted DOL’s LCA processing until around October 31, creating a backlog of certifications that, when released, produced a surge of H‑1B filings into an already strained USCIS system with roughly 11.3 million pending cases. That surge disproportionately affects H‑1B change of status petitioners, delaying start dates and onboarding. USCIS may excuse certain late filings as extraordinary circumstances, but accepted late filings still join overloaded queues. Employers should document impacts, plan longer lead times, and use premium processing selectively.
