U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that on July 21, 2026, a U.S. district court issued an order in Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts v. USCIS granting, in part, plaintiffs’ emergency motion for an administrative stay of certain USCIS policies based on H.R. 1 (the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”). Plaintiffs are membership-based organizations representing individuals holding Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and pending asylum applicants.
USCIS said it will comply with the court’s order pending further judicial proceedings. The court’s order stays the following portions of USCIS’s policies:
- Application of H.R. 1 to TPS-based employment authorization document (EAD) expiration deadlines, meaning that any previously extended TPS-based EAD will maintain its prior expiration date;
- Rejection of asylum applications for failure to pay the annual asylum fee (AAF);
- Termination of work authorization as a result of failing to pay the AAF; and
- Initiation of removal procedures based solely on a person’s failure to pay the AAF.
The court said that the administrative stay will remain in effect until an order to be issued by August 5, 2026. USCIS noted that the court’s order “expressly allows USCIS to continue collecting the AAF. Therefore, any alien to whom USCIS sent or sends a notice regarding the AAF must pay the fee according to the instructions in that notice. All other fees and requirements of H.R. 1 continue in effect.”
