WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 01: The U.S. Capitol Visitors Center is closed to visitors during the federal government shut down on October 1st, 2025 in Washington, DC. The government shut down after Congress failed to reach a funding deal. ( (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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When the U.S. government shut down on October 1, 2025, immigrants whose futures depend on government decisions suddenly found themselves suspended in bureaucratic air. While the immigration shutdown was not a complete blackout, it was a selective freeze. Some government agencies kept their lights on, while others went dark, leaving immigrants stranded in the middle.
The Immigration System Works Until It Doesn’t
As the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) explains, most of its operations are funded not by Congress but by the fees immigrants pay with their applications. That means petitions for green cards, work permits, and citizenship can still be processed even during a shutdown. Receipts are issued, fingerprints are taken, and adjudicators continue their work.
At first glance, this suggests business as usual. Yet the immigration system is not a single office; it’s a network of agencies that depend on one another. “Even if USCIS keeps running,” author Alison Moodie, who works with immigration services provider Boundless Immigration, noted in her analysis, “many other critical agencies will be closed or severely limited, and those closures can ripple through the process.” The point is that the real damage happens when the process is crippled by its reliance on agencies funded by annual congressional appropriations.
Labour Certifications: One Of The First Dominos To Fall
The most immediate casualty is the Department of Labour’s Office of Foreign Labour Certification (OFLC). According to an article written by employment-immigration attorneys Alison Moodi and Sarah P. Chang at Ogletree Deakins, the OFLC is expected to halt all case processing during the shutdown. That includes Labour Condition Applications and prevailing wage determinations — both prerequisites for H-1B visa petitions — as well as PERM labour certifications, the foundation of many employment-based green card cases.
When OFLC stops, no employer can move forward. “If your LCA isn’t certified,” one immigration lawyer told me bluntly, “your petition is dead in the water.” For foreign workers already in the U.S., that can mean lapses in work authorization and status. For companies, it means lost productivity, delayed projects, and the chilling of future hiring.
Even after funding resumes, the backlog can be staggering. A shutdown lasting only two weeks in 2018 created months of residual delay. This one, according to a PBS news report, could be worse because the DOL’s digital systems are interwoven with several other agencies that depend on synchronized filings.
E-Verify Stoppage Leaves Employers Guessing
Another under-the-radar victim is E-Verify, the online system used by employers to confirm new hires’ authorization to work in the United States. Since E-Verify is funded through appropriations, it too goes offline during a shutdown. The immigration news site VisaVerge confirmed that employers will have to rely on manual I-9 verification instead, keeping paper records and hoping the government later accepts their “good faith” compliance.
For immigrants in the midst of status renewals or work authorization extensions, this can be nerve-wracking. They may technically remain authorized to work, yet find themselves unable to prove it quickly enough for a new job. While technically the law says you’re fine, HR Departments are skittish about buying it.
Courts In Slow Motion
Immigration courts are operating only for those who are detained. Otherwise, immigrants must await the resolution of the shutdown. (Photo by Bryan R. SMITH / AFP) (Photo by BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images)
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Immigration courts, operated by the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), rely directly on congressional funding. When that money stops, so do most non-detained hearings.
According to Jennifer Casey, an attorney at Kolko & Casey Immigration Law, hearings for immigrants not held in custody have already begun to be postponed until further notice. Detained cases, however, continue, because they are deemed “essential.” In a Practice Alert circulated by the American Immigration Lawyers Association, detained dockets remain active, while everyone else must wait.
That divide creates an odd irony: those behind bars may get their day in court sooner, while those following the rules on the outside are pushed to the back of the line. For an asylum seeker or green-card applicant, it could mean another year in limbo — unable to work legally, travel, or reunite with family.
Visas, Consulates, And Border Crossings Are Open But Strained
At least for now, U.S. consulates abroad continue to issue visas. Their budgets, sustained mainly by application fees, make them more resilient. According to an article published by Goeschl Law Firm, an immigration firm that tracks agency operations, consular and passport services remain open. Still, they are “likely to face staff shortages and processing slowdowns as local budgets tighten.”
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers — the frontline personnel at airports and ports of entry — are also classified as essential. Their posts stay staffed even when their paychecks are delayed. According to CBP’s own past shutdown contingency plan, border operations continue “to protect life and property,” though travellers may experience slower screening times and longer lines.
So, while the border remains open, much of the administrative coordination behind it is held in reserve. Each delay at one point in the system — such as visa issuance, labour certification, or court hearing — complicates other areas, creating confusion that no single office can resolve on its own.
The Invisible Damage
The costs of delay aren’t just bureaucratic. They are personal and immediate. A tech worker whose LCA is frozen may lose her job offer and, with it, her visa status. A U.S. citizen waiting for a spouse’s immigrant visa interview may spend another holiday apart. A refugee seeking asylum may live in a state of legal limbo, unable to work or plan for the future.
And then there’s the broader community impact. Many nonprofits that provide legal aid to low-income immigrants rely on federal grants, which dry up during shutdowns. Translators, social workers, and legal counsellors are furloughed. Boundless Immigration warns that such funding cuts “can severely reduce the availability of pro bono or low-cost help just when immigrants need it most.”
The Illusion Of Normal
USCBP is operating border crossings despite the shutdown. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
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From the outside, the immigration system appears to be functioning. Forms are accepted. Notices are issued. Borders are staffed. Yet underneath, key arteries are blocked. The attorneys at Ogletree Deakins compared it to “a body where the heart is still beating but the blood can’t reach every limb.” Every shutdown reveals the same weakness: a system built on interdependence but funded in a piecemeal fashion.
The confusion often extends to immigrants themselves. One day, they’re told their application is “in process.” Next, they learn that part of that process — a background check, a wage certification, a court date — has been frozen. No single agency is truly to blame; the dysfunction is systemic.
What Happens When The System Restarts?
When the government eventually reopens, much like an airport that has been closed due to a storm and with flights cancelled, the backlog will surge. The catch-up starts. The Department of Labour will face mountains of unprocessed filings. Immigration courts will scramble to reschedule thousands of hearings that were postponed. USCIS, still working through its own caseload, will have to coordinate with partners that lost weeks of productivity. What seems like a short-term freeze can take months to thaw.
For immigrants, “surviving the shutdown” is not just about waiting it out. It’s about absorbing the economic and emotional costs of delay — lost income, lost jobs, lost time with family — while continuing to play by the rules.
Faith In A Fragile System
The American immigration system runs on more than paperwork and policy. It runs on faith — the faith that each step will eventually lead somewhere, that if you follow the process, the process will hold. A shutdown breaks that faith. It reveals how brittle the system really is and how little margin for error immigrants are allowed.
The immigration shutdown has consequences. That is because the people waiting in line are not numbers or forms. They are workers, spouses, students, and dreamers, and when the lights go out in Washington, it is their futures that go dark first.
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