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Global Visa & Immigration Updates – September 8, 2026
World Visa Academy – Daily Global Visa & Immigration Update
Date: 08/09/2026
United States
Big Alert – Birthright Citizenship
What it means
US District Judge Deborah Boardman in Maryland issued a preliminary injunction on 2 September blocking enforcement of Executive Order 14418, the "Ending Birth Tourism" order signed by the President on 6 August. The order had directed federal agencies to withhold recognition of citizenship in specific narrow circumstances, including situations described as "birth tourism" or involving surrogacy, and to tighten visa policy to prevent travel to the United States for the purpose of giving birth. The injunction applies to a nationwide certified class of children, not just the plaintiffs in the case. Judge Boardman found the order "almost certainly unconstitutional" and relied on the Supreme Court's June 2026 ruling in Trump v. Barbara, which reaffirmed that children born in the United States to parents temporarily present or lacking regular status are citizens at birth under the 14th Amendment. Attorney General Todd Blanche has confirmed the administration intends to appeal.
Impact
Consultants should tell clients that no child born in the United States loses citizenship because of Executive Order 14418, and pregnant clients on visitor visas can plan travel around US laws as they stood before the order. That said, consular officers and border officers may still apply increased scrutiny to visa applications where an intent to give birth in the US is suspected, since the underlying visitor visa rules against travel for that specific purpose have not changed.
United States
Big Alert – Diversity Visa Program
What it means
The State Department resumed diversity visa issuance from 28 August under court order in Medani et al. v. Trump et al., ending an eight month suspension that had been in place since 23 December 2025. The pause originally followed the Brown University shooting and killing of an MIT professor, both attributed to individuals admitted through the DV program. The court order restored processing but there is an unusually short window to act. Diversity immigrant visas must be issued by 30 September or the visa number is lost for that fiscal year. Roughly three weeks remain for FY 2026 DV selectees whose cases were held up during the pause.
Impact
Consultants with DV 2026 selectee clients should treat this as an emergency. Confirm every DS 260 is fully complete, every required document is uploaded, and every scheduled interview is attended without delay. Any client who received no interview notice during the pause should proactively contact the National Visa Center or the appointing consulate this week. Missing the 30 September cut off means losing the visa entirely, with no carry over to the next fiscal year.
Brazil
New – Consular Temporary And Work Visas
What it means
Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs activated the fully digital VITEM temporary visa process on 1 September for nationals of countries exempt from the visitor visa requirement. Applications for temporary categories including work, family reunion, and digital nomad visas can now be submitted through the integrated consular system (SCI) with all documents uploaded electronically, and the approved visa is sent directly to the applicant's email. There is no longer a routine need to submit or collect a physical passport. Eligible nationalities include the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea and several Latin American countries. Consular officers retain discretion to request physical documents or in person interviews, and prior residence authorisation through MigranteWeb is still required for many work visa categories.
Impact
Consultants advising employer clients recruiting talent from any of the eligible countries should treat this as a real reduction in the administrative burden and processing timeline of Brazilian work permits, though residence authorisation through MigranteWeb still needs to happen first. Digital nomad applicants from eligible countries can now complete the entire consular stage online. Rollout across consular posts is still catching up, so confirm your specific consulate has activated the system before promising a fully digital process to a client.
Denmark
New – Certified Employer Work Permit Scheme
What it means
The Danish Parliament passed legislation on 3 September establishing the new Collective Agreement Based Business Scheme, known in Danish as Erhvervsordning. The scheme takes effect 1 January 2027 and gives certified employers a dedicated pathway to recruit foreign nationals from 16 non EU countries including India, the United States, Brazil, Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Malaysia, Serbia, Singapore, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. Employers must be certified by the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration and must be covered by a Danish collective bargaining agreement. Foreign workers must earn a minimum salary of DKK 300,000 a year, well below the standard Pay Limit Scheme threshold, and must fill a full time role covered by an approved collective agreement. Work permits under the scheme run for up to three years and are renewable, family members can join, and eligible workers can start employment immediately after filing and providing biometrics without waiting for a permit decision.
Impact
Consultants advising Danish employers should begin the SIRI certification process now for interested employers, since certification takes time and the scheme opens in less than four months. Skilled worker clients from India or another eligible country who have been priced out of Denmark by the standard Pay Limit Scheme should be told a new lower salary route opens 1 January 2027, and any application timeline should be planned around that date.
Multi-Country
Update – Minimum Salary Changes
What it means
Fragomen's 4 September global roundup confirmed several minimum salary and wage floor changes now in effect. Belarus raised the minimum salary for highly qualified employees to BYN 4,290 per month effective 1 January 2026, with the recommended level for other foreign workers rising to BYN 2,250. Canada increased Temporary Foreign Worker Program wage thresholds by an average of just over 4 percent from 17 July, affecting which stream (high wage or low wage) an LMIA application is assessed under. Colombia raised its minimum wage by 23 percent to COP 1,750,905 per month from 1 January, which flows through to sponsored worker eligibility calculations.
Impact
Consultants with employer clients recruiting into Belarus, Canada or Colombia should reconfirm salary offers against the current thresholds before promising eligibility, particularly for Canadian LMIA planning where a marginal wage change can shift a case between streams. For Belarus and Colombia, extension and renewal cases in progress should also be checked against the new baseline.
Australia
Update – Skilled Independent Visa
What it means
The Department of Home Affairs confirmed the next Skilled Independent (subclass 189) invitation round will take place by 30 September, giving prospective migrants a firm target date. All invitations draw exclusively from Expression of Interest submissions active at the time of the round, so any changes in employment, qualifications, or personal circumstances must be reflected in the EOI before the round is conducted.
Impact
Consultants with skilled migration clients holding an active EOI should log into SkillSelect this week and confirm every detail is current, particularly points scoring factors such as work experience, language test scores and any state or territory nomination. Clients who have been considering lodging an EOI but not yet done so should file before the round is held, since the invitation process operates only on submitted EOIs at draw time.
Reminder
Upcoming Deadlines This Month
Three major changes remain scheduled to take effect within the next 10 days, all previously covered:
15 September: Thailand's 60 day visa exemption drops to 30 days for 60 countries; land border entries capped at 2 per year outside ASEAN neighbours.
15 September: US DHS fixed period of stay rule replaces duration of status for F, J and I visa holders. Anyone in the transition group who travels abroad and is readmitted after this date will get a fixed I-94.
18 September: New US public charge policy takes effect for adjustment of status applications; the worldwide immigrant visa interview pause is expected to remain in force at least through this date.
30 September: Final day for FY 2026 diversity visa issuance and end of the US fiscal year (relevant to EB-2, EB-1 India and EB-5 unreserved category availability).
No major new policy changes or big announcements reported from the wider Middle East, Africa outside the ongoing Ebola alert, or the rest of Asia and Oceania dated specifically to the past 48 hours.
Pro Tip for Immigration Consultants
When two or more concurrent US immigration deadlines fall in the same fiscal quarter, as with the DV cutoff on 30 September and the public charge policy on 18 September, sequence client actions by date rather than by case type. The DV clock is losing a day every day for those selectees, and other cases have longer windows.