Banned, Bonded, and Paused: 2026 Travel Restrictions from the Consular Window to the USCIS Lockbox and Beyond
Our panel of experts will explain how various 2025–26 presidential travel proclamations and related USCIS, DOS, and CBP policies affect visa issuance, consular processing, port-of-entry decisions, and benefit application adjudications. They will provide attorneys with practical strategies to navigate entry restrictions, consular limitations, immigrant visa (IV) logistics, inspection risks, and USCIS scrutiny. Exceptions, waivers, and risk mitigation approaches for clients from restricted or partially restricted countries will all be discussed in detail.
Featured Topics
- Overview of full vs. partial presidential entry restrictions (i.e., travel bans), including nationality triggers, documentation requirements, and exceptions/waivers
- DOS implementation trends, including visa issuance suspensions, shortened validity, exceptions, waivers, and the January 21, 2026, IV pause
- National Visa Center (NVC) and IV processing logistics, including residence-based post assignments and designated processing posts
- CBP inspection risks, secondary screening factors, and discrepancies between visa issuance and admissibility outcomes
- How INA §212(f) and country-based USCIS review influence AOS adjudications, advance parole, and work authorization
- The latest updates on legal challenges: Will these proclamations and policies hold?
AILA Membership Benefit – Access to Free Seminar Recordings
Enjoy access to free seminar recordings as an AILA Member. AILA encourages live attendance for those wishing to ask the speaker questions. Recordings will be available approximately two weeks after the live event date. AILA members can access these seminars, with no CLE credit, for free.
| Product Details | |
| Event Date | March 27, 2026 |
| Format | Web Seminar |
| Length | 90 minutes |
| CLE Eligible | No CLE Credit. |
| Digital Library | Digital goods (MP3, PDF, ZIP, etc.) are available for download for two years after purchase. |
Medya Ansari (DL), San Jose, CA
Medya Ansari is the CEO and Managing Partner of Getachew & Ansari Immigration Attorneys, P.C., a boutique immigration firm founded by Yemi Getachew in the heart of San Jose, California. Her work focuses on complex asylum, family-based immigration, other humanitarian reliefs, and strategic case planning in both affirmative filings and removal defense contexts. She previously served as AILA’s Santa Clara Valley Chapter Chair, and currently serves as their asylum liason in addition to serving on the national Equity and Belonging Committee and DLC Non-Business Subcommittee.
Parastoo G. Zahedi, AILA Board of Directors, Vienna, VA
Parastoo G Zahedi is a solo practitioner in Virgina. She is an elected member of AILA’s Board of Directors, a past chair of the AILA Washington, D.C. Chapter, and currently serves on AILA’s USCIS Benefits Committee as well as AILA D.C. Chapter Liaison Chair to WAS. She received her JD from Georgetown University.
Steven D. Heller, AILA DOS Liaison Committee Chair, New York, NY
Steven D. Heller manages a solo U.S. visa and immigration law practice based in Lewes, England. He is currently chair of AILA's DOS Liaison Committee and is also a member of AILA's Publications Committee. A 1991 graduate of Georgetown Law, he has been practicing immigration law for over 30 years specializing in consular matters, admissibility/waivers, and citizenship.
Jonathan A. Grode, Philadelphia, PA
Jonathan Grode serves as the U.S. Practice Director and Managing Partner for Green and Spiegel. Jonathan has worked continuously in the U.S. business immigration law field since 1999 and has amassed considerable experience obtaining nonimmigrant and immigrant visas for new company start-ups, professional workers, artists and entertainers, athletes, physicians, and scientific researchers. In addition, Jonathan has significant experience dealing with Department of Labor and Department of Homeland Security enforcement actions as well as immigration related aspects of Mergers and Acquisitions.
