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When did US Citizenship and Immigration Services announce the reclassification of certain degrees as non-professional?
Executive summary
Available sources in the provided set do not mention any USCIS announcement that “reclassified certain degrees as non‑professional.” The documents here focus on USCIS filing chart choices for November 2025, policy updates such as a new naturalization civics test and payment transitions, and other agency actions — but none address degree reclassification (not found in current reporting) [1] [2] [3].
1. What the available USCIS materials in this set actually cover
The USCIS pages and related summaries in your search results concentrate on adjustment‑of‑status filing chart choices for November 2025, policy manual updates (including a transition to electronic payments), and changes to the naturalization civics test; for example, USCIS announced it would use the Dates for Filing chart for employment‑based filings in November 2025 [1] [4] and posted a Federal Register notice implementing a revised 2025 naturalization civics test [3] [5]. Those items are clearly documented in the materials provided; none of those documents discuss changing the professional status of academic degrees [1] [2] [3].
2. Claims about “reclassifying degrees as non‑professional”: what the sources say (or don’t)
The phrase “reclassification of certain degrees as non‑professional” does not appear in the search results you supplied. There are USCIS newsroom and policy pages listed (All News, News & Alerts, Updates) that discuss numerous administrative changes — TPS designations, fee/payment rules, naturalization testing, and law enforcement authorities — but none of these pages include a change to how academic degrees are classified for immigration purposes [6] [7] [2] [8]. Therefore, based on this corpus, the specific claim is unsupported: “not found in current reporting” [2] [8].
3. Likely sources one would expect for an authentic announcement — and their absence here
An actual USCIS policy change reclassifying degrees (for example, affecting H‑1B “specialty occupation” determinations, EB‑2/EB‑3 professional classifications, or credential evaluation standards) would typically be announced via a USCIS news release, a USCIS policy manual update, a Federal Register rule or notice, or a legal‑community digest [3] [2] [9]. The provided Federal Register index and USCIS Updates pages document multiple rulemakings and notices in 2025, but none in this dataset reference degree reclassification — their subjects include the naturalization test, law enforcement authority expansions, payment process changes, and filing chart choices [9] [3] [2] [10].
4. Possible areas of confusion or why the rumor may circulate
Immigration policy has multiple moving parts — USCIS rulemakings on H‑1B selection, credential evaluation guidance from Department of Labor or State Visa Bulletins, or court decisions affecting what counts as a “professional” degree could spark confusion. The dataset includes coverage of H‑1B process reforms and other USCIS integrity measures (e.g., H‑1B registration changes, new enforcement authorities) that might be conflated with academic credential rules in second‑hand reports [11] [10]. But that is interpretation: the provided materials do not link any of these reforms to a reclassification of degrees [11] [10].
5. How to verify this claim moving forward (recommended documents to check)
To confirm whether USCIS actually reclassified degrees, check (a) USCIS news releases and the “Updates” page for explicit announcements, (b) the USCIS Policy Manual updates for substantive guidance changes, (c) the Federal Register for any final rules or notices that change definitions, and (d) legal community summaries (AILA, major immigration firms) for practical impact analyses [2] [9] [12]. In this dataset, the most relevant channels (USCIS news releases, Policy Manual updates, Federal Register index) are present but contain no such announcement [2] [9] [7].
6. Balanced possible explanations and caveats
Two competing explanations fit the evidence here: (A) there was no USCIS announcement on degree reclassification within the materials provided, so the claim is unsupported by these sources [2] [3]; or (B) an announcement could exist elsewhere outside this collection — available sources do not mention it, so we cannot confirm or deny announcements beyond this dataset (not found in current reporting). The limits of this review are the provided search results only; absence of evidence here is not proof that no such announcement exists in the wider public record [2] [9].
If you want, I can search broader sources (USCIS site in real time, Federal Register, AILA posts, major immigration law firm alerts) to try to locate any announcement about degree classification and provide direct citations.