At RegsChange, we focus on immigration-related administrative actions. If you are interested in learning more about the legislative process that occurs before an agency creates a regulation, click here. Once Congress passes a law, it may give a federal body, such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs & Enforcement (ICE), United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS), the United States Department of State (DOS), or the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), among others, the authority to determine how that law will be implemented and enforced as applied. Agencies do this by creating or updating regulations (also known as “rules”), forms, and/or changing applicable fees or fines. Sometimes a new law, court decision, agency policy, or operational need may also require those actions. Depending on the action being taken, different procedures and opportunities for public input may apply. 

In this section, we explain the life cycle of a regulation, a form change, and a fee increase, including where and when members of the public or organizations or businesses, like you, can participate in the process.