Trump’s Latest Immigration Move Clouds the Path to Green Cards
The shift could affect hundreds of thousands of applicants a year and may slow cases as attorneys and employers scramble for guidance.
- On Friday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that foreigners seeking permanent residence must return to their home countries to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances, reversing decades of policy allowing applicants to adjust status within the United States.
- For more than half a century, foreign nationals with legal status—including spouses of U.S. citizens, work visa holders, and refugees—have been able to adjust status domestically, a practice Trump's administration is now targeting as part of a broader pivot to restrict legal immigration pathways.
- Applicants are facing unprecedented scrutiny, with one person married to a U.S. citizen questioned about why they did not apply abroad, and another required to prove they would not become a 'public charge' using 2025 tax returns and employer documentation, the American Immigration Lawyers Association reported Tuesday.
- Immigration attorney Flavia Santos Lloyd said the policy has a chilling effect, with some cases she planned to proceed with now on hold, while attorney Charles Kuck called it an attempt to 'limit and scare people away from the legal immigration process' and predicted legal action.
- Uncertainty persists about which applicants qualify for exceptions, with Kevin Miner of immigration law firm Fragomen expecting employment-based visa holders like H-1Bs to remain exempt under dual-intent provisions mentioned in the policy memo, though implementation details remain unclear.
28 Articles
28 Articles
WASHINGTON.– U.S. President Donald Trump’s government announced a drastic change in immigration policy that will force foreigners seeking permanent residence – the so-called green card – to leave the country and complete the process from their home nations, except in “extraordinary circumstances” not yet defined. The measure, communicated by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (Uscis), surprised lawyers, organizations and migrants, and …
New Trump immigration guidance could force some green card applicants to wait abroad
Immigration attorneys say the new policy memo doesn’t target existing green card holders, but could impact immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for years while navigating complicated immigration backlogs or waiting for other legal pathways to open.
For more than half a century, foreign citizens with legal status have been able to apply for and complete the entire process for permanent residence within the United States.
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