Revised Green Card Policy Leaves Immigration Lawyers Looking for Answers

Immigration lawyers are scrambling to determine the impact of a new policy requiring most green card seekers to leave the United States and apply from their home countries, effectively upending a program that has been in place for seven decades.The policy, announced Friday on social media by the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services, leaves much to the discretion of individual immigration officers and lacks details about how it will apply to various classes of visa holders. Questions are also being raised about whether it can withstand legal scrutiny.“We’re seeing a lot of concerned clients asking, ‘What does this mean?” said immigration lawyer Jonathan Grode of Green & Spiegel in an interview with Forbes magazine. “This is a very vague memo that is putting a lot of subjectivity on what has become a very regular process.”Congress in 1952 amended the process of applying for a green card, which grants permanent status in America and a path to citizenship, to allow individuals in the country on temporary visas to apply for a “status adjustment” while remaining in the United States.More than 190,000 individuals — including people on work-related visas, spouses of citizens, and refugees — obtained green cards through this process in the first quarter of last year, according to Department of Homeland Security figures, suggesting an annual rate of 700,000 to 800,000 a year.That will no longer be an option except in limited circumstances, according to Friday’s memo, which immigration lawyers say could lead to months- or years-long separations for married couples and long delays for prospective employees recruited from abroad.“From now on, an alien who is in the U.S. temporarily and wants a Green Card for permanent residency must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances,” says a Friday post on X from USCIS.“This policy allows our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivizing loopholes. When aliens apply from their home country, it reduces the need to find and remove those who decide to slip into the shadows and remain in the U.S. illegally after being denied residency.”In considering applications, the policy announcement says, officers “must weigh all positive and negative factors, including family ties, immigration status and history, the applicant’s moral character, and any other relevant factor that bears on determining whether the alien warrants a favorable exercise of discretion.”The Trump administration argues that the practice of past years, in which more than half of green card recipients obtained their status from within the country, was contrary to the intent of Congress when it opened the door to that procedure in 1952. Nevertheless, it says, applications from within America will still be permitted in cases where it is in the national interest.“While we work to operationalize this, people who present applications that provide an economic benefit or otherwise are in the national interest will likely be able to continue on their current path while others may be asked to apply abroad depending on individualized circumstances,” a USCIS spokesman, Zach Kahler, explained on X.Critics of the policy say it will place a huge additional burden on consular offices overseas, some of which already have application backlogs stretching into next year. They also question whether the new policy does in fact conform with the 1952 law.“I definitely know a bunch of folks are looking into litigation,” said a Houston-based immigration lawyer, Stephen Brown, to the Washington Post.The director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, David Bier, pointed out to the Post that the policy effectively shuts our citizens of dozens of countries subject to a Trump administration travel ban or visa pause since they would not be able to return to America after going home to apply.Democrats in Congress and state office are also criticizing the policy, suggesting it is driven mainly by a desire to make it more difficult for people to immigrate.“Trump just made legal immigration harder — on purpose,” said an Arizona Democrat, Representative Greg Stanton, in a post on X. “America is able to attract the top researchers, doctors, & engineers because of our worker visa programs. Forcing these immigrants to now leave the U.S. before applying for citizenship will deprive us of their innovation, their tax dollars, & their contributions to our economy.”New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, wrote in her own post on X: “Forcing immigrants pursuing green cards legally to leave behind their homes, their jobs, and in some cases their families betrays the very promise that built this country.”

Revised Green Card Policy Leaves Immigration Lawyers Looking for Answers

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