Trump Administration Orders Most Green Card Applicants to Apply From Home Countries

The Trump administration announced Friday that most foreigners seeking green cards will have to apply from outside the United States, a shift from long-standing practice that immigration lawyers said could affect hundreds of thousands of people living in America on temporary visas.

“Trump administration issues directive requiring green card applicants to apply outside the US "We're returning to the original intent of the law," a spokesperson said”

ABC News

The policy was issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which said foreigners in the U.S. temporarily and wanting a Green Card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances.

ABC News

USCIS said the change is meant to ensure “aliens navigate our nation’s immigration system properly,” and it directed officers to consider relevant factors and information on a case-by-case basis when determining whether extraordinary relief is warranted.

The BBC and AP described the rule as requiring people to leave and apply abroad, while the Washington Post framed it as a Trump administration shift that could escalate efforts to curtail legal migration.

Aid groups, policy analysts, and immigration attorneys criticized the USCIS move, with the AP reporting that forcing people to return home could result in them being barred from coming back.

World Relief warned in a statement that “These policies will effectively create an indefinite separation of families,” after USCIS said applicants must return to process immigrant visas.

Erickson Immigration Group

ABC News quoted immigration lawyer Rosanna Berardi saying the policy could impact any foreign national with a pending U.S.-filed green card application, including legal workers and humanitarian parolees, and she said “Many have nowhere safe to return to.”

NBC News reported that USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler said the system is designed for nonimmigrants to leave when their visit is over, and he said “Their visit should not function as the first step in the Green Card process.”

USCIS said the green card process had been unchanged for more than 60 years, and it described the new approach as adjustment of status reserved for “extraordinary circumstances” decided by USCIS officers.

The Quarles explainer said the policy memo directs that adjustment of status will now only be granted in “extraordinary circumstances,” and it described the memo’s case-by-case framework while noting that H-1B and L-1 workers and dependents may be less impacted due to dual intent.

The Washington Post and AP both said the change could affect people with pending applications and those living in the U.S. on temporary visas, while the AP reported it did not say whether people would be required to remain abroad throughout the entire process.

NBC News added that former USCIS official Doug Rand said “The purpose of this policy is exclusion,” and he argued that forcing consular processing abroad is “no pathway at all” given the administration’s prior actions affecting people from over 100 countries.