Trump Requires Temporary Visa Holders To Leave U.S. For Green Card Applications

The Trump administration announced that people in the United States on temporary visas who want to obtain permanent residence, commonly known as a green card, must leave the country and file their application at a U.S. consulate in their home country.

“The United States will require temporary migrants to leave the country to apply for permanent residency”

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USCIS said the requirement is contemplated in the Immigration and Nationality Act, and USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler said, "From now on, a foreign national who is temporarily in the U.S. and wishes to obtain permanent residence must return to his or her country of origin to apply, except in exceptional circumstances,".

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The change is framed as applying to nonimmigrant visas including B-1 and B-2 for business or tourism, F-1 and M-1 for students, and H-1B, H-2A, and H-2B for work.

The policy is described as ending the ability for some temporary migrants to complete an adjustment of status inside the United States while they wait, a process that can take years and during which visas are renewed.

USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler argued the policy would reduce the need to locate and deport people who decide to remain illegally in the United States while awaiting a decision.

Kahler said, "This policy allows our immigration system to function in accordance with the law, rather than foster legal loopholes," as the administration presented the move as restoring the law’s original purpose.

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The Cato Institute’s David J. Bier criticized the policy as harmful, saying, "It is impossible to explain how stupid and perverse this policy is. Its goal is to cause people to lose their jobs and their families,".

The Independent en Español account also describes USCIS as operating under the DHS and as a key tool in the Trump Administration's mass deportation campaign, transforming an agency tasked with administering benefits into another branch of law enforcement.

The Independent en Español report says the number of pending cases at USCIS has more than tripled in the last decade, rising from 3.5 million cases in 2016 to 11.6 million in 2025, and it describes that backlog as plunging green-card applicants and immigrant workers into "unpredictable limbo."

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It adds that the policy could similarly require permanent-residency applicants seeking an adjustment of status to endure the same waiting period, and it notes that federal law automatically prohibits entry into the country with an immigrant visa for anyone who has remained in the U.S. for more than a year without status, for a period of 10 years.

The Times of India says the new green card rule has sent shockwaves as 1.2 million legal immigrants are waiting for years to become permanent residents, and it frames the change as a shift in how applications will be judged rather than a change in the law.

The Times of India also quotes immigration attorney Rahul Reddy explaining that the new memo reminds officers that approving a green card from inside the United States is a favor, not a right, and that the official word is "discretion".