Story Highlights
- The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that green cards will be issued within the United States only under “extraordinary circumstances,” forcing hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals to depart America and apply through their home country consulates instead of completing the process domestically.
- The policy change affects multiple categories of legal immigrants, including immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, skilled workers, asylum seekers, and refugees, creating potential family separations and making the immigration process substantially more difficult and time-consuming.
- Immigration lawyers and humanitarian organizations warn that the policy could strand foreign nationals for years if they hail from countries with closed U.S. embassies, unstable governments, or travel bans, effectively blocking legal immigration pathways while the administration promotes itself as pro-legal immigration.
What Happened
Foreigners in the U.S. who want a green card will need to leave and apply in their home country, the Trump administration announced Friday, in a surprise change to a longstanding policy that sowed confusion and concern among aid groups, immigration lawyers and immigrants, reversing a policy that had been in place for over half a century. The announcement came via a memo from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency responsible for processing immigrant visas and green card applications. For over half a century, foreign nationals with legal status have been able to apply for and complete the entire process for permanent residence in the United States — including individuals married to U.S. citizens, holders of work and student visas, and refugees and political asylum seekers, among others.
The Trump administration announced a sweeping policy designed to make it harder for immigrants already in the U.S. to get permanent residency, or a green card, furthering its campaign to sharply limit legal immigration, with officials saying they would eliminate the option for many immigrants seeking a green card to complete the process without having to leave the U.S. The policy represents an interpretation of existing law rather than a new legal statute, allowing the administration to implement the change through executive action without congressional approval. Officials suggested that green card applicants in the U.S. who will provide an “economic benefit” or serve the “national interest” would be allowed to complete their processing here, without having to leave the country. This exception for applicants deemed to provide economic benefit creates a mechanism through which wealthy or highly skilled individuals might still gain approval to process their green cards domestically, while middle-class and working-class immigrants would be required to leave.
Most people applying for green cards from within the United States will be required to leave the country and apply through consulates abroad under sweeping changes announced by the Trump Administration, with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announcing the new policy in a memo on May 21, stating that green cards would be issued within the U.S. only for “extraordinary circumstances.” The move upended what had become standard practice in the American immigration system, with immigration lawyers warning that the policy interpretation conflicts with longstanding legal precedent and with how USCIS itself had operated for decades.
A former senior USCIS official under the Biden administration said the changes could affect hundreds of thousands of cases, since half a million people get green cards each year through the adjustment of status process. This massive scope means that the policy change is not a marginal adjustment but rather a fundamental restructuring of how legal immigration functions in America. The USCIS announcement did not say whether individuals would be required to remain in another country throughout the entire process, or whether the policy impacts foreigners whose green card applications are already underway, and the agency did not respond to emailed questions about how many people would be affected or criticism of the news.
Why It Matters
This policy change carries profound implications for millions of families and for America’s international standing. The ability of foreign nationals to marry Americans and eventually gain permanent residence has been a cornerstone of American immigration policy and a centerpiece of American cultural identity. The notion that love can transcend national borders and that marrying a U.S. citizen creates a pathway to permanent residency has been the subject of countless American stories and films. The new policy effectively complicates this pathway, potentially creating indefinite family separations for spouses unable to secure visas or unable to take leave from jobs to pursue overseas processing.
For skilled workers that the administration claims to prioritize, the policy creates substantial burdens and costs. Workers on temporary visa categories like H-1B visas or students on F-1 visas must now leave the United States, return to their home countries, interview at consulates, wait for visa processing, and then reenter the U.S. with a new status. This process can take months or years, requiring that workers abandon jobs and that businesses replace them during the transition period. For many foreign workers, leaving the U.S. to interview abroad requires returning to countries they may have left years earlier and potentially relinquishing housing and employment stability.
The policy also raises humanitarian concerns about refugees and asylum seekers. Families hailing from countries previously on the Trump Administration’s travel ban will also likely have an even more difficult time returning to the U.S. in practice, with experts noting that “If they leave, it may be decades before they can return,” especially for citizens of the 39 countries currently facing bans or restrictions on entering the U.S. For asylum seekers who fled persecution or violence, being required to return to their home country to apply for green card status could be impossible or dangerous.
The policy also contradicts the administration’s messaging about welcoming legal immigration. The White House frequently contrasts its restrictive illegal immigration enforcement with a purported openness to legal immigration channels. However, this green card policy functionally closes many legal immigration pathways by making them substantially more difficult and time-consuming. Recent analysis from the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute described changes to the US legal immigration system as “drastic,” with some experts arguing that “The actions by the Trump administration on legal immigration have the potential to cut the level of legal immigration to the U.S. in half this year.”
Economic and Global Context
America’s competitive position in global talent markets depends partly on the ability to attract skilled workers from abroad. The policy change makes America less attractive to foreign workers, who can now work in Canada, Australia, or other countries without being required to leave North America to adjust their immigration status. Companies that rely on foreign talent to fill skilled labor gaps face increased costs and uncertainty. A former senior USCIS official said the policy would also reduce 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.” This framing suggests that the administration believes forcing people to leave will simply result in them departing America permanently rather than attempting to remain illegally, an assumption that may not reflect actual behavior patterns.
The policy also affects U.S. business immigration patterns. Companies that hire foreign workers, recruit from abroad, or operate in global talent markets will need to adjust their recruitment and retention strategies. Some companies may decide to relocate operations to countries with more accommodating immigration policies rather than struggle with American bureaucratic barriers. This could contribute to gradual erosion of America’s competitive advantage in sectors like technology, healthcare, and research that depend on global talent.
For foreign governments, the policy signals America’s intent to restrict immigration and makes America less attractive as a destination country. This affects America’s soft power and international reputation, particularly among educated, middle-class professionals in developing countries who might have previously viewed America as a land of opportunity.
Implications
If the policy remains in place, expect dramatically increased backlog delays in the immigration system as people attempt to comply with the requirement to process green cards from abroad. Consulates and embassies around the world will likely face overwhelming demand and be unable to schedule interviews for months or years. This will effectively freeze green card processing for many categories of immigrants and create a de facto ban on legal immigration that will persist even after the Trump administration leaves office due to the bureaucratic lag.
For future immigration policy, the policy change represents a precedent that subsequent administrations will find difficult to reverse, as each year of backlog delay and difficulty becomes embedded in the system. Immigration lawyers are likely to challenge the policy in federal courts, arguing that it exceeds the agency’s legal authority and conflicts with statutory requirements. If courts uphold the policy, America will have fundamentally transformed its legal immigration system from one that enables immigration to one that substantially obstructs it.
For families, the policy creates urgency to submit applications before further restrictions take effect, potentially creating surges in application filings as people rush to complete processes under the old rules before the new policy takes full effect. For couples and families, the policy creates uncertainty about whether they will be able to stay together, with implications for relationship stability and family planning decisions.
Sources
“Foreigners in U.S. must apply for green cards abroad, new Trump administration rule says”
