Donald Trump’s administration could soon force immigrants seeking a green card to leave the U.S. while they are waiting for permanent residency, a move that would upend the lives of millions of people who are currently in the pipeline and significantly disrupt families and businesses who rely on them.
New guidance from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services states that “aliens seeking adjustment of status” must do so “outside of the country.”
“We’re returning to the original intent of the law to ensure aliens navigate our nation’s immigration system properly,” USCIS spokesman Zach Kahler said Friday.
“From now on, an alien who is in the U.S. temporarily and wants a green card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances,” he said. “This policy allows our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivizing loopholes.”
USCIS, which operates under the Department of Homeland Security, has emerged as a key tool in the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, which has turned an agency largely tasked with administering benefits — including handling applications for citizenship, asylum and other lawful status — into another law enforcement arm.
The new guidance appears to force spouses and family members of U.S. citizens through the green card process in consulates from their home countries if they have overstayed a visa.
Federal law automatically bars anyone who has been in the U.S. for more than a year without status from re-entering the country for 10 years on an immigrant visa. The new USCIS policy could similarly force green card applicants seeking an adjustment of their status into that same waiting period.
The policy also does not exempt foreign worker visa holders, even though Congress has explicitly allowed temporary H-1B visa holders to simultaneously take steps to become permanent residents. Under the new guidance, dual intent “is not sufficient, on its own, to warrant a favorable exercise of discretion.”
“While aliens who were inspected and admitted or paroled may request adjustment of status, as a general matter the discretionary approval of such a request is extraordinary given Congress’s intent that aliens should depart once the purpose for which they sought parole or nonimmigrant admission from DHS has been accomplished,” according to the policy.
Federal immigration law does not state that adjusting status amounts to “extraordinary” relief, and it specifically requires being “present in the United States” for some adjustments of status.
“Impossible to explain how stupid and evil this policy is. It’s intended to cost people their jobs and their families,” according to David J. Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute.
“These are all people who qualify to stay here permanently and Congress clearly wanted them to have a way to stay,” he wrote Friday. “He’s telling them to leave America.”
Refugee advocacy group HIAS said the group likely has many clients impacted by the policy, including those in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons.
The policy could forces thousands of people “to be separated from their families, their jobs and their homes in order to wait for years outside of the country for their green card,” according to CEO Beth Oppenheim.
“It echoes again and again the notion that no one is permanent here, unless they fit a particular notion of what it means to be worthy of protection. And that simply cannot stand.”
The USCIS backlog has more than tripled over the last decade, from 3.5 million pending cases in 2016 to 11.6 million in 2025.
That backlog has placed millions of green card applicants, temporary protected status holders and immigrant workers into an unpredictable limbo that advocates and lawyers warn is jeopardizing the lives of people following immigration law.
Under Trump, immigration agencies have increasingly targeted migrants who are already legally in the U.S. despite the administration’s insistence that officials are targeting the “worst of the worst.” The administration is trying to strip Temporary Protected Status for tens of thousands of immigrants, and people who are already under ICE supervision.
According to Kahler, forcing immigrants who are temporarily living in the U.S. back to their home countries while they seek permanent status “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.”
“Nonimmigrants, like students, temporary workers, or people on tourist visas, come to the U.S. for a short time and for a specific purpose,” he said. “Our system is designed for them to leave when their visit is over.”
The policy change, first reported by The Daily Caller, comes from Trump-appointed USCIS Director Joseph Edlow, who has implemented several restrictive measures since taking over the agency last year, including reviewing immigrants’ social media accounts.
Internal data obtained by The New York Times has shown the administration is trying to deport at least 50 green card holders through a newly launched law enforcement unit within the agency. Tens of thousands more green card holders across the country are under review, according to the report.
Trump, meanwhile, continues to promote his so-called “gold card” program, which grants employment-based green cards for a $1 million “gift” to the U.S. government, regardless of merit. Businesses seeking visas for foreign employees are required to pay $2 million.
Green card applicants are currently facing wait times of more than three years, but the “gold card” effectively allows wealthy foreigners to fast-track their way to legal status.
Applications are open to anyone with $1 million, which the administration considers proof of “exceptional business ability” for an employment-based visa.
