In a sweeping overhaul of U.S. immigration rules announced Friday, the second Trump administration has mandated that all foreign nationals currently residing in the U.S. seeking to adjust their visa status to permanent residency must first leave the country and submit their applications through U.S. embassies or consulates based in their home countries. This sudden, immediate policy shift marks a fundamental break from decades of established immigration practice, with potential impacts stretching across more than 10 million current visa holders in the U.S. — a group that includes international students, temporary skilled workers, humanitarian parolees, and even foreign spouses of U.S. citizens.
In an official statement, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) spokesperson Zach Kahler framed the change as a return to the original text of U.S. immigration law. “We’re going back to the law’s original intent to ensure foreign nationals navigate our immigration system the way it was designed,” Kahler said. “From now on, any temporary visitor in the U.S. seeking a green card must return to their home country to file their application, outside of extraordinary circumstances.”
The policy went into effect the same day it was announced, but critical details remain unaddressed: the administration has not publicly defined what qualifies as an “extraordinary circumstance,” leaving the decision largely to the broad discretionary authority traditionally granted to immigration and border enforcement officials. Kahler defended the vague language, arguing that requiring applications from overseas will cut down on cases where applicants denied permanent residency remain in the U.S. illegally. “When people apply from home, we eliminate the need to track down and remove those who choose to overstay after a denial,” he explained, adding that the change will also free up limited USCIS resources to prioritize high-priority cases including visas for victims of violent crime and human trafficking, and naturalization applications. “Following the law, which has been ignored for decades, will make our system fairer and more efficient,” he added.
But immigration advocates and legal experts warn the new rule will carry devastating human and economic costs. Applications processed through overseas consulates typically face multi-year wait times, forcing applicants to give up pending job offers and spend years separated from their U.S. citizen family members. For nationals of countries where U.S. consular services have been suspended entirely — such as Russia and Afghanistan — the process is effectively impossible to complete.
Immigration attorneys were quick to condemn the policy across social media within hours of its announcement. “This isn’t just an issue for immigrants — it hurts U.S. citizens too,” wrote Adrian Pandev, founder of Pandev Law LLC, on platform X. “Roughly one in five married U.S. couples have one spouse born abroad. This isn’t a small fringe group — that’s 21% of all married households in the country.” Pandev noted that the existing in-country adjustment of status process was created specifically to let spouses of U.S. citizens get green cards without leaving their family behind.
Texas-based immigration attorney Steven Brown pointed out that Congress has explicitly allowed in-country status adjustments since the 1950s, codifying the practice in law for core policy reasons: to save applicants from the financial burden and disruption of international travel, to protect family unity, advance U.S. economic growth by supporting a stable immigrant workforce, and enable humanitarian relief. The American Immigration Lawyers Association emphasized that both Republican and Democratic administrations have upheld the in-country adjustment process for decades, and federal courts have repeatedly ruled it is legal. “Reversing settled law through an unvetted policy memo is legally questionable and creates needless chaos for millions of people,” the association said in a statement.
The policy is already expected to face immediate legal challenges in federal court, and it marks the latest aggressive move in the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on both unauthorized and legal immigration since the administration took office in January 2025.
Advocacy groups have also highlighted that the policy disproportionately targets vulnerable groups who came to the U.S. through humanitarian programs. AfghanEvac, an organization that supports Afghan allies who assisted the U.S. during its 20-year military campaign in Afghanistan and evacuated to the U.S. in 2021, called the timing of the announcement no coincidence. “This policy directly targets people who entered the U.S. on humanitarian parole — which is the entry status for nearly every Afghan ally who arrived after the withdrawal,” said Shawn VanDiver, the organization’s president. “There is no U.S. embassy in Afghanistan, so the administration’s required alternative of applying from home simply does not exist for these people.” VanDiver warned the rule sets in motion a deportation pipeline: “This memo doesn’t deport anyone today, but it starts the chain: a denial leads to removal proceedings, which leads to a deportation order.”
Iranians currently in the U.S. on temporary visas also face identical barriers, as Iran is included in the Trump administration’s existing travel ban, and U.S. diplomatic operations in the country have been shuttered for decades. Tens of thousands of Iranian nationals are currently studying, working, or seeking asylum in the U.S. after building lives legally in the country. The National Iranian American Council called the new rule a “trap” for this community. “The administration is telling Iranians who have built their lives here legally to leave — and once they do, they will never be allowed to come back,” said NIAC president Jamal Abdi. “Does the Trump administration seriously expect Iranian nationals legally in the U.S. to return to their country, in the middle of a war and a naval blockade this administration imposed, to apply for a status adjustment that will likely never be approved?”