The Trump administration has rolled out a major new immigration policy that will significantly raise barriers for immigrants already residing in the United States seeking to obtain permanent residency via a green card.
In an official policy memo released Friday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) confirmed that most applicants seeking a change of immigration status to permanent residency will now be required to complete consular processing from outside the United States, with only very narrow exceptions granted for extraordinary circumstances. This regulatory change closes a longstanding loophole that previously allowed temporary visa holders, including tourists, students, and seasonal workers already present in the country, to submit green card applications without leaving U.S. territory.
Administration officials frame the policy as a long-overdue correction of immigration system abuse. USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler explained that the new rule aligns with the original text of U.S. immigration law, eliminating incentives for individuals to exploit regulatory gaps by using temporary visits as a backdoor to permanent residency. By shifting most green card application processing to U.S. consulates overseas, agency leaders argue the policy will free up limited USCIS resources to focus on high-priority cases, including visa applications for victims of violent crime and human trafficking, citizenship naturalization requests, and other core agency responsibilities.
“When aliens apply from their home country, it 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,” a USCIS statement read. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees USCIS, echoed this sentiment in a post on X, declaring that “the era of abusing our nation’s immigration system is over.” Officials added that the new rule aligns with existing immigration statute and decades of immigration court precedent, and officers will evaluate eligibility for extraordinary circumstance exemptions on a case-by-case basis.
Critics, however, have warned that the policy will have devastating, far-reaching consequences for hundreds of thousands of immigrant families and U.S. employers annually. The change ends a longstanding system that allowed families to remain together during the green card application process, which can stretch from several months to multiple years. Opponents also note that applicants forced to return to their home countries for processing face extreme uncertainty: leaving the U.S. can result in multi-year delays, and those who overstayed their temporary visas prior to applying face lengthy re-entry bans or deportation if their application is denied.
Michael Valverde, a former senior USCIS official who served under both Republican and Democratic administrations before leaving the agency in 2025, called the move largely unprecedented. Speaking to CBS News, the BBC’s U.S. media partner, Valverde warned that the policy “will limit lawful immigration to the US greatly” and added that “people who followed the rules faithfully now face tremendous uncertainty.”
According to data from the Cato Institute’s director of immigration studies, more than one million legal immigrants are currently waiting for approval of their adjustment of status green card applications, many of whom will now be affected by the sudden regulatory change. This new policy is just the latest in a series of restrictive immigration actions taken by the Trump administration, which has already implemented entry bans or travel restrictions for citizens of nearly 40 countries, and paused all immigrant visa issuances for applicants from 75 countries earlier this year.