The Trump administration has announced sweeping new restrictions on green card applications that could force more than a million legal immigrants to leave the U.S. while their permanent residency applications are processed, according to a newly released memo from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Under the policy shift, many foreign nationals currently living legally inside the U.S. on visas, work permits or family-based immigration pathways would no longer be allowed to complete the green card process from within the country.
Instead, applicants would be required to depart the U.S. and apply through consular processing abroad — a move critics say could separate families for months or even years.
The policy is expected to impact an estimated 1.2 million legal immigrants.
Only individuals who can demonstrate what the administration describes as “extraordinary circumstances” would potentially qualify for exemptions allowing them to remain in the country during the process.
“After years of ignoring the intent of Congress in the adjustment of status application, USCIS is merely restating and reasserting that intent,” USCIS spokesman Zach Kahler told reporters.
The administration indicated that applicants who provide an “economic benefit” or serve the “national interest” may still be permitted to remain inside the country while their applications are processed.
The move represents one of the most dramatic immigration policy changes of President Donald Trump’s second term and significantly alters decades of immigration practice involving “adjustment of status.”
Currently, many immigrants already living legally in the US can apply for permanent residency without leaving the country.
The new system would force many applicants to return to their home countries and complete the process at US embassies or consulates abroad.
Critics immediately warned the change could create massive backlogs and long-term family separations.
Former USCIS policy analyst Sarah Pierce told the New York Times that the consular processing system is already overwhelmed.
“Our consular processing system through which they would have to apply is already overburdened,” Pierce said. “So that means we could have families separated for months or years.”
Immigration attorneys also raised concerns about how the policy would affect people from unstable or dangerous countries where US embassies may be closed or inaccessible.
The memo itself reportedly provides little detail about when the policy will officially take effect, whether it will apply retroactively to ongoing applications or how long applicants would be required to remain outside the United States.
The administration is also simultaneously pursuing other major immigration restrictions, including expanded “public charge” rules that could deny residency to applicants deemed likely to use government welfare programs in the future.
Additionally, officials have reportedly instructed immigration officers to scrutinize applicants’ social media activity for “anti-American” views, including anti-Israel content.
The administration has also imposed a $100,000 fee tied to certain H-1B visa applications while tightening lottery qualification requirements for foreign workers and recent graduates, per the Daily Mail.
Immigration advocates say the cumulative effect is part of a broader effort to reduce legal immigration pathways into the United States.
Former USCIS adviser Doug Rand argued the administration’s goals are clear.
“Senior officials in this administration have said over and over that they want fewer people to get permanent residency because permanent residency is a path to citizenship and they want to block that path for as many people as possible,” Rand said.
Humanitarian groups also warned the policy could trap families in impossible situations.
World Relief said some applicants may be forced to leave the US only to discover that visa processing is unavailable in their home countries.
“If families are told that the non-citizen family member must return to his or her country of origin to process their immigrant visa, but immigrant visas are not being processed there, it’s a Catch-22,” the organization warned.
