A Historic Reversal of a 60-Year Green Card Rule Now Forces Applicants to Leave the U.S. and Reapply

For more than 60 years, the American immigration system has relied on a foundational practice. If you entered the United States legally on a temporary visa, built a life, and subsequently married a citizen or secured a career sponsorship, you could complete the green card process without ever leaving American soil. That has now changed.

In a seismic policy reversal that has sent shockwaves through immigrant advocacy groups, the Trump administration just dismantled the 60-year-old mandate, requiring green card applicants to pack their bags and return to their home countries just to file their paperwork, The Guardian reported.

Thanks to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Policy Memorandum (PM-602-0199) that dropped on May 22, green card hopefuls must make an agonizing decision between legal exile and family separation while their green card cases are processed.

“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,” said USCIS Spokesman Zach Kahler in a statement. “Nonimmigrants, like students, temporary workers, or people on tourist visas, come to the U.S. for a short time and for a specific purpose. Our system is designed for them to leave when their visit is over. Their visit should not function as the first step in the Green Card process.” 

In defense of the mandate, the USCIS argued that the policy simply corrects a decades-long administrative drift. The new framework will allow the system to operate “as the law intended instead of incentivizing loopholes,” the agency stated, while simultaneously reducing the domestic burden on personnel.

“The law was written this way for a reason, and despite the fact that it has been ignored for years, following it will help make our system fairer and more efficient,” Kahler added. HIAS, an aid group that provides services to refugees, swiftly condemned the policy.

“The administration’s new policy could force 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,” said Beth Oppenheim, HIAS President & CEO. “It echoes again and again the concept 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.”

Additionally, the new policy change—which will allow officials to consider relevant factors on a case-by-case basis when determining whether extraordinary relief is warranted, according to a USCIS policy memo—could turn a standard application step into a dangerous gamble.

According to data reported by CBS News, a sweeping presidential travel ban already restricts or entirely blocks entry for citizens of 39 nations. Simultaneously, an administrative freeze has halted permanent immigrant visa grants across 75 countries, leaving countless hopefuls forced to return to their home countries, stranded with no clear path back to their families in the U.S.

“It is going to create a lot of confusion, and it is going to prevent folks from applying for their green card when they are eligible to do so,” Eréndira Rendón, vice president of immigrant justice of the Resurrection Project, told CBS News. “The ultimate goal is to make sure that folks continue to stay undocumented or that folks fall out of status if they’re losing potentially their current visa.”

This mandate stands as the latest maneuver in a broader, systemic effort by the Trump administration to restrict immigration. Following a November ambush in Washington, D.C., that left one National Guard member dead and another wounded, President Trump ordered a sweeping immigration crackdown.

Officials identified the suspect in the shooting as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national. In the wake of the attack, the administration vowed to aggressively overhaul screening procedures for immigrants from 19 nations, including Afghanistan and Venezuela, alongside several African countries.

USCIS Director Joseph Edlow announced on X that the agency will launch a “full-scale, rigorous reexamination” of green cards held by immigrants from designated “countries of concern.”