Trump admin says visa holders seeking permanent residency must return to home countries

(CN) — In an announcement Friday that could affect more than 1 million people, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said that people on temporary visas who want to obtain green cards must return to their home countries to apply.

“Nonimmigrants, like students, temporary workers or people on tourist visas, come to the U.S. for a short time and for a specific purpose,” agency spokesperson Zach Kahler said in a statement. “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."

Kahler did not say whether this rule would impact people with pending applications for green cards.

“This policy allows our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivizing loopholes,” Kahler said. “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.”

Kahler cast the announcement as simply “reiterating” what he called “longstanding immigration law and immigration court decisions.” But since 1980, a majority of all legal immigrants have received permanent residence while already in the U.S. on temporary visas.

According to David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, there are currently 1.2 million legal immigrants waiting for green card approval. In a post on X, he said the announcement comes as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services faces lawsuits over its “egregious” refusal to process any applications for 40 countries.

On social media, immigration attorneys expressed concern about how the shift will affect hundreds of thousands of people who file applications for permanent residency each year while living in the U.S. They’ve also called foul on the agency’s claims that it’s just reiterating what the law already is.

Applying to adjust immigration status while already in the country is not a “loophole,” Eva Golinger, a New York-based immigration attorney, said on X.

“It’s a legal immigration process stipulated in the regulations,” Golinger said. She cited visa types like O-1 and H-1B, which are dual-intent — meaning “the visa holder can be in the U.S. working on a ’nonimmigrant’ visa and also apply for permanent residence,” she said.

The announcement leaves unclear how the change might affect people who came from a country that is now under President Donald Trump’s travel ban lists — or people from one of the dozens of nations on which the Trump administration has placed broad visa freezes.

Per the announcement, thousands of people could be forced to leave their families, employment and homes for weeks or even months, all at their own expense.

“This is a pretty big and awful change to the law,” Houston-based human rights attorney Maria Kari said in a post on X. “It means that if you came here legally on a visa, built a life, maybe had a spouse, kids, job — none of that matters. If you want to apply for a green card, you will have to leave the country.”

The requirements appear to be a “trap,” she added, as some people who leave the country may be subjected to a 3- or even 10-year bar on reentry.

Charles Kuck, a prominent Atlanta immigration attorney and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said he anticipates pushback litigation to be filed in the coming weeks.

“What is ridiculous about this policy is that it was clearly not vetted by USCIS lawyers, was not discussed with the Department of State and is literally violating at least four different provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Administrative Procedures Act,” Kuck told Courthouse News.

The latest move in Trump’s strict immigration crackdowns comes as approvals for legal permanent residence have already been slashed in half over the past year.

The cuts have affected all categories of applications except employment-based applicants. The largest reductions have been for the humanitarian green card categories, including asylum-seekers, refugees, Cubans and crime victims.

According to the Cato Institute, the suspension of processing both prevents people from receiving legal permanent residence and in some cases causes them to lose their prior legal status. In a statement, it called the announcement “a deliberate effort to boost ICE arrests by thwarting people’s efforts to stay on the right side of the law.”

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