Trump administration makes green card applicants apply from abroad

The new green card rule landed first as a paperwork shockwave. Immigrants already inside the United States, many of them deep into the adjustment process, suddenly faced a blunt new message from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: most must leave the country and apply from abroad unless they fit undefined “extraordinary circumstances.”

The policy memo, issued May 22, 2026, marked a major break from more than half a century of practice and created immediate uncertainty for applicants, employers and immigration lawyers. USCIS said the agency was “returning to the original intent of the law” and that most cases should be handled through consular processing at U.S. consular offices abroad. The agency also said the shift would free up resources for other priorities, including victims of violent crime and human trafficking and naturalization cases.

For many families, the practical effect was confusion with high stakes. Immigration lawyer Flavia Santos Lloyd said her phone started ringing immediately and described a “chilling effect” as clients wondered whether to keep moving ahead with their cases. Charles Kuck called the move a “scare tactic” and said he expected a court challenge. The memo did not spell out what qualifies as an extraordinary circumstance, how officers should apply that standard, or whether people with pending cases can finish in the United States.

The scale is significant. NBC News reported that about 1 million people apply for green cards in a typical year, and about half do so from within the United States by adjusting status. TIME said the broadest reading of the memo could reach more than 500,000 people a year. Current and former immigration officials told CBS News the policy could hit students, tourists, temporary visa holders and people who overstayed visas, groups that often built lives in the United States while waiting for a decision.

Leaving the country may now carry its own risks. CBS News reported that in most cases, people who overstayed visas and then depart would trigger 10-year reentry bars. The same report said 39 countries were already under outright bans or restrictions on entry, while a separate Trump administration policy had paused immigrant visas for people in 75 countries. That overlap could leave some applicants stranded in legal limbo, separated from jobs, spouses and children while their cases move through consular offices abroad.

Immigration expert Michael Valverde called the change “largely unprecedented,” and Daniel Kanstroom said the memo appeared designed to reduce the number of green cards approved and make permanent residency harder to obtain, especially for spouses and family members of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. World Relief called the policy “cruel” and “anti-family,” a warning that the administrative confusion may end up reshaping family reunification long before any court rules on the memo itself.