Trump Administration Requires Green Card Applicants to Return Home First
Immigrants seeking permanent residency must now return to home countries first, ending decades of allowing status adjustments while remaining in the U.S.
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA — The Trump administration announced Friday that immigrants seeking green cards must return to their home countries to apply, ending a practice that allowed people to adjust their status while remaining in the United States.
“An alien who is in the U.S. temporarily and wants a Green Card must return to their home country to apply,” said Zach Kahler, a spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, in a statement.
The policy change affects workers on temporary visas and people living in the country illegally who hope to gain legal status through sponsorship by relatives such as spouses or children who are U.S. citizens.
Immigration Advocates Warn of Disruption
Immigration advocacy group FWD.us said the new policy “will create chaos and impose massive costs on immigrants who have lived and worked legally in the United States for many years” in a statement to Stateline.
The change comes despite existing backlogs that can leave applicants waiting years for green card processing. Under the new rule, applicants would be required to wait in their home countries during this potentially lengthy process.
Tech Industry Concerns
Business leaders expressed concern about the policy’s impact on technology industries that rely heavily on foreign workers holding temporary visas. Many of these workers eventually seek green cards and U.S. citizenship.
Andrew Ng, co-founder of Coursera and an adjunct professor of computer science at Stanford University, criticized the move in a post on X, calling the policy disruptive to the tech sector’s workforce needs.
Policy Implementation Details
The administration’s announcement marks a significant departure from previous immigration practices under both Republican and Democratic administrations. For decades, the U.S. has allowed eligible immigrants already in the country to “adjust status” to permanent residency without leaving.
The new requirement could affect thousands of immigrants currently in various stages of the green card application process. Those who have been waiting years for their applications to be processed would now face the additional burden of relocating to their home countries.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services indicated the policy would grant adjustment of status only in extraordinary circumstances, though specific criteria for such exceptions were not immediately detailed in Friday’s announcement.
