USCIS Memo Reaffirms Traditional Consular Processing for Most Green Card Applicants, Exempting Those Showing Economic Benefit

USCIS issued an updated memo on its approach to adjustment of status that directs most applicants to return to their home countries while awaiting green card decisions. The memo was released the Friday before Memorial Day weekend and shared with USCIS officers.

The document states that the process allowing applicants to obtain a green card without leaving the United States was never intended to replace the traditional pathway of applying for an immigrant visa from abroad.

U.S. will likely be allowed to stay while their case is pending.

The Department of Homeland Security stated that the policy would not impact as many people as previously thought and told Newsweek that the new policy does not impact an immigrant's ability to obtain a green card. Brett O'Brien, co-founder of the National Security Law Firm, said military families are squarely in the path of that shift.

He identified spouses who entered on visitor visas before marrying a service member, undocumented parents and spouses who rely on parole in place to adjust without triggering the 3 and 10 year unlawful-presence bars, and surviving family members of those killed in action as fitting the fact patterns the memo flags as disfavored.

O'Brien said the memo's proposed alternative of departing the United States and pursuing an immigrant visa through consular processing is for many of these families not a real alternative at all, because departure itself triggers the very bars Congress designed parole in place to avoid.

He said USCIS officers now had broader powers to deny cases. O'Brien added that whatever one's view of the underlying immigration debate, the readiness and retention implications for a force that depends on stable family life deserve serious attention before this policy is implemented at scale.

U.S. immigration law has provided several special pathways to green cards for military families. U.S. citizen service member can sponsor a spouse or unmarried child under 21 as an immediate relative, meaning there are typically no annual visa limits or long waiting periods.

U.S. are usually able to apply for a green card without leaving the country, even in complicated cases including undocumented spouses or children.

U.S. Without authorization often have to leave to complete their green card application, which can trigger long bans on reentry. Military families may avoid reentry bans through special policies that prioritize family unity.