The Trump administration announced Friday that individuals in the United States on temporary visas who wish to obtain permanent residency will now generally be required to return to their home countries to apply for green cards through U.S. consulates abroad.
The policy marks a major shift from current immigration practice, under which many visa holders have been allowed to adjust their status while remaining inside the United States.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson Zach Kahler said the new policy would apply to most non-immigrant visa holders unless “extraordinary circumstances” exist.
“From now on, an alien who is in the U.S. temporarily and wants a Green Card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances,” Kahler said in a statement.
He argued that requiring applicants to complete the process abroad would reduce the number of individuals who remain in the country illegally after being denied residency.
The administration said the change affects people in the U.S. on non-immigrant visas, including students, tourists and temporary workers.
“Our system is designed for them to leave when their visit is over,” Kahler said. “Their visit should not function as the first step in the Green Card process.”
According to USCIS, shifting more applications to consular processing overseas would allow immigration officials to focus domestic resources on other priorities, including applications involving victims of violent crime and human trafficking, as well as citizenship cases.
Kahler described the move as a way to make the immigration system “fairer and more efficient.”
The policy immediately drew criticism from immigration advocates and former government officials.
Doug Rand, a former USCIS adviser, said roughly one million people apply for green cards annually, with about half traditionally applying from within the United States through status adjustment.
“The purpose of this policy is exclusion,” Rand said in a statement.
He also argued that the administration’s broader immigration restrictions could make it difficult or impossible for some applicants to return to the United States after leaving for consular processing.
“Trump has banned people from over 100 countries from returning to the U.S., so forcing them to go abroad for consular processing is no pathway at all,” Rand said.
