New rule requires most green-card applicants to apply from outside U.S.

The Trump administration Friday announced it would require most foreigners seeking green cards to apply from outside the United States, a shift in long-standing practice that immigration lawyers said could affect hundreds of thousands of people who file applications each year while living in America on temporary visas.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services described the changes in a six-page policy memo as a return to the original intent of federal immigration law. The guidelines instruct foreign visitors to apply for a permanent status through U.S. State Department consulate offices in their home countries “except in extraordinary circumstances.”

“Nonimmigrants, like students, temporary workers, or people on tourist visas, come to the U.S. for a short time and for a specific purpose,” USCIS 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.”

Certain visa holders can apply to “adjust” their statuses by petitioning for permanent legal residency, also known as a green card. The United States authorizes more than 1 million green cards each year, of which more than half of the applicants are already living in the country, according to federal data. The new guidelines come as President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to sharply restrict legal immigration pathways to the country.

“This is going to affect thousands and thousands of people,” said Elizabeth Goss, an immigration attorney and board member at Immigrants’ List, an immigrant rights advocacy organization. “There’s no true policy reason behind this. It’s not a security issue — these people have already been vetted for temporary, nonimmigrants visas. This will affect doctors, professors, researchers, CEOs.”

USCIS Director Joseph Edlow stipulated that there could be exceptions to the new guidance for people in the United States on “dual intent” visas that allow them to pursue a permanent legal status while residing in the country temporarily. Exceptions would also be granted for those with immigrant visas, for whom a green card could provide a pathway to permanent residency.

But he wrote that “as a general matter the discretionary approval of such a request is extraordinary given Congress’s intent that aliens should depart once the purpose for which they sought parole or nonimmigrant admission from [the Department of Homeland Security] has been accomplished.”

Immigration lawyers said the measure is likely to face legal challenges, and details on specific visa categories were not immediately available.

David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, said the new guidance marks the most significant act yet in the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape legal migration. The administration has curtailed the number of refugees, people seeking asylum, legal permanent residents, students, and foreign spouses of U.S. citizens who are admitted to the country, according Bier’s analysis of federal data.

Bier said foreigners already in the United States who come from countries subject to Trump’s travel ban or the State Department pause on issuing immigrant visas would effectively be locked out of trying to return on a green card once they leave. More broadly, he said, the move is part of the administration’s efforts to eliminate protections for those with pending applications and reduce the number approved.

“It’s like someone from 1940s America has taken over the immigration system,” he said. Adjustment of status “has been a normal part of operations in immigration law for over 70 years. There’s nothing extraordinary about it.”