Trump deals major blow to legal migration, forcing most green-card seekers to leave U.S.

The Trump administration has announced a new policy that requires most people seeking permanent residency in the U.S. return to their home countries to apply, one of the biggest blows President Donald Trump has dealt to legal migration since returning to the White House.

In a memo issued on Thursday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services told its officers that “adjustment of status is a matter of discretion... not designed to supersede the regular consular processing.” Adjustment of status is the process that people in the U.S. , including those on temporary visas, go through to get green cards without leaving the United States.

That means the spouses and relatives of U.S. citizens, professionals and students already legally here will have to go abroad to apply for lawful permanent residency through U.S. consulates unless they meet very narrow exceptions. Consular processing of visas and green cards can take months to years to complete. It will separate families and force workers to leave their jobs.

“We’re returning to the original intent of the law to ensure aliens navigate our nation’s immigration system properly,” said USCIS spokesman Zach Kahler. “Nonimmigrants, like students, temporary workers, or people on tourist visas, come to the U.S. for a short time and for a specific purpose. 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.”

READ MORE: Million-plus immigration-benefits applications from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela frozen

Adjustment of status has long been a routine process in the U.S. immigration system. Over half-a-million apply for green cards through adjustment of status every year. With the memo, the Trump administration is signaling that getting permanent residency while living in the U.S. is an “extraordinary form of relief.”

USCIS said in a statement on Friday that the shift to consular processing would allow the agency to free up resources to focus on processing other cases, like visas for victims of violent crimes, human trafficking and naturalization applications. The memo instruct USCIS officers to consider as “adverse factors,” when deciding whether to grant adjustment of status, if applicants for green cards entered the U.S. on a temporary visa or parole.

Broad application

Immigration lawyers say that the memo is vague but that it’s application will be broad. The memo also affects people who have “dual-intent” visas, meaning temporary visas that allow people a pathway to legally immigrate to the United States. “Maintaining lawful status in a dual intent non-immigrant category is not sufficient, on its own, to warrant a favorable exercise of discretion,” the new memo says.

The guidance says that exceptions will be considered in narrow cases, such as people with approved refugee and asylum cases who cannot go back to their countries. During his first days in office, Trump halted the U.S. Refugees Admissions program, slashed annual admissions to their lowest numbers and admitted only white South Africans as refugees. His administration has also been routinely detaining asylum seekers, who are authorized under U.S. law to be here but don’t have legal status.

It was not immediately clear whether the new order will apply to pending applications, but the policy is expected to be the subject of fierce litigation. Experts say that the rate of green card denials is expected to go up dramatically, even for people who are eligible for them. The Cato Institute estimates there are over 1.2 million people waiting for adjustment of status, including 300,000 Cubans with pending applications Trump has already frozen through another policy.

In a community like South Florida, where many residents are sponsoring family members, whether already in the United States or abroad, the consequences of the policy could be far-reaching.

“It’s just another way to slash legal immigration and force people to self-deport. This is a huge opportunity to get them much farther down their goal of millions of deportations or self deportations,” said David Bier, director of Immigration studies at the Cato Institute.

Experts say the policy is designed to keep people from getting green cards in the first place. They point out that workers getting employment-sponsored visas cannot pick up and leave their jobs while they wait for their green cards to be approved abroad. And without those jobs, they cannot apply for employment-based visas.

Some countries, like Haiti, Venezuela and Russia, don’t have functioning U.S. diplomatic missions that would typically process visas. And some countries without consulates or embassies are also subject to Trump visa and travel bans, meaning that people can’t come into the United States to apply for green cards, and also cannot apply from their home countries anymore.

“In many cases, it completely forecloses the opportunity to be a permanent resident,” Bier said.

Overlapping policies

As part of his mass deportation policies, Trump has overlapped multiple policies targeting legal migration, both temporary and permanent. The Trump administration has already frozen more than a million immigration-benefits applications from Cubans, Venezuelans and Haitians. He has issued travel bans and visa processing bans for 39 countries, including these three nationalities. The administration has also imposed “visa bonds” on travelers from some countries ranging $5,000 and $15,000.

READ MORE: ICE arrests of Cubans skyrocket under Trump as green cards plummet, study finds

Trump’s overlapping policies to restrict legal immigration and targeting specific countries are seemingly redundant, but it’s by design, experts say.

Said Shev Dalal-Dheini, senior director of government relations at American Immigration Lawyers Association: “They want to make it much more difficult for individuals to stay here legally.”

This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Trump deals major blow to legal migration, forcing most green-card seekers to leave U.S.."