{"id":48269,"date":"2026-05-23T13:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T08:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=48269"},"modified":"2026-05-23T13:59:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T08:14:02","slug":"green-card-seekers-must-leave-u-s-to-apply-trump-administration-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/green-card-seekers-must-leave-u-s-to-apply-trump-administration-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Card Seekers Must Leave U.S. to Apply, Trump Administration Says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The\u00a0 New York Times :<\/strong> The Trump administration said on Friday that most foreigners seeking green cards will have to return to their home countries to apply, a remarkable change that could make it more difficult for hundreds of thousands of people to obtain permanent residency.<\/p>\n

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that oversees the legal immigration system, said it would grant green cards to people inside the country only in \u201cextraordinary circumstances.\u201d People applying for permanent residency, which is one step away from citizenship, will have to go through consular processing outside the country instead, according to a memo issued by the agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis policy allows our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivizing loopholes,\u201d Zach Kahler, a spokesman for the agency, said in a statement. \u201cWhen aliens apply from their home country, it reduces the need to find and remove those who decide to slip into the shadows and remain in the U.S. illegally after being denied residency.\u201d<\/p>\n

The change could upend the lives of people who entered the country lawfully through temporary visas and are seeking green cards to remain in the United States, including students, spouses of U.S. citizens and a wide range of foreign workers. The process of obtaining a green card \u2014 which gives immigrants the right to live in the country permanently and provides a path to citizenship \u2014 takes months or longer, meaning families could be separated for extended periods.<\/p>\n

The memo was immediately met with confusion and chaos as immigration lawyers scrambled to understand which exceptions would be granted. Many also expected the policy change to be met with legal challenges.<\/p>\n

The agency did not detail which groups would be eligible for an exception, only suggesting that refugees would not be subject. Mr. Kahler said in a statement that people who \u201cprovide an economic benefit or otherwise are in the national interest will likely be able to continue on their current path.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was unclear, though, which foreign workers would be exempt and if exceptions would extend to skilled foreign workers on H-1B visas, for instance.<\/p>\n

The policy is a major escalation of the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to curb legal immigration and reflects how the president\u2019s crackdown has broadened beyond immigrants living in the country unlawfully. Federal officials have in recent months sought to strip some naturalized citizens of their status and review thousands of green card holders to root out immigrants they believe should be deported.<\/p>\n

The change is likely to lead to more families being separated as spouses or relatives wait for decisions on their applications, immigration lawyers and former homeland security officials said. It could also lead to longer processing times as consulates around the world manage an influx of new cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur consular processing system through which they would have to apply is already overburdened,\u201d said Sarah Pierce, a former policy analyst at Citizenship and Immigration Services who is now the director of social policy at the center-left think tank Third Way. \u201cSo that means we could have families separated for months or years.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 1.4 million green cards were granted in 2024, with more than 820,000 approved for people inside the country through a process called \u201cadjustment of status,\u201d according to Department of Homeland Security data. Over the past two decades, more than 500,000 people have received green cards via adjustment of status each year, except for in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

There are various pathways for foreigners to obtain a green card. People with temporary visas can apply to adjust their status if they have spouses who are U.S. citizens, for instance. Certain foreign workers and parents of citizens who are at least 21 years old are also eligible for green cards.<\/p>\n

More than 70 percent of people who received a green card through marriage did so through adjustment of status, totaling about 250,000 people in 2024.<\/p>\n

Some immigration attorneys said they were inundated with calls and emails from clients on Friday asking how the new memo could affect their cases.<\/p>\n

Robert O\u2019Malley, an immigration attorney in Grand Rapids, Mich., said several clients called to ask if their spouses needed to leave the United States, or if they would be able to stay together.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done my best to assuage those fears,\u201d Mr. O\u2019Malley said. \u201cBut I\u2019m really just trying to digest this six-page memo and wait for further guidance so that we know how to best advise our clients.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0 New York Times : The Trump administration said on Friday that most foreigners seeking green cards will have to return to their home countries to apply, a remarkable change that could make it more difficult for hundreds of thousands of people to obtain permanent residency. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that oversees […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main-news","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48269"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48269"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48273,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48269\/revisions\/48273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}