Green card seekers would be required to leave the United States of America and apply for the coveted document from their home countries
A green card ensures a permanent right of residence in America
Nearly half a million American citizens got their citizenship in the last two decades by applying from America itself
In line with the Trump administration's bid to regulate-and even curtail-immigration, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in a recent six-pager policy memo directed foreigners to apply for a green card from outside of America.
The memo effectively means that green card seekers would be required to leave the United States of America and apply for the coveted document from their home countries.
Justifying the changes, Zach Kahler, spokesperson for the USCIS said “When 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.”
The green card is sought by a wide range of non-American residents, including students and spouses of American citizens, often backed by temporary visas. To these people, a green card ensures a permanent right of residence in America while also furthering their claim to American citizenship later.
In the statement, Kahler added that people who provided “an economic benefit or otherwise are in the national interest will likely be able to continue on their current path.”
With many Indian workers on H1B visa, the recent change increases uncertainty with many observers expecting legal challenges ahead. Neither ‘economic benefit’ or ‘national security’ are defined with many attorneys in America awaiting further guidance according to media reports.
Also, USCIS mentioned that refugees would not be affected by this change. HIAS, an aid group, as per Reuters, said that such a move was forcing survivors of trafficking and abused and neglected children to return to the dangerous countries they fled in order to process their applications for green cards granting them permanent residency in the U.S.
NewYork Times, citing Department of Homeland Security data, reported that most of green cards in the last decade were issued to those residing in America. In 2024, around 70 per cent of the green card benefactors had applied for an ‘adjustment of status’. This process enables foreign residents to seek a change in their stay and even apply for a green card if conditionalities are fulfilled.
Nearly half a million American citizens who got their citizenship in the last two decades owe it to the ‘adjustment of status’ process initiated most likely from the American soil itself.
Read alongside revocation of more than a lac visas since Trump's second presidential tenure, this move is one amongst many implemented by the American government after tightening of immigration emerged as one of the key rallying points for the incumbent’s historic return to power.
