The Trump administration said Friday that people with temporary visas seeking to adjust their immigration status to obtain green cards must return to their home countries to “do so through consular processing,” in a major change from current practice.
“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,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson Zach Kahler said in a statement. “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 statement said that those who come to America on non-immigrant visas, including students, temporary workers and tourists, are expected to be in the United States 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,” Kahler said.
“Following the law allows the majority of these cases to be handled by the State Department at U.S. consular offices abroad and frees up limited USCIS resources to focus on processing other cases that fall under its purview, including visas for victims of violent crime and human trafficking, naturalization applications, and other priorities,” he said in the statement.
He said this process would “make our system fairer and more efficient.”
Former USCIS official Doug Rand said that in a typical year, 1 million people apply for green cards and half of those apply from within the U.S. to change their status while they are living here.
“The purpose of this policy is exclusion,” Rand said in a statement. “Remember that 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.”
The move is the latest by the Trump administration targeting legal immigration in the country.
World Relief, a Christian humanitarian organization, said in a statement that the policy was “cruel” and “anti-family.”
The group said the change largely halts “the longstanding practice of allowing non-citizens who entered the United States lawfully and now qualify under U.S. law for Lawful Permanent Resident status to ‘adjust status’ within the United States.”
Myal Greene, the president and CEO of the organization, said the policy would have immediate consequences for families.
“This policy, impacting individuals who meet the legal requirements for a green card, will force apart husbands from wives and children from their parents,” Greene said in the statement. “There’s simply no compelling reason for this cruel, anti-family policy change, and I hope and pray it will be reversed, whether by administrative reconsideration, congressional action or the courts.”
