.newpolicy {color:red;text-transform:uppercase;} .thepolicy {text-transform:none!important;}NEW POLICY:USCIS Will Only Grant Adjustment of Status in Extraordinary Circumstances?
Today’s policy announcement demonstrates this administration’s desire to cause misery and to be cruel for no reason.
On May 22, 2026, US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) published a policy memo stating that they would no longer be granting applications for adjustment of status except for in “extraordinary circumstances.” The memo claims, “adjustment of status under section 245 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) is a matter of discretion and administrative grace not designed to supersede the regular consular processing of immigrant visas. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reaffirms this consistent and longstanding approach and declares as a matter of general policy its intention to faithfully apply the statutes consistently with this understanding.”
Prior to today USCIS’s policy was a presumptive approval of an application for adjustment of status so long as the applicant is admissible or subject to any bars (like prior immigration violations, criminal convictions, or fraud). Now, under the new policy, USCIS will treat applications for adjustment of status as presumptively not approvable unless the applicant proves some sort of “extraordinary circumstances” that warrant it as “an act of administrative grace.” USCIS is now considering consular processing—applying from a US consulate abroad and waiting there until the process is complete—as the only way of immigrating to the US unless you satisfy some secret criteria for your circumstances to exceed a threshold it deems extraordinary.
tldr
Applicants that are legally eligible to adjust status in the US (like someone who was admitted or paroled, is beneficiary of an approved immediate relative petition, and otherwise admissible) will be denied as a matter of discretion by USCIS unless there are some sort of exceptional circumstances.
Noncitizens who are seeking to obtain legal permanent residency (a green card) are instructed to apply to consular process through the US Consulate in their country of citizenship as USCIS will now treat that as the method of applying for residency.
Why?
The incredible inconvenience, expense, danger, emotional harm, and family separation that will result from the need for these noncitizens to leave the US and risk permanent banishment from the country they have long considered home to wait for an estimated five years to find out if they will be permitted to return to their family.
The Department is claiming that their position is supported by case law including Supreme Court precedent. They cite to Patel v. Garland, 596 U.S. 328, 332 (2022), which was a case relating to an applicant for adjustment of status in which SCOTUS found that the Court has jurisdiction to review a discretionary decision related to adjustment of status. However, Patel was a case involving an immigrant who had misrepresented his citizenship on a Georgia driver’s license application, which is a serious offense with severe immigration consequences. The Patel case confirms that an application for adjustment of status may be denied when a noncitizen fails to satisfy the threshold requirement of statutory eligibility for permanent residence. The Court does not say that adjustment of status should be a rare form of relief reserved for special circumstances. The Court specifically notes that discretionary decisions to grant adjustment of status cannot be “manifestly contrary to the law” or “an abuse of discretion.”
This new policy is not based on “the law and long standing policy” as claimed. This is the Executive Branch choosing to ignore the laws created by the Legislative Branch and making it significantly more difficult and in some cases impossible, for the spouses of US citizens to get permanent residency despite having followed the law and gone through all the proper procedures. There is no other purpose for this policy change other than to hurt immigrants and their families.
Keep in mind that the President and the Vice-President are both married to women who adjusted status in the US through the process that they have now reserved for only the most exceptional circumstances. The message is clear. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are wealthy elites, so they have the right to bring people to the US and confer legal immigration status to their spouses and in-laws. That’s when they want the government to exercise discretion. They just don’t think that keeping your family together is as important.
Will The Courts Step In?
I imagine that an immigration advocacy group is probably preparing a lawsuit right now and will challenge the new policy. The Courts may not be able to do anything about this policy though.
It will be interesting to see how EOIR (the Immigration Courts) will handle adjustment of status applications filed before the Court. This USCIS policy might just create an incentive for adjustment of status applicants to adjust before the Immigration Judge rather than filing with USCIS. The Immigration Judges wouldn’t be required to follow the USCIS policy memorandum. However, Trump has already purged EOIR of Immigration Judges who had approved too many cases or who decided against DHS too often. This past year the Immigration Courts have been flooded with “temporary immigration judges” which this administration has lowered the standard to “any lawyer admitted to a state or territory of the US.” Mostly they have made DHS prosecuting attorneys into Immigration Judges and they appointed dozens of military attorneys as temporary immigration judges. Needless to say, the Immigration Judges that remain on the bench now are the ones who are willing to play along with
An Example of This Policy’s Impact
Often times a noncitizen will be studying or working in the US on a valid visa and they meet someone that they develop a relationship with during those years and they end up getting married, maybe even having a kid. The noncitizen’s visa will eventually expire so before it does the US citizen hires an attorney, pays thousands of dollars in filing fees, and files all the required paperwork (including an affidavit promising to financially support their spouse along with proof that they are capable of doing so, making it impossible for them to become a burden on the State). The couple provides evidence, undergoes background checks, and gets interviewed by USCIS (sometimes multiple times).
Up until today, the noncitizen would be granted a green card at the end of the above two-year-long process. If the couple was married for less than two year then the green card would only be valid for two years and then they would have to file again to prove they are still married and still meet all the requirements before they will be allowed to stay in the US permanently.
Under the new policy, the noncitizen would have done all of that work for nothing. They would not be allowed to stay and would not get a green card. They will have to leave the US and apply again from their country of citizenship and wait there for years separated from their family to go through a different process at the US consulate. The even bigger problem is that many of the people in this situation cannot leave the US now without triggering a bar to reentry.
Another major concern is what will happen to people who are from a country that Trump has stopped issuing visas to. Will they have to wait outside the country for years for a new President?
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