En esta noticia
The U.S. government restricted access to the Green Card for thousands of temporary immigrants living in the country. The Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) issued a new policy memorandum that limits adjustment of status to extraordinary circumstances, forcing most applicants to process their permanent residency from their country of origin.
The change was announced on May 22, 2026 and instructs USCIS officers to evaluate each case individually before approving any adjustment application within U.S. territory. The agency argues that the measure respects the original intent of immigration law, which has always considered consular processing the main route to obtain residency.
What changes in the Green Card process with this new requirement?
Until now, many immigrants in temporary situations—students, workers with visas, people with tourist visas—applied for adjustment of status within the United States to obtain the Green Card without having to leave the country. With the new memorandum, that path is reserved for exceptional cases.
According to USCIS, those who wish to apply for permanent residency will have to do so through consular processing: that is, file their application with a U.S. consular office in their country of origin.
The agency argues that this modality allows the State Department to handle most cases, while USCIS redirects its resources toward other priorities, such as visas for victims of violent crimes, naturalization applications, and human trafficking cases.
Who is affected by this change in the permanent residency process?
The new requirement directly affects nonimmigrants who are in the United States on temporary visas and were considering or beginning the process to obtain the Green Card without leaving the country. This includes:
Affected categories
- Students with F-1 or M-1 visas
- Temporary workers with H, L, O visas or other nonimmigrant categories
- Tourists or people with B-1/B-2 visas
The measure does not affect those who already have an approved adjustment of status or those who apply under categories that the law expressly allows to be processed within the country. For everyone else, noncompliance may result in the denial of the application and greater difficulty in regularizing their immigration status in the future.