Immigration: Most Green Card Applicants Will Now Have To Go Home To Apply

Immigrants seeking green cards will now have to return to their home countries to apply, according to a new policy from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

The move is intended to return to “the original intent of the law.”

“We’re returning to the original intent of the law to ensure aliens navigate our nation’s immigration system properly,” USCIS spokesman Zach Kahler said in a statement on Friday.

“This policy allows our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivizing loopholes. 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.”

Kahler went on to explain that foreign nationals have been using temporary visas, which are intended for work, education and travel, as the “first step” towards obtaining a green card.

The new policy will close that loophole.

Although the “adjustment” of a temporary visa into a green card has been allowed since 1952, the process was intended to be “extraordinary” and an “administrative grace,” a recent memo from USCIS says.

“With limited exceptions, the statutory scheme suggests that Congress expects aliens paroled into the United States or admitted into the United States as nonimmigrants to depart rather than pursue adjustment of status,” the memo says.

Immigration advocacy groups reacted with fury to the change.

The American Immigration Lawyer’s Association called the new policy “legally questionable and needlessly chaotic.”

“Congress created adjustment of status precisely to allow eligible individuals to become permanent residents without uprooting their families, jobs, and communities,” the group said.

“Today’s announcement follows a familiar pattern of travel bans, denaturalization efforts, and growing backlogs designed to gum up the system and choke off legal immigration.”