Visa Holders Must Go Home to Get Their Green Cards

For those non-citizens who have visas but would like to make their stays permanent, obtaining a green card just got a bit more difficult. In line with other measures to crack down on illegal immigration and migrants who take advantage of our laws and decide to stay beyond their approved visits, Donald Trump’s administration has decided to take it a step further and require most visa holders to return to their birth country to apply for green cards.

“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,” US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) 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.”

Green Cards Weren’t Meant to Fast-Track Citizenship

This new move is drawing both praise and criticism. Those in favor explain that this is a return to the original intent of Congress.

“Our system is designed for them to leave when their visit is over,” Kahler said. “Their visit should not function as the first step in the Green Card process.” Furthermore:

“We’re returning to the original intent of the law to ensure aliens navigate our nation’s immigration system properly. 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.”

In a typical year, about one million people apply for green cards, and according to former USCIS official Doug Rand, “half of those apply from within the U.S. to change their status while they are living here.” He further complained in a statement: “The purpose of this policy is exclusion. 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.”

Shev Dalal-Dheini, the senior government director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told ABC News that Congress has allowed non-immigrants to adjust their status in the United States since the 1950s, so that they can gradually expand their status into an eligible class.

Too many people have overstayed their visas, though, and remained in the country illegally, which is one reason for this new directive.  Kahler said the process would “make our system fairer and more efficient,” claiming, “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.”

Not everyone will be required to leave the United States to obtain green cards. As Business Insider reported, those who provide an economic value may be exempt. “While we work to operationalize this, people who present applications that provide an economic benefit or otherwise are in the national interest will likely be able to continue on their current path while others may be asked to apply abroad depending on individualized circumstances,” Kahler explained.

As with much of the Trump administration’s proposed policies on illegal immigration, this directive is likely to receive a lot of legal pushback, especially since the process of coming to America on visas and using them as a stepping stone toward getting green cards has been considered the norm for more than half a century.