U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Friday that foreigners in the United States who want a green card will need to leave and apply in their home country, a major shift that puts the machinery of immigration control squarely on the backs of people already living, working, studying, and paying taxes inside the country. The agency said the change applies to foreigners who are in the U.S. temporarily and want to become lawful permanent residents, except in extraordinary circumstances, and that USCIS officers will decide whether applicants meet those circumstances.
Who Gets Ordered to Move
The new policy targets noncitizens in temporary status, including students, temporary workers and people on tourist visas, and tells them their path to residency now runs through departure. USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler said, “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. This policy allows our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivizing loopholes.”
Kahler also said that when noncitizens 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 language makes the hierarchy plain: the people at the bottom are expected to leave, wait, and prove themselves elsewhere, while the officers at the top decide who gets an exception.
The agency said following the law would allow the majority of these cases to be handled by the State Department at U.S. consular offices abroad and would free up limited USCIS resources to focus on other cases under its purview, including visas for victims of violent crime and human trafficking, naturalization applications and other priorities. The law, Kahler said, “was written this way for a reason,” and he added that despite being ignored for years, following it would make the system “fairer and more efficient.”
What the System Calls Fairness
The Trump administration said its position is that when noncitizens travel into the country on student visas, tourist visas or temporary work status, they are supposed to leave once that term expires and that temporary permission to be in the U.S. should not serve as the first step toward getting a green card. Officials said the policy reflects the original intentions of the law, though lawsuits and litigation are expected to follow.
The announcement said it was unclear whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement will begin deporting green card applicants. That uncertainty hangs over the people most exposed to the policy, who may now have to navigate a process controlled by USCIS officers and consular offices abroad while facing the possibility of removal.
Critics said many overstays have U.S. citizen spouses or children, pay taxes and fill labor shortages and would face long processing delays and humanitarian concerns if removed from the country. Those are the people the system treats as paperwork problems: families, workers and residents reduced to a file, a visa category, or a case number.
The People Caught in the Machine
The American Civil Liberties Union did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On X, Maye Musk reacted by recounting her own green card process as a Canadian immigrant. She wrote, “When I wanted to get my green card, I had to have numerous vaccinations, health tests and a lung x-ray. Because I was Canadian, I had to fly to Montreal to have a lung x-ray again to confirm that it’s the same person. However, when the x-ray had to be delivered to me at my friend’s home, the delivery truck was stuck on a bridge because of thick ice. I had to stay an extra day. Nothing was easy. It took another five years before I could get citizenship. Worth it.”
AP News said the move was part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to make legal immigration more difficult for foreigners already in the U.S. and for those hoping to come. The policy was announced on Friday, May 22, 2026, and Fox News published its report at 1:49 p.m. EDT that day. For the people caught in the system, the message is simple: leave, wait, and come back through the gate if the gatekeepers decide you qualify.