A new policy memo from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has managed to terrify hundreds of thousands of visa holders, their families, and the lawyers who charge by the hour - proving once again that the only thing more unsettling than illegal immigration uncertainty is legal immigration uncertainty.
The memo, issued last week, requires many foreigners already living in the US to leave the country and apply for green cards through their home countries, rather than using the adjustment of status (AOS) process from within US borders. Because nothing says "welcome to America" like "please go home and wait."
Multiple Guardian readers, speaking anonymously out of a fear that feels entirely rational, described the memo as threatening to upend careers, homes, marriages, and carefully laid plans for stability. One 34-year-old Indian software engineer in Washington on an H-1B visa - who already dumped a significant chunk of his life savings into the EB-5 investor program (which requires investing hundreds of thousands of dollars to create at least 10 US jobs) to speed things up - now faces the prospect of losing his job, selling his home, and potentially not having enough money to restart, now that he has kids.
A USCIS spokesperson later clarified to Semafor that the agency is "merely restating and reasserting" its interpretation of congressional intent, adding that people whose applications provide economic benefit or serve national interest "will likely be able to continue on their current path." The rest? Well, they get to enjoy a crash course in consular processing.
The memo has also accelerated deeply personal timelines. A 30-year-old Portland, Oregon resident whose Mexican husband received a conditional green card in February now worries he can't even visit family in Mexico. Meanwhile, a 26-year-old architectural designer from Hong Kong on an H-1B visa just got engaged and was planning to marry, get an apartment, maybe start a business - but now wonders if he'll have to separate from his fiancée instead. And a graduate student in Seattle on an F-1 visa, studying political misinformation, now faces the choice between marrying her US-citizen partner prematurely or prioritizing her mental stability over the relationship.
Welcome to the new normal, where long-standing procedures change with a memo, and the "strong rule of law" that attracted so many immigrants suddenly feels more like a game of regulatory roulette.