Trump’s Adjustment of Status Memo – How Far Does it Actually Go?
The Trump administration released a new policy memorandum that tries to completely change the standard and practice for Adjustment of Status cases.
Adjustment of status (“AOS”) is the common process of applying for and receiving a green card in the U.S. rather than having to return to one’s home country (that process is called “immigrant visa processing” or “IVP” for short). The IVP process is much longer, costlier and inefficient. Also, due to our complex immigration systems, some individuals that are eligible for AOS are not eligible for IVP since the moment they leave the U.S., they are subject to onerous penalties (often a 10-year penalty before becoming eligible to return to the U.S.).
AOS eligibility is relatively straightforward for individuals with no grounds of inadmissibility (such as criminal convictions and serious immigration violations), though there are different requirements for different pathways and categories of immigration. Most relevant to this memo, if an individual meets the requirements, AOS cases have always been approved as long as there are no negative discretionary factors. If there are negative discretionary factors, they must be outweighed by positive factors.
The new policy memorandum attempts to unlawfully change this standard by instructing immigration officers to only grant AOS cases if the applicant shows “extraordinary circumstances” and explains why it is not possible to consular process.
This creation of a new standard out of thin air directly contradicts the actual law. This change affects a great number of our clients and we are closely monitoring how USCIS will try to implement this new policy. In the meantime, there will be many lawsuits challenging this new policy since it clearly violates the law. We hope this new policy will be stopped by the Courts and/or USCIS will back off on fully enforcing it (at a minimum, we hope USCIS will be generous with what circumstances can justify an AOS grant). We will be posting additional content and videos on this subject as it continues to develop.