DHS Backs Off Its Demand for Green-Card Applicants To Leave US

Washington: The Department of Homeland Security said that highly qualified and skilled green-card applicants will see no noticeable impact from a controversial policy announced last week that most people seeking permanent legal residency would have to apply from outside the US.

The clarification, which appeared aimed at reassuring employers and immigrants that the process won’t become restrictive, came in a statement on Saturday, which said the guidance issued last week by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services merely reiterated longstanding law and policy.

At the time, a USCIS spokesperson said immigrants temporarily in the US who wanted green cards “must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances.” This would have changed the decades-long practice of allowing immigrants sponsored by relatives or employers to remain in the US while waiting for green cards.

The latest DHS statement suggested that the requirement to apply from outside the US would not affect those who can serve US national interests or provide economic benefits, and that the policy won’t prevent any qualified person from obtaining a green card.

Immigration lawyers said they received many worried phone calls after the initial USCIS statement from clients worried that the Trump administration was trying to restrict legal immigration.

The new rule is “another way to try to deport people I believe are not deportable,” Elizabeth Goss, an immigration lawyer in Boston, said of the earlier policy. “It’s another way to force people out.”

At the same time, DHS said that some applicants will need to begin the process in a US embassy or consulate outside the US. It won’t impact any current permanent legal residents, DHS added. The statement was reported earlier by the New York Times and CBS News.