United States: USCIS Takes Restrictive Action on Pending and Approved Immigration Benefits for Many Foreign Nationals
December 2, 2025
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At a glance
- Effective immediately, USCIS is placing a processing hold on all pending immigration benefit requests for applicants who are citizens of or were born in one of the 19 countries listed in President Trump’s June 2025 travel ban, according to a memorandum issued by the agency today.
- The agency is also re-reviewing approved immigration benefits for foreign nationals from the travel ban countries if the foreign national entered the United States on or after January 20, 2021.
- USCIS has also paused the processing of all Form I-589 applications for asylum and withholding of removal, regardless of the applicant’s country of nationality or birth.
The issue
Effective immediately, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is suspending a wide range of pending immigration applications, re-reviewing certain approved applications, and suspending the processing of all applications for asylum and withholding of removal for any applicant, according to an agency policy memorandum released today. The memorandum directs USCIS personnel to:
- Pause processing of pending immigration benefit requests for foreign nationals who were born in or are a citizen of one of the 19 countries listed in President Trump’s June 2025 travel ban;
- Conduct a comprehensive re-review of approved immigration benefits for foreign nationals from one of the 19 travel ban countries who entered the United States on or after January 20, 2021; and
- Pause processing of all Forms I-589 applications for asylum and withholding of removal, regardless of the foreign national’s place of birth or nationality.
USCIS’s actions are primarily in response to the shootings of two National Guard members last week in Washington, DC. In the ensuing days, President Trump and several immigration agencies announced various restrictive immigration actions the government planned to undertake, including USCIS benefit processing holds and the re-review of already-approved immigration benefits, such as green cards.
A closer look
For all three of the above USCIS action categories, affected foreign nationals and their applications will undergo a re-review of eligibility and admissibility, including a potential interview or re-interview. According to USCIS, the focus of these re-reviews will be identifying potential security or public safety threats, as well as any security-related grounds of ineligibility.
The memorandum specifies that the list of affected applications includes: Form I-485 adjustment of status applications; Form I-90 applications to replace green cards; Form I-131 travel document and advance parole applications; Form I-751 petitions to remove conditions on permanent residence; and Form N-470 applications to preserve residence for naturalization. This list is not exhaustive and though the memorandum focuses on applications filed by affected foreign nationals, employer-sponsored petitions filed on behalf of foreign nations from on of the 19 countries could be affected.
USCIS acknowledges that the agency may receive requests to lift a processing hold on a specific application due to litigation or other extraordinary circumstances. The agency says that any such request must be approved by the USCIS Director or Deputy Director.
Scope of impact on foreign nationals from travel ban countries
Two of the above USCIS action categories are limited to foreign nationals from one of the 19 countries listed in President Trump’s June 2025 travel ban. Those countries are Afghanistan, Burma, Burundi, Chad, Republic of Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, and Yemen.
USCIS says that it will pause any pending immigration application if a travel ban country is listed as the foreign national’s country of birth or country of citizenship on the immigration benefit application. This means that the new policy for pending applications will affect a larger group of foreign nationals than the travel ban itself. The June 2025 travel ban only applies to nationals of the listed countries, not to those born in the country who are not or are no longer a national of a listed country.
Though not explicit, it is likely that USCIS will also apply the country of birth or country of citizenship standard to its re-review of approved benefits for foreign nationals from travel ban countries who entered on or after January 20, 2021. Further, though USCIS says that foreign nationals who entered on or after January 20, 2021 will be subject to the new approved benefit re-review, the memorandum also explicitly permits USCIS to extend review to foreign nationals who entered before that date.
What’s next
Foreign nationals who are affected by the new USCIS directives must be prepared for additional vetting, requests for evidence related to their eligibility for the relevant immigration benefit or for security-related matters, and requests to appear for an interview or re-interview.
In a related development, the Trump Administration is reportedly considering whether to broaden its existing travel bans to additional, as-yet-unspecified countries. If that occurs, more foreign nationals could be subject to processing suspensions and case reviews, as well as other restrictions.
Fragomen will provide further information as more details become available.
This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen.
