On May 22, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a policy memorandum stating that the vast majority of temporary visa holders in the United States—including international students (F-1 visa holders), H-1B work visa holders, and spouses of U.S. citizens—must leave the country and apply for permanent residency (green cards) through consular processing at overseas embassies or consulates, rather than the previously common method of Adjustment of Status while remaining in the U.S. USCIS clarified that Adjustment of Status applications will henceforth only be approved on a case-by-case basis under “exceptional circumstances,” serving as an “extraordinary remedy” rather than a standard option. The agency also claimed this move aligns with the spirit of immigration law and will free up resources to prioritize applications from crime victims and naturalization requests. This policy took effect immediately.
The impact on the tech industry is particularly severe. Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, posted on X that the new rule constitutes a “harm” to the tech sector, businesses, and even “the entire United States,” while questioning whether AI researchers would now be forced to leave the country and wait abroad for green cards. The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) warned that the policy will further worsen existing backlogs at consulates—Indian H-1B visa holders already face decades-long waits for green cards due to per-country quotas; meanwhile, since the U.S. currently has no embassy in Russia, Russian applicants have nowhere to apply at all. Those who overstay their visas will additionally face a re-entry ban lasting between three and ten years upon leaving the country. Immigration law experts anticipate widespread litigation as a result, and multiple tech firms have begun assessing how this policy will affect their employees.