Headlines:
New USCIS Coverage Limits Adjustment of Standing – The brand new memo alerts a significant coverage shift towards restrictive adjudication. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers stated that it views immigrant visa processing at a U.S. consulate overseas because the default path to a inexperienced card for most individuals, with adjustment purposes filed contained in the U.S. handled as a discretionary possibility.
DHS Broadcasts Ebola-Associated Flight Arrival Restrictions for DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan; CDC Implements Public Well being Measures; DOS Pauses Visa Providers – The Division of Homeland Safety introduced fast restrictions on flights arriving in the US carrying individuals who’ve not too long ago traveled from, or have been in any other case current inside, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan. Flights carrying such individuals should arrive solely at Washington-Dulles Worldwide Airport and should endure public well being measures.
Work Authorization Prolonged for Sure Salvadoran TPS Recipients – The validity of Employment Authorization Paperwork with class codes A12 or C19 that expired on March 9, 2025, for TPS El Salvador recipients has been routinely prolonged via July 22, 2026.
Particulars:
New USCIS Coverage Limits Adjustment of Standing
On Could 22, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers (USCIS) introduced a brand new coverage memorandum, issued Could 21, 2026, that addresses how officers ought to train discretion in adjustment of standing (AOS) adjudications. USCIS stated that it views immigrant visa processing at a U.S. consulate overseas because the default path to a inexperienced card for most individuals, with AOS purposes filed contained in the U.S. handled as a discretionary possibility.
What Has Modified
Traditionally, USCIS officers exercising discretion in adjustment instances adopted longstanding company and Board of Immigration Appeals precedent recognizing that favorable discretion ordinarily needs to be exercised the place candidates set up eligibility and don’t current important hostile components corresponding to fraud, felony conduct, or substantial immigration violations.
The brand new memorandum shifts this framework. It instructs officers to conduct a broader analysis of every applicant’s immigration historical past. The memo doesn’t point out any optimistic components, corresponding to compliance with immigration necessities, U.S. citizen relations, or gainful employment, and stresses that officers should take into account unfavourable components, together with any historical past of standing violations or conduct inconsistent with the aim of the applicant’s unique nonimmigrant entry. The memorandum additionally alerts that officers could take into account why an applicant selected adjustment of standing over consular processing as a part of the discretionary evaluation.
General, the brand new memo alerts a significant coverage shift towards restrictive discretionary adjudication. USCIS particularly emphasised that:
- Momentary visas are meant for limited-duration stays tied to a selected function;
- Nonimmigrant standing mustn’t function a “first step” towards everlasting residence;
- Consular processing overseas ought to turn into the default path for acquiring immigrant visas; and
- USCIS assets needs to be targeted as an alternative on different company priorities.
The memo’s title, and the accompanying press communications, characterize adjustment of standing as an “extraordinary measure” somewhat than the routine course of it has been for many candidates—though the memorandum itself doesn’t go that far.
Potential Affect
Doubtlessly affected teams embody:
- Employment-based adjustment candidates;
- H-1B, L-1, TN, O-1, and different short-term staff pursuing everlasting residence;
- Household-based adjustment candidates;
- Self-petitioners, together with EB-1 extraordinary potential and Nationwide Curiosity Waiver candidates;
- Dependent spouses and kids; and
- People counting on concurrent submitting methods.
The memorandum reiterates that pursuing adjustment of standing just isn’t inconsistent with sustaining lawful standing in acknowledged twin intent classifications corresponding to H-1B and L-1 classes. USCIS notes, nevertheless, that upkeep of lawful standing alone doesn’t essentially warrant a positive train of discretion in each case.
For employers, sensible implications could embody the necessity to reassess immigration methods for sponsored staff, anticipate potential delays or elevated Requests for Proof in pending adjustment instances, and consider whether or not consular processing could also be preferable for sure staff relying on their particular person circumstances.
The brand new coverage memorandum guarantees further steering on the appliance of the discretionary normal to particular classes of adjustment candidates. Questions concerning the scope and implementation of this coverage could finally be addressed via future company steering or litigation.
DHS Broadcasts Ebola-Associated Flight Arrival Restrictions for DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan; CDC Implements Public Well being Measures; DOS Pauses Visa Providers
On Could 21, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Safety, of the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS), introduced fast restrictions on flights arriving in the US carrying individuals who’ve not too long ago traveled from, or have been in any other case current inside, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda, or South Sudan. DHS stated the restrictions have been carried out in response to considerations about outbreaks of the “Bundibugyo” pressure of the Ebola virus in these nations. The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) additionally introduced associated public well being measures, and the Division of State (DOS) has paused visa providers in these nations. Under are highlights of those developments.
Flight Arrival Restrictions
Initially, affected flights have been required to reach at Washington-Dulles Worldwide Airport. CBP has since introduced modifications to the listing of designated airports. DHS considers an individual to have not too long ago traveled from the DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan if that individual departed from, or was in any other case current inside, the DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan inside 21 days of the date of the individual’s entry or tried entry into the US.
Crew and flights carrying solely cargo (no passengers or non-crew) are excluded from the arrival restrictions. Additionally excluded are U.S. residents, lawful everlasting residents, members of the armed forces, and a few others. DHS stated that the restrictions will proceed till cancelled or modified by the Secretary of Homeland Safety and spot of such cancellation or modification is revealed within the Federal Register.
CDC Measures
On Could 19, 2026, the CDC launched a associated assertion. The CDC stated it could “[c]oordinate with airways, worldwide companions, and port-of-entry officers to establish and handle vacationers who could have been uncovered to Ebola virus.”
On Could 21, 2026, the CDC outlined public well being entry screening measures it’s implementing at designated airports:
- Vacationers who have been in DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan within the 21 days earlier than arriving in the US might be escorted to an space of the airport put aside for screening.
- Vacationers will reply to a short questionnaire that asks about their journey historical past and signs, and collects data so the vacationers will be contacted if wanted.
- CDC workers will observe these vacationers for indicators of sickness and take vacationers’ temperatures utilizing non-contact thermometers (thermometers that don’t contact the pores and skin).
- Vacationers who would not have signs however have been in DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan previously 21 days might be given data on monitoring their well being and actions to take if signs later seem. These vacationers will proceed to their closing locations. Traveler contact data might be shared with state and native well being departments for added follow-up and assist.
- Vacationers who’ve a fever or different signs might be evaluated by a CDC public well being officer.
- If a suspect case is recognized, CDC will work with state and native well being departments to conduct routine contact investigations to inform passengers.
Visa Providers Pause
Efficient Could 18, 2026, the U.S. Embassies in Juba, South Sudan; Kinshasa, DRC; and Kampala, Uganda have briefly paused all visa providers/operations. The pause contains purposes for immigrant visas in addition to nonimmigrant visas for vacationers, enterprise vacationers, college students, change guests, and all different nonimmigrant classes.
DOS stated that affected visa candidates have been notified, and that the company will replace its web site when appointment scheduling resumes and can inform candidates whose appointments have been rescheduled. DOS stated that the pause doesn’t have an effect on any at present legitimate visas.
Work Authorization Prolonged for Sure Salvadoran TPS Recipients
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers not too long ago up to date its webpage on Momentary Protected Standing (TPS) for El Salvador to notice that the validity of Employment Authorization Paperwork with class codes A12 or C19 that expired on March 9, 2025, for TPS El Salvador recipients has been routinely prolonged via July 22, 2026.
Agency within the Information
Cyrus Mehta was quoted by Forbes in Immigration Service Could Considerably Prohibit Inexperienced Playing cards within the U.S. Forbes quoted Mr. Mehta’s touch upon X: “Whereas adjustment of standing is discretionary underneath INA 245, it has by no means been interpreted as a unprecedented type of aid and USCIS is inventing a brand new normal to deprive noncitizens from getting inexperienced playing cards within the U.S.” He stated that decoding “could” in INA 245(a) as “extraordinary” is a “large untrue leap” and that the Supreme Courtroom choice in Loper Shiny about deference to federal businesses “ought to enable a court docket to strike the USCIS memo as being opposite to the statute and likewise as a result of there was no discover and remark.”
Mr. Mehta was quoted by the Occasions of India in Large, Absurd: Immigration Specialists, Overseas-Born Founder React to New Inexperienced Card Rule. The Occasions quoted Mr. Mehta’s touch upon X: “Whereas adjustment of standing is discretionary underneath INA 245, it has by no means been interpreted as a unprecedented type of aid and USCIS is inventing a brand new normal to deprive noncitizens from getting inexperienced playing cards within the U.S.”
