Overview
- USCIS confirmed a pause in adjudicating green cards, naturalizations and other benefits for nationals from a 19-country travel-ban list, including Iran, Sudan, Eritrea, Haiti and Somalia.
- Processing of certain asylum claims is suspended as a temporary pause, and people can still file even as interviews and decisions are being delayed or reprogrammed.
- USCIS reinstated unannounced home and workplace visits to evaluate naturalization applicants’ good moral character, with officers permitted to question relatives, neighbors and employers.
- Immigration attorneys and applicants report canceled interviews and citizenship ceremonies, with many learning of the suspension only upon arriving at local offices.
- Reports indicate the changes could reach more than 1.5 million pending asylum cases and over 50,000 prior asylum grants, while Cuban Adjustment cases and matters already in immigration court were described as unaffected.