Rosanna Berardi, immigration counsel at Barclay Damon and managing partner of Berardi Immigration Law, was featured in the ABC News article “Trump Administration Issues Directive Requiring Green Card Applicants to Apply Outside the US.” The article explains that the Trump administration issued a sweeping policy directive requiring most temporary visa holders and humanitarian parolees living in the United States to return to their home countries to apply for and complete their green card applications. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services memo instructs agency officers to treat US-based “adjustment of status” applications as an “extraordinary form of relief,” marking a significant shift in how green card applications may be handled for individuals already legally present in the country.
Rosanna told ABC News the directive could affect foreign nationals with pending US-filed green card applications, including legal workers and humanitarian parolees. She noted the policy could create serious challenges for vulnerable populations, stating, “Afghans who assisted US forces, Ukrainians fleeing war, face a specific trap: The memo treats their choice to apply for a green card inside the US as an adverse factor, because their admission was temporary.” She added, “Many have nowhere safe to return to.”
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