Effective December 2, 2025 USCIS announced pauses to adjudication for certain applications. They will also be re-reviewing other applications. Specifically:
- All asylum application (I-589) adjudications are on hold, regardless of the country of nationality of the applicant.
- All pending benefit request for individuals from 19 “high-risk” countries are on hold, regardless of when the applicant entered the United States.
- USCIS will be re-reviewing approved benefit requests for individuals from 19 “high-risk countries who entered the United States on or after January 20, 2021.
The list of “high-risk” countries comes from Presidential Proclamation 10949 which was issued on June 4, 2025. An individual is considered to be “from” one of these countries for purposes of these new policies if it is their place of birth or nationality. The 19 impacted countries include:
- Afghanistan;
- Burma;
- Chad;
- Republic of the Congo;
- Equatorial Guinea;
- Eritrea;
- Haiti;
- Iran;
- Libya;
- Somalia;
- Sudan;
- Yemen;
- Burundi;
- Cuba;
- Laos;
- Sierra Leone;
- Togo;
- Turkmenistan; and
- Venezuela.
Benefits that will be paused include:
- I-485 “green card” applications;
- I-90 renewal applications;
- N-470 applications to preserve residence for naturalization purposes;
- I-751 petitions to remove conditions on permanent residence; and
- I-131 application for travel documents/advance parole.
However, USCIS screening activities will not be put on hold (including credible fear, reasonable fear, safe third country, third country removal, and threshold screenings).
Within 90 days, USCIS will determine who they are prioritizing for review, interview, re-interview, and/or referral to ICE or law enforcement agencies. This will likely result in more initial interview as USCIS has stated that, “Interviews for this population shall not be waived under any circumstances.” Part of the re-review process may also involve re-interviewing previously approved applications. Specifically, USCIS has been instructed to consider if applicants are:
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- On the Terrorist Screening Dataset (“TSDS”) as a Known of Suspected Terrorist (“KST”);
- Involved with activities or organizations that pose security or terrorism concerns as defined in certain sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act;
- Involved in activities or organizations that “pose a serious risk of harm to the community” as defined in certain sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act; or
- Can’t establish their identity as required by USCIS regulation.
