- Pause affects virtually all immigration processes for 19 “high-risk” countries.
- All pending immigration benefits for affected individuals are under processing hold.
- 4.3 million immigrants may experience prolonged delays under new policies.
The Trump administration has paused virtually all immigration applications — including green card processing and U.S. citizenship cases — for immigrants from 19 non-European countries the government labels “high-risk.”
The move grows out of a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services memo issued Dec. 2 that orders officers to “stop final adjudication on all cases” involving people from those 19 countries and to put a hold on citizenship oath ceremonies for those applicants, CBS News reported.
USCIS is tying the pause to national security and public safety concerns following a Washington, D.C., shooting that killed one National Guard member and critically injured another; an Afghan national, who was in the country legally, has been arrested as a suspect in that attack.
Here’s what is known so far.
What exactly did USCIS do?
Internal guidance instructs USCIS officers to halt final decisions — approvals, denials and oath ceremonies — on “all form types” for people from the 19 listed countries, according to CBS News.
A separate client alert from Fragomen, an immigration law firm, says the agency has placed a “processing hold on all pending immigration benefit requests” for applicants who are citizens of, or were born in, any of the 19 countries named in Trump’s June 2025 travel-ban proclamation.
Fragomen reports that the memo also orders officers to re-review some already approved immigration benefits, including green cards, for people from those countries who entered the United States on or after Jan. 20, 2021, and to pause all asylum and withholding-of-removal applications filed on Form I-589, regardless of nationality.
Every applicant from these nations must now undergo a “thorough re-review process, including a potential interview and, if necessary, a re-interview,” per the USCIS memo.
Which 19 countries are affected?
The 19 countries are the same ones listed in the June 2025 travel proclamation that restricted entry for certain travelers.
The countries are:
- Afghanistan
- Burma (Myanmar)
- Burundi
- Chad
- Republic of Congo
- Cuba
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Haiti
- Iran
- Laos
- Libya
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- Sudan
- Togo
- Turkmenistan
- Venezuela
- Yemen
Those nations were already facing partial or full travel restrictions under Trump’s June order, according to the president’s proclamation.
What types of cases are on hold?
CBS News reports that the policy halts completion of citizenship ceremonies for permanent residents from the affected countries who were days or weeks away from becoming U.S. citizens.
The Department of Homeland Security told CBS News that “the Trump administration is reviewing all immigration benefits granted by the Biden administration to aliens from countries of concern.”
Some of those benefits in the memo include:
- Adjustment of status to permanent residence (Form I-485)
- Applications to replace green cards (Form I-90)
- Travel documents and advance parole (Form I-131)
- Petitions to remove conditions on residence (Form I-751)
- Certain naturalization-related forms such as Form N-470
The list is not exhaustive, and Fragomen notes that employer-sponsored petitions for workers from the 19 countries may also be affected.
At the same time, USCIS has paused processing for all asylum applications, no matter where the applicant is from.
Why is this happening now?
The announcement comes a week after a shooting near the White House killed one National Guard member and wounded another; an Afghan man has been arrested as a suspect.
The man entered the U.S. as an evacuee in 2021 and was granted asylum in April 2025, after Trump returned to office.
The action also comes after members of Minnesota’s Somali community were charged with fraud related to state benefits.
The USCIS memo explicitly cites the attack against the National Guard members and says the processing pause is meant to ensure applicants are “vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible,” even if that means delays.
In a statement to CBS News, the Department of Homeland Security said the Trump administration is “making every effort to ensure individuals becoming citizens are the best of the best” and pledged to “take no chances when the future of our nation is at stake.”
How many people could feel the impact?
An analysis from Reddy Neumann Brown, an immigration law firm, estimates that about 4.3 million people currently living in the United States were born in or are nationals of the 19 affected countries — roughly 9% of the U.S. immigrant population.
According to that analysis, many of those immigrants are long-term green-card holders hoping to naturalize, family members with pending visa petitions, or students, workers and refugees whose status depends on USCIS decisions.
The firm says all of them could see “prolonged delays, additional vetting procedures, new interviews, or even referrals to enforcement agencies for a reevaluation of their cases” under the new policy.
How long could the pause last?
The USCIS memo states the hold will only be lifted when the agency’s director issues another memo, and that any request to lift the hold in an individual case — such as in litigation — must be personally approved by the director or deputy director.
Axios notes that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has recommended expanding the underlying travel bans to additional countries and that the administration is considering widening the list beyond the current 19.
Immigration law firms Reddy Neumann Brown and Fragomen both say they expect legal challenges that argue the broad, nationality-based freeze is unprecedented and may conflict with immigration and constitutional protections.
None of the alerts suggest that the memo automatically strips anyone of status they already have, but the law firms caution that moving from one status to another — for example, from green-card holder to citizen, or from student to permanent resident — may now take significantly longer for people connected to the 19 countries.