On Dec. 2, 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a policy memorandum directing its officers to place an adjudicative hold on pending benefit requests for foreign nationals from 19 high-risk countries identified in the June 4, 2025 Presidential Proclamation, Restricting and Limiting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States. The purpose of the hold is to allow USCIS time to conduct a comprehensive review of the pending requests.
The memorandum also directed a re-review of approved benefit requests for foreign nationals from the identified countries who entered the United States after Jan. 20, 2021. The hold will remain in place until a subsequent policy memo is published lifting the hold. Since the issuance of this memo, USCIS has clarified that the list of benefit applications noted in the memo is not exhaustive and includes all benefit requests, including I-129 nonimmigrant petitions, I-140 immigrant petitions and other benefit applications.
USCIS says the review will include an assessment of benefit eligibility, including whether:
- The foreign national is listed in the Terrorist Screen Dataset (TSDS) as a Known or Suspected Terrorist under Tier 1 or Tier 2 classifications or is included in Tier 3 of the TSDS with significant derogatory information related to the foreign national.
- The foreign national is connected to prior, current or planned involvement in, or association with, an activity, individual or organization relating to espionage, sabotage or terrorist activities.
- The foreign national is linked to prior, current or planned involvement in, or association with, an activity, individual or organization that may pose a risk of serious harm or danger to the community, including criminal conduct identified as an aggravated felony, physical or mental disorder and behavior associated with the disorder that may pose, or has posed, a threat to the property, safety or welfare of the individual or others, crime of moral turpitude or controlled substance trafficker, or relating to espionage or sabotage.
- The foreign national is unable to establish their identity as outlined in Presidential Proclamation 10949 and Presidential Proclamation 10998.
On Dec. 16, 2025, a subsequent Presidential Proclamation was issued expanding the list of high-risk countries from 19 to 39. The new travel ban became effective Jan. 1, 2026. You can read more about the newly identified high-risk countries in our recent blog post, U.S. expands travel restrictions: What you need to know.
On Jan. 1, 2026, USCIS issued a new policy memorandum regarding the adjudicative hold, noting it has been extended to benefit requests filed by or on behalf of nationals of countries identified in the Dec. 16, 2025 travel ban and reiterated much of the same information from the Dec. 2, 2025 policy memo.
The Jan.1 policy memo does provide limited exceptions to the adjudicative hold, as noted below and more fully described in the memo:
- Form I-90 (Replacement of Green Card)
- Form N-565 (Replacement of Naturalization/Citizenship Document)
- Form N-600 (Certificate of Citizenship), except for Yemen and Somalia
- Form I-765 (Employment Authorization), filed under the (c)(8), (c)(11), and (c)(14) categories
- Benefit requests serving a U.S. national interest
- Benefit requests, and associated underlying benefits, for programs terminated or discontinued as a result of an Executive Order, Proclamation, Federal Register Notice, or Directive issued by the president, the secretary of Homeland Security, or the USCIS director
- Automatic termination decisions for ancillary or related benefit requests when a foreign national is granted Legal Permanent Resident status or becomes a naturalized citizen, and others
The policy memo notes that the national interest exceptions will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis requiring approval from the headquarters of the adjudicative directorate or program office. Requests for an exemption will be coordinated and tracked by the USCIS Office of Policy and Strategy (OP&S). OP&S has been directed to issue guidance within seven days of the issuance of the Jan. 1, 2026 policy memo.
The adjudicative hold policy presents a significant shift in the processing of immigration benefits for nationals of designated high-risk countries. Employers and applicants can expect significant delays for affected applications, heightened scrutiny and the possibility of interviews and re-interviews.
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