December 8, 2025: Trump Administration announced Immigration Process Paused for Travel Ban Countries, including a halt on asylum decisions for all nationalities, an indefinite pause on decisions for all immigration processes for nationals of the 19 countries named in the June 4 travel ban (“travel ban countries”), the re-examination of hundreds of thousands of individuals in legal status, and the suspension of all visas for people traveling on Afghan passports.
These sweeping restrictions will not make our nation safer. Instead, they will impose time-consuming and wholly unnecessary extra work on DHS officials to repeat already completed processes. This will create backlogs and shift attention and resources away from USCIS’s statutory mission to fairly and efficiently adjudicate cases and identify actual security and safety threats. These Immigration Process Paused for Travel Ban Countries waste taxpayers’ money, and harm people whose lives—along with their families and the businesses and communities that depend on them—are put in limbo.
What are the new restrictions?
- A halt on final asylum decisions for all nationalities.
- An indefinite pause on all immigration processing for people from the travel ban countries, including naturalization and adjustment of status; and a mandatory re-review of all benefits issued to the travel ban countries since January 20, 2021.
- A harsher standard allowing officers to treat the fact that an individual is a national of one of the travel ban countries as a “significant negative [factor]” in discretionary adjudications. This includes adjustment of status, extension of nonimmigrant stay, and many work permit categories.
- Reduced the maximum validity period of employment authorization documents (EADs) from 5 years to 18 months for certain individuals, including asylees, refugees, and those with pending adjustment applications.
The Administration justifies the indefinite pause in adjudications and reexamination of individuals by relying on the rationale provided in the June 4, 2025 Presidential Proclamation (“travel ban”). The administration justified the travel ban under INA section 212(f), which allows the president to “suspend the entry” of certain people if their entry would be “detrimental” to U.S. interests.
Impact of Immigration Process Paused for Travel Ban Countries:
Numerous naturalization and green card interviews and oath ceremonies were cancelled in several cities. These ceremonies were for people from Venezuela, Guinea, Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Haiti and Sierra Leone, Yemen, Sudan.
Spouses of U.S. Citizens were unable to receive green cards, throwing U.S. citizen families into uncertainty.
USCIS officers have told green card applicants, after conducting an interview and doing a full review of the case, that they would have granted the adjustment of status but are forbidden to do so under the new restrictions.
Someone who entered the United States as a child, has lived here her whole adult life, and is eligible for naturalization nonetheless had her ceremony cancelled.
The halt to processing of religious worker visas whose faith organizations paid for premium processing.
For more information on Immigration Process Paused for Travel Ban Countries,
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