Washington, DC: The Trump administration has ordered most foreigners seeking permanent residency (Green Cards) to leave the country and apply from abroad, in a move critics are calling legally questionable and economically damaging.
Prominent voices across the US, from AI researchers to startup founders, have pressed the alarm button after this move.
Tech executives, immigration lawyers, lawmakers and policy experts, have warned that the new rule could separate families, hollow out the country’s scientific and academic workforce, and expose hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants to years trapped in backlogged overseas appointment systems.
Foreigners seeking permanent residency in the US will now be required to leave the country and apply at a US consulate in their home nation, rather than adjusting their status from within the United States, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on Friday.
“From now on, an alien who is in the US temporarily and wants a green card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances,” Zach Kahler, a spokesman for US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said.
The new rule applies broadly to any foreigner who entered the US on a temporary non-immigrant visa, including students, employees on H-1B or L visas and visitors, as reported by Mint.
One million green cards are issued by the US per year, though roughly half of those cover foreign relatives sponsored by American citizens, applications that are generally already processed outside the country.
The change would allow “our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivising loopholes,” the agency said.
“After years of ignoring the intent of Congress in the adjustment of status application, USCIS is merely restating and reasserting that intent. While we work to operationalize this, people who present applications that provide an economic benefit or otherwise are in the national interest will likely be able to continue on their current path while others may be asked to apply abroad depending on individualized circumstances,” Kahler added.
Several prominent figures quested what the policy would mean for the country’s position in the global race for scientific and technological talent.
Reid Hoffman, co-founder and former executive chairman of LinkedIn, raised the implications for the country’s artificial intelligence sector directly.
“Does this mean AI researchers, employees, and students will now have to leave the country and wait through a backlog process to continue their work? Harmful move for tech, business, and America broadly,” Hoffman said.
“The new White House policy requiring green card applicants to apply from outside the US is a capricious attack on legal immigration. It will hurt families, leave us with fewer doctors, teachers and scientists, and hurt American competitiveness in AI,” AI entrepreneur and Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng said.
He supported efforts to address illegal immigration but drew a sharp distinction when it came to skilled workers seeking to build lives in the country, Blake Scholl, founder and chief executive of Boom Supersonic, said.
“But I don’t understand why we make it harder for motivated, ambitious, hardworking people to come to the land of opportunity,” Scholl wrote on X.
Nick Davidov, founder of Davidovs Venture Collective, went further, questioning how the rule would affect highly skilled workers and entrepreneurs already embedded in the US economy.
“So everyone on a 01 or H1B visa would have to stop working legally in the US, go back to their country and wait for years of backlog?” Davidov wrote on X. “This includes top scientists in our universities, founders of billion dollar companies.”
