US Citizenship and Immigration Services said it will allow “adjustment of status” only in “extraordinary circumstances,” a shift that lawyers and business leaders warn could force many skilled workers to leave the country while waiting for green cards abroad—u
On Friday, US Citizenship and Immigration Services made a change that could reach far beyond immigration law firms and into the day-to-day staffing of American businesses.
The agency announced it will grant “adjustment of status”—the process that lets some immigrants already in the US apply for a green card without leaving the country—“only in extraordinary circumstances.” For applicants. that possibility carries a heavy practical meaning: it could force many people to return to their home countries and wait abroad while their cases are processed.
A USCIS spokesperson said that exemptions may still be available for applicants who “provide an economic benefit or otherwise are in the national interest.” Even so. many people watching the policy change say the enforcement picture is unclear—how broadly the administration plans to apply these exemptions. and how many immigrants could ultimately be affected.
Supporters of the shift describe it as a return to the original intent of immigration law. Critics argue it could disrupt the lives of foreign workers, mixed-status families, and long-term visa holders who have relied on the adjustment process for decades.
The business community is now sorting through the same question—less a political debate than a practical one: what happens to work that companies and research institutions are counting on?
Blake Scholl, founder and CEO at Boom Supersonic, developing a supersonic airliner, said on X that he understands the impulse behind the crackdown. He wrote: “we don’t want people to come to the US to be criminals” and “mooch on welfare.”
But he drew a sharp line between that justification and the policy’s effect on people trying to build their careers. Scholl added: “But I don’t understand why we make it harder for motivated, ambitious, hardworking people to come to the land of opportunity.”
Nick Davidov. founder of Davidovs Venture Collective. which supports repeat AI founders at the seed level. called the move an extreme break from how work gets done in practice. He described the changes in the green card application rules as “the biggest bullshit move by DHS in its history” and the “worst imaginable way to disrupt important work for the country.”.
Davidov asked what the new rules would mean for people on key US visa categories. “So everyone on a O1 or H1B visa would have to stop working legally in the US, go back to their country and wait for years of backlog?” he wrote on X on Friday.
He then warned the change could hit high-impact roles. “This includes top scientists in our universities, founders of billion dollar companies.”
In additional tweets, Davidov argued that some immigrants cannot simply return home for safety reasons. He said “Iranians and Ukrainians can’t really return to their home countries for safety reasons. ” and he pointed to prominent founders he said have helped shape US technology. He cited immigrants such as Elon Musk. Jensen Huang. and Sergey Brin as examples of people he believes have created some of the country’s most valuable companies.
Andrew Ng, AI entrepreneur and cofounder of Coursera, took aim at the mechanics of the policy as well as its human costs. On X on Friday, he called asking green card applicants to apply outside the US only “a capricious attack on legal immigration.”
Ng argued that the policy would ripple into family life and into the workforce the US relies on. “It will hurt families, leave us with fewer doctors, teachers and scientists, and hurt American competitiveness in AI,” he wrote.
Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn and a prominent Trump critic in Silicon Valley, linked the policy shift directly to ongoing tech work. Hoffman wrote on X that the DHS’s new policies are a “harmful move for tech, business, and America broadly.”
He followed with a question that has also surfaced across policy circles: “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?”
Congresswoman Yvette Clarke. a Democrat from New York. framed the situation in harsher terms. calling it a “disgrace.” On X. she said the new green card policies “will rip talented. hardworking immigrants out from America and our economy. congest an already overburdened backlog. and further break an already broken immigration system.”.
Clarke added: “And that’s by design. This administration has made the pain of immigrants a priority, and that won’t change until there’s no one left to hurt.”
David J. Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute—a libertarian think tank—pushed for a different kind of response: leadership changes at USCIS. On X on Friday, he said the new policies show “total malice against the applicants.”
Bier connected the Friday shift to what he described as a broader trend. In a series of posts on X on Friday, he wrote that the policy is a radical expansion of DHS’s “quiet quitting” on legal immigration that has been going on for months.
In his view, the Friday memorandum signals escalation, not restraint. “Now USCIS’s new memorandum details a plan for mass denials,” Bier wrote. “USCIS has gone from the ‘quiet-quit’ to walking out on 1.2 million green card applicants.”
Bier also argued that requiring applicants to leave could make many ineligible later. “Forcing green card applicants to leave will render many green card applicants ineligible because. when they leave the United States. they will trigger the 3- or 10-year bars on receiving an immigrant visa based on accrual of unlawful presence. ” he added.
Even Yann LeCun, a pioneer in AI research and the former Chief AI Scientist at Meta, reacted with blunt confusion. He posted on X: “Why?” LeCun reposted an article detailing the DHS’s announcement.
LeCun was born in France and immigrated to the US in the late 1980s.
The policy change comes with a clear internal rationale—supporters say it reflects the original intent of immigration law—but the business-facing debate turns on execution. USCIS says exemptions may apply for applicants who “provide an economic benefit or otherwise are in the national interest. ” yet multiple commentators argue the uncertainty is itself damaging: if applicants must depart and wait abroad. the knock-on effects could land on universities. research teams. founders building major companies. and investors trying to back the next wave of AI talent.
As USCIS moves forward with “adjustment of status” limited to “extraordinary circumstances. ” the question is no longer whether immigration law can be tightened. It’s how quickly and how broadly the new limits will reshape the pipeline of skilled labor that parts of US tech and industry have come to depend on.
USCIS adjustment of status green card crackdown immigration policy H-1B O-1 visa tech workforce AI competitiveness backlog Cato Institute business leaders
so basically they’re making it harder to get a green card? great.
I don’t even understand the “extraordinary circumstances” part. Like who decides that? Sounds like businesses are gonna panic and then immigrants are just stuck, waiting longer forever.
So does this mean you gotta fly back every time, even if you already live here? My cousin said his paperwork was “already approved” so I’m confused how that works with this new thing. Also “economic benefit” sounds subjective, like they’ll pick favorites.
Tech companies always say they need “skilled workers” and then act shocked when immigration is tightened. Meanwhile investors freak out bc they don’t know what paperwork people will be allowed to do anymore. The article says enforcement picture is unclear but isn’t that just government speak for “we’ll decide later”?