On May 21, 2026, USCIS issued a new policy memo, and if you have a green card application pending — or you’re getting ready to file one — you need to understand what just happened. The rules didn’t change. The law didn’t change. But the way your application will be judged has changed in a way that could cost you years of waiting.

Eligibility is no longer enough. Worthiness is the new standard.

Here is the simple version. For decades, the deal was this: if you followed the rules, kept your status, got your I-140 approved, and waited your turn, your green card through adjustment of status was essentially a sure thing once your priority date became current. The officer reviewing your file mostly asked, “Does this person qualify?” If yes, approved.

That deal is now in question. The new memo reminds officers that approving a green card from inside the United States is a favor, not a right. The official word is “discretion” — meaning the officer can say no even when you qualify. The memo doesn’t just remind them they have this power. It actively encourages them to use it.

The most worrying part is how the memo views people on work visas. If you came to the U.S. on an H-1B, L-1, or O-1, the government’s expectation — according to this memo — is that you will eventually go home. Not stay. The memo says that staying in the U.S. to get a green card, instead of going back to your home country and applying at a U.S. consulate there, is something officers should view as a negative. Yes, the memo admits that H-1Bs and L-1s are allowed to have “dual intent.” But it then says that allowance alone is not enough to get you approved.

Dual intent gets you in the door. It does not get you the green card.

Here is what this means for real people. If your I-485 has been sitting at USCIS for months or years, this memo applies to you starting now. There is no protection for cases already filed. A file that looked safe in April may need a much stronger package today — proof of your community ties, your tax history, your kids’ schools, letters from your employer, evidence of charity work, anything that shows you are the kind of person America benefits from keeping.

The memo also tells officers to look backward — at how you originally entered the country, what you told the consular officer when you got your visa, whether you ever had a gap in status, whether you ever worked without authorization even briefly, whether you changed from a tourist visa to a work visa in a way that looks suspicious. Things you thought were settled years ago can be reopened in the officer’s mind.

For people who haven’t filed yet, the choice is harder than it used to be. Going back to your home country and getting your immigrant visa at the U.S. consulate — once seen as the slow, risky path — is now the path the government openly prefers. Filing your green card from inside the U.S. is now being treated as asking for a special favor. For some people, especially those with anything imperfect in their history, the safer move may now be to leave and process abroad. That is a serious conversation to have with a lawyer before filing anything.

What has not changed: you can still file. You can still qualify. You can still win. If an officer denies you on discretion, they must give written reasons, and that decision can be challenged.

But the feeling inside USCIS has shifted. The rules didn’t change. The mood did.

And in the law of discretion, mood is everything.

If you have a green card application pending, or you are about to file one, this is the time to sit down with your lawyer and strengthen your case before USCIS forces the question.

By: Rahul Reddy

Rahul Reddy is the founding partner of Reddy Neumann Brown PC. He founded our firm in 1997 and has over 28 years of experience practicing employment-based immigration. Rahul‘s vast knowledge of the complex immigration system makes him an invaluable resource and an expert in the field. His personal experience with the immigration system has made him empathetic to each of his clients’ cases and empowered him to help others achieve the American Dream.

Rahul‘s dedication to serving the immigrant community is evident, from his daily free conference calls to his weekly immigration Q&As on Facebook and YouTube Live. He is an active member of the immigrant community and one of the founders of ITServe Alliance. He has been a member of American Immigration Lawyers Association since 1995.