Trump administration orders green card applicants to leave the US, apply from their home countries

In the United States on 22 May 2026, the Trump administration announced that green card applicants in the US must leave the country and apply from their home countries, according to DHS as cited by The Guardian. The Associated Press and the Financial Times described it as a change forcing foreigners in the US to apply for green cards abroad.

CNN wrote that the change upends the green card process and could compel hundreds of thousands of people to leave the US to apply.