USCIS Will Review Approvals and Immediately Pause Green Card Applications for Refugees Admitted to the United States from 01/21/2021 to 02/20/2025

On November 25, 2025, USCIS issued an internal memorandum directing the agency to review and potentially re-interview all refugees admitted to the United States from January 21, 2025 to February 20, 2025. The memorandum also ordered USCIS to pause all green card application adjudications for refugees admitted during this time period.  

Per the American Immigration Lawyers, Association: “This is a significant and unprecedented large-scale effort to review the cases of people whom the U.S. government has already resettled in the United States after an extensive and thorough adjudication and review process involving refugee experts with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration, the State Department, and Department of Homeland Security officials, among others. The memo relies upon Executive Order 14163, Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) which suspended the USRAP under Immigration and Nationality Act §§ 212(f) and 215(a), 8 U.S.C. 1182(f) and 1185(a). The memo cites the desire to “only admit refugees who can fully and appropriately assimilate into the United States.” 

See the alert from the American Immigration Lawyers Association here.