Even as US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s aircraft headed for Kolkata, his colleagues at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a new immigration policy, reiterating that “consistent with long-standing immigration law and immigration court decisions, aliens seeking adjustment of status must do so through consular processing via the Department of State outside of the country”.

According to the new policy, aliens may be admitted to the United States as non-immigrants “for such time and under such conditions” as DHS prescribes “to insure that at the expiration of such time or upon failure to maintain the status under which he was admitted…such alien will depart from the United States”.

The policy will significantly impact green card applications currently under adjudication because it will change how officers handle pending and incoming applications. The guidance tells Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) officers to utilize their adjudicative discretion to deny Form I-485 (Adjustment of Status) applications filed from within the United........

© National Herald