On Friday (May 22), the US moved to significantly restrict who can obtain permanent residency in the country, rattling the lakhs of Indians on temporary visas who are awaiting a Green Card.The US Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), announced that those applying for Green Cards must return to their home countries to do so — a sweeping reversal of a practice in place for over half a century.People can apply for Green Cards in two ways — going to a US consulate abroad, or applying for one while already in the US, which is called an “adjustment of status”.The new USCIS policy memo targets the second, more popular route, used for decades by Indian workers on H-1B visas, students transitioning from F-1 to work visas, and spouses on H4 dependent visas.The new policy is especially concerning for Indians because they dominate the decades-long backlog in employment-based Green Card categories such as EB-2 and EB-3. For many Indian professionals, the wait stretches beyond 15 or even 20 years.The Indian Express spoke to immigration attorneys about what the development could mean for Indians already living in the US.What exactly has changed for Indians waiting for Green Cards?Story continues below this adThe USCIS green card policy was not the only setback for Indians in the US. The US State Department announced on the same day that green cards for Indians under the Employment-Based Second Preference (EB-2) category had been exhausted for the financial year ending September 2026.But immigration lawyers say the deeper concern is the USCIS memorandum that makes “adjustment of status” — the process through which immigrants already inside the US apply for permanent residency — significantly more discretionary.Until now, Indian professionals who became eligible for a Green Card could generally file Form I-485 and continue living and working in the US while the application was processed.But the memo now instructs officers to treat “adjustment of status” as “an extraordinary act of administrative grace”. It sees the very act of remaining in the US and applying from within the country — rather than leaving for consular processing abroad — as a potentially adverse factor.Story continues below this adAlso Read | Why US is cracking down on a post-study work programme that Indians depend on for H-1B visas“Applicants must now demonstrate what the memo calls ‘unusual or even outstanding equities’,” Rajiv Khanna, an immigration attorney based in Washington DC, told The Indian Express. “A clean record and full eligibility are no longer sufficient on their own. You must affirmatively show why you deserve this ‘grace’.”This is especially concerning because ‘adjustment of status’ is the more popular route to permanent residence in the US. According to a Forbes report, in FY2024, 7,82,770 of 1,356,760 people (58%) gained permanent residence through this route.Why is this particularly alarming for Indians?Because Indians are uniquely trapped in America’s employment-based immigration backlog.Story continues below this adIndian nationals overwhelmingly dominate the EB-2 and EB-3 employment backlog categories and often spend decades waiting for permanent residency. “The wait for many of them exceeds twenty years,” said Khanna.During those years, many would have built entire lives in America — buying homes, raising children, paying taxes and building careers — with the expectation that if they followed the rules, a Green Card would follow.Also Read | Why fewer Indian students are getting into colleges in US, UK and Canada this yearNow, lawyers say, the very fact that they stayed in the US for years while waiting could become something immigration officers scrutinise negatively.Story continues below this ad“This memo tells the adjudicating officer to consider whether their long presence in the US and their decision to seek adjustment rather than consular processing are themselves adverse factors,” Khanna said. “That is a structural risk, built into the memo’s language.”What happens if Indians are pushed to return home to apply for Green Cards?Lawyers say this is where the real danger begins.According to Asel Williams, founding immigration attorney at Williams Law, a firm based in New York, that shift could create “enormous” appointment backlogs.“USCIS is currently adjudicating millions of ‘adjustment of status’ applications for foreign nationals physically present in the US. Redirecting even a fraction of those, potentially hundreds of thousands of Indian cases, to consular posts would overwhelm a State Department that simply does not have the resources to absorb that volume,” Williams said.Story continues below this adAlso Read | H-1B anxiety grips Indian tech workersKhanna said: “Consular officers in India have, over the past several years, placed a significant number of employment-based immigrant visa applicants into administrative processing that can last months or, in some cases, years. There is no statutory deadline. There is no transparency about what triggers it or when it will end.”These long delays are likely by design — in line with the Donald Trump administration’s larger push to restrict legal immigration.Khanna added that an applicant who leaves the US for a visa interview could suddenly find themselves stranded in India indefinitely — “without their job, without their children’s school routine, sometimes without the ability to continue their employment at all.”Story continues below this adWilliams also warned that delays in consular processing could cause employers to pull back. “Those who have been waiting for their priority dates to become current since 2012 or 2013 would be hit hardest,” she said. “Delays in consular processing could lead to US employers withdrawing job offers, the same employers who petitioned for their Green Cards in the first place.”The impact could be especially severe for H-4 spouses. “If an I-485 is denied on discretionary grounds and the family is pushed to consular processing, H-4 Employment Authorization Document authorization ends,” Khanna said.This means that a spouse who has been working for years, sometimes supporting the household while the principal applicant navigates the backlog, loses work authorization.What advice are immigration lawyers giving Indians right now?“My current recommendation is to hold off on filing an adjustment of status application and to wait until there is more clarity on how USCIS will actually implement this policy,” Williams said.Story continues below this ad“Indian clients cannot afford even a single immigration violation,” she added. She strongly warned Indians who already filed adjustment of status applications not to travel casually without legal consultation.“If you have already filed an adjustment of status application and have not maintained lawful non-immigrant status throughout the pendency of your case, consult with an immigration attorney before leaving the US. Traveling to India could trigger a visa ban and result in the abandonment of your adjustment of status application,” she said.Khanna, however, says eligible Indians should still file if their priority dates are current. “The memo does not prohibit approvals,” he said. “It raises the standard.”But he emphasised that applicants now need to proactively tell their story. “Your application may now need to affirmatively tell your story, your length of residence, your tax compliance, your community ties, your employer’s reliance on your work, your family circumstances, and your clean record,” Khanna said.