On Dec. 2, 2025, the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services announced and made for certain that all immigrant benefit applications from individuals will be paused. This includes things like the green card and any applications filed and asylum requests. The cause of this happening around the world right now is due to a fatal shooting in Washington, D.C. The suspect who caused the shooting was identified as a national of Afghanistan, one of the countries currently affected.  Authorities say they view this pause as a review to reassess the nationals from “high risk” so they can keep the public safe. Up to 12 countries are under this ban: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Due to this, people from all these nations that are seeking to immigrate will not have the benefits that they previously held.

This instructs the  USCIS to investigate the pause and re-review previous immigration benefits for individuals who entered the U.S. before or after Jan. 20, 2021. There are two policy changes covering overlapping groups: those admitted to the U.S. and those who are citizens and nationals.  

This pause will continue to remain till the USCIS director Joseph Edlow revokes it; no specific date has been mentioned.  This has drawn attention to the impact on immigration and debates with security and families, The policy causes family separation, as pending applications prevent individuals from seeing one another while green cards remain unavailable. Additionally,  hiring plans for employers in different countries could make gaps in authorization ultimately leading to job loss further distance from not being able to travel.