Updated USCIS Memorandum: Expanded Processing Holds and Re-Review of Immigration Benefits

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued an updated policy memorandum on January 1, 2026, expanding on guidance first released on December 2, 2025. Effective immediately, USCIS has directed personnel to implement the following actions:

What Does This Mean?

• This memo immediately places an adjudicative hold on all pending and any future USCIS benefit applications filed by or on behalf of individuals connected to additional “high-risk countries” newly designated under Presidential Proclamation (PP) 10998. Although the December 2^nd memo specified certain forms (without excluding other immigration benefits), this new memo makes clear that the pause applies to the adjudication of all benefit applications. This would mean common application types such as Form I-129, Form I-140, Form I-539, and Form I-765 that are filed by or on behalf of our students and scholars for temporary work authorizations (such as OPT or STEM OPT, or J-2 EAD), for acquiring H-1B status, changing status to a different non-immigrant status, or employment-based or self-petition green card applications will all be affected.
• The hold applies regardless of date of entry and allows cases to be processed only up to—but not including—final adjudication.
• The pause, re-review, and re-interview also affect individuals who were born in any of the listed “high-risk countries” (see full list below), regardless of whether these individuals hold a different nationality now.
• Individuals whose country of citizenship, country of birth, or citizenship-by-investment is listed in PP 10998 are affected. Impacted individuals are those born in, nationals of, or carrying travel documents from:
  • Afghanistan
  • Angola
  • Antigua and Barbuda
  • Benin
  • Burkina Faso
  • Burma (Myanmar)
  • Burundi
  • Chad
  • Congo-Brazzaville (The Republic of the Congo)
  • Côte d'Ivoire
  • Cuba
  • Dominica
  • Equatorial Guinea
  • Eritrea
  • Gabon
  • The Gambia
  • Haiti
  • Iran
  • Laos
  • Libya
  • Malawi
  • Mali
  • Mauritania
  • Niger
  • Nigeria
  • Palestinian Authority
  • Senegal
  • Sierra Leone
  • Somalia
  • South Sudan
  • Sudan
  • Syria
  • Tanzania
  • Togo
  • Tonga
  • Venezuela
  • Yemen
  • Zambia
  • Zimbabwe
• Within 90 days of this memo (by April 1^st), USCIS will prioritize a list for review, interview, and re-interview.
• USCIS explicitly acknowledges that this will cause processing delays but states they are necessary to protect national security.
• The hold remains in place until affirmatively lifted or modified by USCIS leadership.

What to Expect?

• Affected individuals should expect longer processing times, potential evidence requests, and interviews.
• All benefit applications filed by or on behalf of affected individuals will proceed only until the final decision stage, after which they will be paused. Even cases that are otherwise approvable may not be adjudicated for months.
• Pending applications may delay, among other things, employment authorizations (or cause gaps in employment), extensions, changes of status, and the ability to secure advance parole.
• Benefits approved on or after January 20, 2021, may be reopened for scrutiny. As a result, USCIS may request additional documentation, (re)collection of biometrics, and interviews or re-interviews.
• Exceptions (e.g., national interest cases) exist but are rare and might require headquarters-level approval. Most cases should plan as if no exception will apply.
• There is no timeline for when adjudicative holds will be lifted.

If you are a student or scholar who was born in or is a citizen of one of the 39 countries listed above and have questions about your pending or upcoming potential benefit applications, please get in touch with your designated OISS adviser for further guidance.