The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published an official memo yesterday that significantly restricts the adjustment of status within the United States, limiting it solely to "extraordinary circumstances" and requiring most foreigners with temporary visas to return to their home countries to process permanent residency through consular means.
The immigration attorney Liudmila Marcelo, interviewed by Tania Costa for CiberCuba, described the impact of the measure with a straightforward phrase: "So many people, so many people. I have clients waiting for us to send them their package since last year, since January, for the adjustment of status."
The official announcement from USCIS states in its third paragraph that "non-immigrants such as students, temporary workers, and individuals on tourist visas come to the United States for a brief period and for a specific reason" and that the system "is designed for them to return to their country when their visit ends and that their visit does not serve as the first step towards obtaining a green card."
The directive directly affects those who entered with a tourist visa, ESTA authorization, or other temporary visas and subsequently found a way to adjust their status, such as marrying a U.S. citizen or having a petition from a child over 21 years old. Marcelo confirmed that Venezuelans with dual citizenship from Spain, Portugal, or Italy who entered with ESTA and have relatives in the U.S. are also included in that group.
One of the most pressing questions among the Cuban community was whether the measure affects the Cuban Adjustment Act. Marcelo was clear: "So far, Tania, the Cuban Adjustment Act, if you are Cuban, you enter with the ESTA and wait a year and a day, it does not affect you."
However, the lawyer warned about what she called a logical “trap.” Tania Costa articulated it during the interview: “The trap is that if I cannot stay in the United States to wait for a year and a day, I can never accumulate the year and a day.”
Marcelo responded, "Exactly, that's why I would exclude the Cuban adjustment law from the equation. I completely remove it from the equation because otherwise, they wouldn't let you meet the requirement that the law demands you fulfill."
The lawyer was clear about the consequences if the directive were to extend to Cubans: "If they are going to say that it also affects the people who are going to go through the Cuban Adjustment, then yes... tell me that the status adjustment based on the Cuban Adjustment Act is already over. Because the essence is not having to return to Cuba in order to adjust status here."
Marcelo also clarified that those who have already processed their case through the consular route at the U.S. Embassy in Havana and entered with an immigrant visa are not affected, as they completed the consular process before entering the country.
Regarding the legality of the measure, the lawyer was critical: "They are conducting an incorrect analysis of the law, which makes me think that, as always, there will be lawsuits, and those lawsuits will then be in our favor because they are interpreting the law incorrectly, as they have been doing since this administration began."
This new directive adds to a series of immigration restrictions that impact the residency processes for Cubans since the start of the Trump administration, including the halt in the processing of applications for beneficiaries of humanitarian parole and the suspension of immigrant visa processing for 75 countries, including Cuba, since January 21, 2026.
The memorandum does not specify an effective date, which creates additional uncertainty about whether the measure also affects applications that have already been submitted, as Marcelo warned during the interview.
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