- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services resumes processing benefits for 39 nationalities following a federal court order.
- The ruling targets three policies that froze thousands of applications based on the applicant’s country of birth.
- Affected categories include green cards, work permits, and naturalization for nationals of Cuba, Venezuela, and others.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Tuesday that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will resume processing immigration benefits for Cubans, Venezuelans and nationals of 37 other countries. The restart follows a federal court order that overturned policies freezing applications from those groups.
The order covers cases that had remained stalled for more than six months. Some applicants may now see movement on work permits, green-card applications, naturalization cases and asylum filings.
The agency is complying while challenging the ruling. It filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
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In a July 13 update, the agency said it was following the court’s terms after a series of orders in June. On July 15, the court rejected the government’s request to pause the ruling during the appeal.
“USCIS strongly disagrees with the Court's order but will follow its terms pending possible further judicial review. the vacatur applies to PM 602-0192, PM 602-0194, and PA 2025-26, which should be treated as if they are not in effect.”
The statement appeared in a compliance notice dated June 12, 2026, and updated July 13, 2026. The court’s order applies to 39 countries designated as “high-risk,” with Cuba and Venezuela representing a large share of the affected applicants.
Five immigration case categories can move again
The ruling requires adjudication to resume across several application and petition types:
- Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, for green cards.
- Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, for work permits.
- Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, for U.S. citizenship.
- Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal.
- Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative.
The categories reach both benefits applications and family petitions. Applicants still must satisfy the legal requirements for the benefit they seek.
Haiti, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Nigeria are among the other countries covered by the order. The total list contains 39 countries.
Judge vacated three policies behind the holds
Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. issued the ruling in Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island, et al. v. USCIS, Case No. 26-cv-00132-JJM-PAS.
The decision vacated three policy memoranda: PM 602-0192, PM 602-0194 and PA 2025-26. Those directives instructed officers to place indefinite holds on covered applications and treat nationality as a “significant negative factor” in discretionary decisions.
The policies had halted decisions for people already inside the United States. The court found the freeze “arbitrary and capricious” and said it violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
The judge also wrote that the agency had “placed the lives of countless individuals on hold—solely by virtue of their countries of birth.”
The freeze began after two presidential proclamations
The Trump administration began moving hundreds of thousands of applications into an “adjudication hold” in December 2025 and early 2026. The action relied on Presidential Proclamations 10949 and 10998.
That freeze effectively stopped legal immigration processing for nationals of the 39 listed countries who were already in the United States. Cubans and Venezuelans were among those whose cases entered limbo.
The halted cases included employment authorization requests, permanent-residence applications and naturalization filings. Some naturalization ceremonies had been cancelled or postponed.
Applicants may now receive delayed work permits. Others may receive dates for ceremonies or renewed action on pending cases.
Appeal leaves the processing path unsettled
The July 15 denial means the restart must continue while the government pursues its appeal. The First Circuit will consider the challenge to the lower court’s ruling.
The department’s compliance position does not change the eligibility standards for individual cases. A resumed case can still be denied if the applicant fails to meet those standards.
Thousands of Cubans and Venezuelans whose applications were stuck for more than six months can therefore see adjudication resume, but the outcome remains case-specific. The agency’s newsroom provides its public updates on the process.
The court case remains the immediate legal framework for the restart. Its order treats the three memoranda as though they are not in effect while further judicial review proceeds.
