What’s Happening
A federal court today invalidated four separate United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) policies that have been freezing immigration benefit applications for nationals of 39 countries subject to the Trump administration's Travel Ban. These freezes, in place since late 2025, have prevented USCIS from issuing final decisions on work permits, nonimmigrant work visas, green cards, and naturalization filings, leaving thousands of employees, workers, and families in prolonged legal uncertainty and facing potential lapses in immigration status and work authorization. The specific policies the decision struck down include the:
Global Asylum Hold Policy: suspended adjudication of all asylum and withholding-of-removal applications, regardless of country of origin.
Benefits Hold Policy: froze adjudication of green card, work permit, and other immigration benefit applications for nationals of Travel Ban countries.
Comprehensive Re-Review Policy: required re-examination of already-approved benefits for Travel Ban country nationals who entered the U.S. on or after January 20, 2021.
Country-Specific Factors Policy: directed USCIS officers to treat an applicant's national origin as a "significant negative factor" when adjudicating discretionary benefits.
All four policies were vacated by the court and deemed to be an arbitrary, capricious, and unlawful overreach of executive authority.
What This Means
for Employees
If your work permit expired during the freeze, or your green card or naturalization application has been sitting without a decision, today’s ruling means USCIS should now resume processing your case. In practical terms, this could mean renewed ability to work legally, restored ability to travel, and long-delayed steps toward permanent status or citizenship finally moving forward.
for Employers
If you have employees whose work authorization lapsed or could not be renewed because of the freeze, those renewal applications should now be adjudicated, though the timeline for final decisions remains unclear. This may allow affected employees to return to work or avoid upcoming lapses in work authorization that were otherwise unavoidable.
Important Considerations
The government may appeal this decision, which could temporarily reinstate the freeze while the appeal is considered. Until we have clarity on whether an appeal will be filed, affected employees and employers should not assume processing will resume immediately. In addition, previously expired work authorization is not automatically restored where the application is still pending. Rather, work authorization will only be restored following final adjudication and approval of the benefits request by USCIS.
Even if the government does not appeal, it remains unclear how long it will take USCIS to work through the pending cases subject to the freeze. Notably, the agency was permitted during the freeze to continue processing cases up to, but not including, a final decision, which may mean the backlog is less severe than if processing had been completely halted. However, the true extent of the backlog will only become clear as USCIS resumes normal processing of these cases.
Next Steps
If you or your employees have been affected by the processing freeze, now is the time to review the status of any pending applications and prepare to act quickly if processing resumes.
This alert is intended for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Please contact D&S directly for guidance specific to your circumstances.