Rajiv's Comments in The Indian Express - How US’s tighter Green Card rules will affect Indians — and the options before them
Published by: The Indian Express - May 24, 2026
Quotes and Excerpts from Rajiv in the article:
“Applicants must now demonstrate what the memo calls ‘unusual or even outstanding equities’,” Rajiv Khanna, an immigration attorney based in Washington DC, told The Indian Express. “A clean record and full eligibility are no longer sufficient on their own. You must affirmatively show why you deserve this ‘grace’.”
This is especially concerning because ‘adjustment of status’ is the more popular route to permanent residence in the US. According to a Forbes report, in FY2024, 7,82,770 of 1,356,760 people (58%) gained permanent residence through this route.
Why is this particularly alarming for Indians?
Because Indians are uniquely trapped in America’s employment-based immigration backlog.
Indian nationals overwhelmingly dominate the EB-2 and EB-3 employment backlog categories and often spend decades waiting for permanent residency. “The wait for many of them exceeds twenty years,” said Khanna.
“This memo tells the adjudicating officer to consider whether their long presence in the US and their decision to seek adjustment rather than consular processing are themselves adverse factors,” Khanna said. “That is a structural risk, built into the memo’s language.”
Khanna said: “Consular officers in India have, over the past several years, placed a significant number of employment-based immigrant visa applicants into administrative processing that can last months or, in some cases, years. There is no statutory deadline. There is no transparency about what triggers it or when it will end.”
Khanna added that an applicant who leaves the US for a visa interview could suddenly find themselves stranded in India indefinitely — “without their job, without their children’s school routine, sometimes without the ability to continue their employment at all.”
The impact could be especially severe for H-4 spouses. “If an I-485 is denied on discretionary grounds and the family is pushed to consular processing, H-4 Employment Authorization Document authorization ends,” Khanna said.
Khanna, however, says eligible Indians should still file if their priority dates are current. “The memo does not prohibit approvals,” he said. “It raises the standard.”
But he emphasised that applicants now need to proactively tell their story. “Your application may now need to affirmatively tell your story, your length of residence, your tax compliance, your community ties, your employer’s reliance on your work, your family circumstances, and your clean record,” Khanna said.
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