Federal Court Orders USCIS to Resume Stalled Green Card and Work Permit Applications

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 30: Immigrants await their turn for green card and citizenship interviews at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Queens office on May 30, 2013 in the Long Island City neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. The branch office is located in an area heavily populated by immigrants and processes thousands of Green Card (Credit: Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Key Takeaways

• A federal judge in California has certified a nationwide class and ordered immigration officers to stop shelving green card, work permit and asylum cases tied to applicants from three dozen countries.
• The order targets two internal USCIS memos that a separate court in Rhode Island had already thrown out months earlier, giving affected applicants a second, independent layer of protection while the government appeals.
• Getting a case reactivated is not the same as getting it approved — attorneys say applicants should brace for extra paperwork requests or denials rather than assume automatic success.