Beyond the Travel Ban: USCIS’s “Benefits Pause” and What Employers Need to Know
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has issued a memo stipulating it is pausing adjudicating benefits requests such as Nonimmigrant Visa Petitions (e.g. H-1B petitions), asylum applications and green card applications submitted for all individuals who are natives or citizens of countries currently subject to travel bans.
This is critical information for employers and foreign nationals planning to pursue immigration filings this year, signaling long adjudication delays, heightened scrutiny and increased requests for evidence that prove an applicant is “worthy” or serves a national interest. This will likely lead to workforce disruptions.
The pause even applies to requests filed by premium processing. The agency’s new memo has not said how long the pause will last. It does allow for exceptions for those whose entry would serve a national interest: “a benefit request filed by an alien whose entry into the United States would provide significant benefit to the United States may include, but is not limited to, a scientist or medical researcher working on a critical public health project, an engineer with specialized skills needed for a key infrastructure initiative, or someone with unique expertise supporting U.S. national security or economic interests.”
USCIS has not yet provided further information on how a request for such an exception may be made.
Following the November 2025 shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., USCIS published a memo directing its agents to place an indefinite hold on the final adjudication of immigration benefits requests for individuals from countries named to its recent “travel ban.” The memo also instructs agents to perform a re-review of approved benefit requests for individuals from the same list of countries who entered the United States on or after January 20, 2021.
While the travel ban permits exceptions for those with dual citizenship, allowing international travel and admission using the non-banned passport, the pause on benefits does not. Anyone born in, or a citizen of, a country subject to the travel ban will have their applications placed under the pause, even those with Canadian, European Union, or other third-country passports.
Countries Subject to the Travel Ban/Benefits Pause
Individuals from this list of countries are subject to the benefits pause:
- Afghanistan
- Angola
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Benin
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Chad
- Republic of the Congo
- Cote d ’Ivoire
- Cuba
- Dominica
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- The Gambia
- Gabon
- Haiti
- Iran
- Laos
- Libya
- Malawi
- Mali
- Mauritania
- Myanmar (Burma)
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Palestinian Authority
- Senegal
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Syria
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Tonga
- Turkmenistan
- Venezuela
- Yemen
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Related: Requests for Evidence Changes
Many employers are now seeing Requests for Evidence that want them to prove a beneficiary is “worthy” of an extension, change or adjudication of status. This is unusual by historical standards and, while it is distinct from the travel ban, it seems related.
USCIS is aggressively invoking the “favorable exercise of discretion” component that applies to:
- Extensions of Status
- Changes of Status
- Adjustments of Status
This discretionary analysis was largely a non-issue in the past unless a case involved criminal history, arrest, fraud, misrepresentation or clear statutory inadmissibility. Now, country of birth or citizenship alone is being treated as a negative discretionary factor, triggering requests for evidence such as:
- Community value and service
- Employment history and public benefit
- Family, property or business ties to the United States
- Medical, humanitarian or public-interest considerations
- Character evidence and absence of security concerns
Looking Ahead and How Harris Beach Murtha Can Help
USCIS has indicated that additional guidance may be forthcoming, but until formal procedures exist to request exceptions or compel adjudication, strategic case-by-case analysis is essential.
Harris Beach Murtha’s Immigration Practice Group continues to actively monitor developments and review emerging adjudication trends. We expect additional guidance to come, but until formal procedures exist to request exceptions or compel adjudication, strategic case-by-case analysis is essential.
We are prepared to advise clients on:
- Whether and when to file
- How to structure discretionary evidence
- Risk management during prolonged adjudication holds
If you believe a current or future filing may be impacted by the USCIS benefits pause, please contact attorney L.J. D’Arrigo at (518) 701-2770 and ldarrigo@harrisbeachmurtha.com; attorney Joshua D. Hofstetter at (212) 912-3581 and jhofstetter@harrisbeachmurtha.com; or the Harris Beach Murtha attorney with whom you most frequently work.
This alert is not a substitute for advice of counsel on specific legal issues.
Harris Beach Murtha’s lawyers and consultants practice from offices throughout Connecticut in Bantam, Hartford, New Haven and Stamford; New York state in Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Ithaca, New York City, Niagara Falls, Rochester, Saratoga Springs, Syracuse, Long Island and White Plains, as well as in Boston, Massachusetts, and Newark, New Jersey.
For more immigration law insights, visit Harris Beach Murtha’s Immigration Practice Group and subscribe to our Immigration Blog.
