Federal Court Melts USCIS Freeze On Adjudication Of Immigration Benefits For Nationals Of 39 Countries

Between December 2025 and January 2026, USCIS imposed a broad “pause on benefits” for nationals of the 39 countries subject to the administration’s expanded travel ban. This pause consisted of four interlocking policies: a global asylum hold, a benefits hold pausing adjudication of pending applications (including employment authorization documents and I-485 adjustment of status applications), a comprehensive re-review policy for previously approved benefits, and a country-specific factors policy. The freeze affected tens of thousands of pending applications and created acute uncertainty for employers sponsoring workers from affected nations.

On June 5, 2026, in Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island v. USCIS, No. 1:26-cv-00132 (D.R.I.), the Court vacated and set aside all four policies on a nationwide basis. The court held that USCIS lacked statutory authority to impose the blanket freeze, violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to use notice-and-comment rulemaking, and that the stated “national security” rationale was pretextual. As a result, USCIS is expected to resume adjudicating nonimmigrant petitions, employment authorization documents, green card (I-485) applications, and other domestic benefit requests for affected individuals. USCIS issued a press release on June 12, 2026 stating it would follow the terms of the decision while pending further litigation. 

Critically, however, the June 5 ruling only vacated the USCIS-side adjudication holds and it does not affect the separate, still-in-force State Department pause on issuance of immigrant visas (IVs) for nationals of the 75 countries designated under the broader consular suspension at U.S. embassies and consulates abroad. Employers and beneficiaries must therefore distinguish between USCIS-adjudicated domestic benefits (now unfrozen) and State Department consular immigrant visa issuance (still paused) when planning international moves or immigrant visa processing for affected nationals.

Barnes & Thornburg encourages employers with affected workers to review their workforce to identify employees from the 39 travel ban countries whose benefit applications have been on hold and prepare to assist those employees in following up with USCIS on the status of their pending applications.