After implementing travel bans on several countries last year, in January 2026 USCIS announced that it was pausing adjudications for all benefit requests from or on behalf of persons form those countries. They are: Afghanistan, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Dominica, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, the Gambia, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
What the processing pause meant was that petitions and applications sat in limbo. Examples include a citizen or permanent resident sponsoring a family member for a green card, an employer sponsoring a professional for H-1B status, or an individual applying for an Employment Authorization Document. USCIS announced this week that it has begun phasing out the processing holds but will continue its “strict screening and vetting.” It does appear that cases once again are being reviewed. That provides at least some improvement in what otherwise has been an enforcement-only approach to immigration.