President Donald Trump’s appointee to lead U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) was confirmed by the Senate and was sworn in as director on Oct. 8. Within his first two weeks in office, the agency issued its first official policy memo under his leadership. Such policy memos provide guidance to the men and women tasked with adjudicating applications for immigration benefits, such as petitions for temporary or permanent visas and applications for extension, change or adjustment of legal status in the United States. The policy memo strongly signaled to immigration officers that they should feel free to question previously approved temporary visa petitions and applications, even where the underlying facts and circumstances had not changed.

The new policy memo expressly reverses guidance provided by a George W. Bush-era policy memo. The April 2004 policy memo directed USCIS adjudicators to uphold the prior determinations of other USCIS adjudicators except in circumstances of error, a substantial change of facts, or new information adversely impacting previous eligibility. The 2004 policy supported the principle, codified in immigration regulations, that petitions or applications for extension of the same temporary legal status can be filed without extensive supporting documentation, assuming the facts and circumstances have not changed since the initial petition.