'Economic Benefit' exception: Who may be spared as Trump forces most Green Card applicants out of US?

Key Takeaways

• The White House has moved to force most green card applicants out of the country to apply from abroad, but officials acknowledge the policy may not be applied uniformly, leaving immigration lawyers and hundreds of thousands of applicants in a state of uncertainty.
• The Trump administration announced on Friday a sweeping change to one of the most widely used pathways to permanent residency in the United States, declaring that most immigrants already living in the country will now be required to leave and apply for green cards from abroad.
• Also Read | Trump admin mandates green card applicants to apply from home countries However, officials have already signalled that the policy may not be applied equally to all applicants, with those deemed to provide an economic benefit to the country likely to be permitted to continue on their existing path, according to Business Insider report.
• What Trump's New Green Card Policy Actually Says US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency that administers the legal immigration system, said it would henceforth grant "adjustment of status" -- the domestic process that allows immigrants already present in the US to apply for lawful permanent residency without leaving the country -- "only in extraordinary circumstances." All other Green Card applicants will be directed towards consular processing through the State Department at American embassies and consulates overseas, with exceptions evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
• The announcement was accompanied by a si page memo that left considerable ambiguity about which categories of applicants would qualify for exemptions, prompting immediate confusion among immigration attorneys and their clients.