Throughout 2025, green card approval rates steadily declined as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a series of policy changes reshaping vetting procedures. According to a former USCIS official, enforcement practices make filing for a green card increasingly tedious and uncertain. This aligns with the greater trend of the government taking an increasing strict stance towards immigration enforcement.
According to analysis of USCIS data by Newsweek, the agency had approximately eleven and a half million pending green card applications as of the end of 2025. A further two hundred and fifty thousand applications are still frontlogged. These figures illustrate the continuous pressure on the immigration system.
This is despite the increasingly strict stance the U.S. government’s taken towards green card vetting. Over the past year, individuals with pending green card applications were detained during routine immigration check-ins. Additionally, the government paused all immigration processing for individuals from “high-risk” countries. All these changes rapidly increased the number of applications pending. Couple this with broader social media reviews, financial scrutiny of applicants, and risk assessment. The result is a system with increased wait times and lower approval rates than before.
As always, ILBSG actively monitors ongoing U.S. immigration news. If you have questions about any U.S. immigration related issue, contact us. Working with an experienced attorney ensures you get the right advice based on the most recent laws. In an ever-evolving immigration policy landscape, it’s particularly critical you get the right advice.