Pauses on Adjudication of Immigration Benefits and Travel Bans

Under Current Trump Administration

By Angelique Montano1

1 Ms. Montano is a solo practitioner, who practices immigration law in Houston, Texas. She may be reached at

angelique@amontanoimmigration.com.

In both President Trump’s first and current administrations, the federal gov-ernment-initiated travel bans for nationals of certain countries. This article ad-dresses not only the current travel ban but how the administration has ordered the pause of US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) adjudications of immigration benefits for nationals of certain countries. This is not a comprehen-sive review of all matters related to these issues. Also note that this is an evolving area, due to frequent updates and changes made by the Administration, as well as due to a pending federal lawsuit and was written as of February 21, 2026.

What are the Current Travel Bans & Who Do They Affect?

Currently, the Trump Administration has announced two Travel Bans.

On June 4, 2025, President Trump issued a proclamation restricting entry into the U.S. of foreign nationals from certain countries. The ban took effect on June 9, 2025. It applied to nationals of select countries who were: 1) outside the United States as of June 9, 2025, and 2) not issued a valid visa as of June 9, 2025. This proclamation announced both a “full” travel ban for 12 countries and a “partial” travel ban for 7 additional countries. These travel bans included exceptions. The Administration stated that it would review the list of impacted countries within 90 days, and countries may be added to or removed from these lists.

More recently, on December 16, 2025, the White House issued a new presidential proclamation that builds on and modifies the June 2025 Proclamation. While much of the legal structure remains the same, the December proclamation expanded the scope of restricted countries and narrowed key humanitarian and family-based exceptions, resulting in new and increased impacts. Compared to the June proclama-tion, the December proclamation removes categorical exceptions for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, adoptions, among others. It became effective on January 1, 2026.

Both proclamations differentiate between countries whose nationals are subject to “full suspension” (barring entry of immigrants and nonimmigrants) and those subject to “partial suspension” (barring entry of immigrants as well as certain classes of nonimmigrants).

The current Travel Ban (effective January 1, 2026), includes the following:

Countries whose nationals have a “full” travel ban:

• Afghanistan

• Burma

• Burkina Faso

• Chad

• Republic of the Congo

• Equatorial Guinea

• Eritrea

• Haiti

• Iran

• Laos

• Libya

• Mali

• Niger

• Sierra Leone

• Somalia

• South Sudan

• Sudan • Syria

• Yemen

• & those travelling on Palestinian Authority Documents

Countries that have a “partial ban” applicable to immigrant visa applicants and visitor, stu-dent, and exchange visa applicants:

• Angola

• Antigua and Barbuda

• Benin

• Burundi

• Cote d’Ivoire

• Cuba

• Dominica

• Gabon

• The Gambia

• Malawi

• Mauritania

• Nigeria

• Senegal

• Tanzania

• Togo

• Tonga

• Venezuela

• Zambia

• Zimbabwe

This country has a “partial” ban applicable only to immigrant visa applicants:

• Turkmenistan

Dual nationals are excepted. So, if the individual is a citizen of one of the banned countries but also a citizen of an un-banned country, then the individual can still obtain U.S. visas and enter the United States, if otherwise eligible.

Other exempt foreign nationals include: U.S. Lawful Permanent Residents, certain visa holders (such as diplomats, crewmembers, and certain foreign government officials on special visas), athletes and coaches traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting events, Special Immigrant Visas for U.S. Government employees, Immigrant Visas for ethnic and religious minorities facing persecution in Iran, and individuals granted asylum and refugees previously admitted to the United States.

NOTE: This attorney has two clients who were recently affected by the Travel Ban. In February 2026, both were found to be otherwise eligible for Immigrant Visas, but their visas were denied by the US Department of State due to the Proclamation because they are nationals of Nigeria. The issuance of their Immigrant Visas would allow them to immigrate legally to the United States. One was vetted and ap-proved by the US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) as a foreign national possessing extraor-dinary ability in petroleum engineering and the other is the college-graduate son of another foreign na-tional who the USCIS also found to be a foreign national possessing extraordinary ability for the benefit of the United States. We await the Administration’s lifting of Immigrant Visa travel ban on Nigerians. Meanwhile, these individuals await abroad, apart from their U.S. citizen and Lawful Permanent Resident family members.

The Administration’s Reasoning for these Travel Bans

During President Trump’s first Administration, he restricted the entry of foreign nationals into the United States, stating the goal of preventing national security threats from reaching the country.

Similarly, as the titles of each of the June and December 2025 Travel Bans proclamations reflect, the Trump Administration’s reasoning for these Travel Bans is to protect the United States from foreign terrorists and other national security and public safety threats. The Administration explains that it is the “policy of the United States to protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.” (See Proclamations on the White House website).

The Administration further explains that President Trump directed the Secretary of State, in coor-dination with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence, “to identify countries throughout the world for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a full or partial suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries pursuant to section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1182(f).” (See Proc-lamations on the White House website).

After completing that process, the Secretary of State “determined that a number of countries re-main deficient with regards to screening and vetting. Many of these countries have also taken ad-vantage of the United States in their exploitation of our visa system and their historic failure to accept back their removable nationals” (See Proclamations on the White House website).

Furthermore, President Trump explains that: “Some of the countries with inadequacies face sig-nificant challenges to reform efforts. Others have made important improvements to their protocols and procedures, and I commend them for these efforts. But until countries with identified inadequacies address them, members of my Cabinet have recommended certain conditional restrictions and limita-tions.” (See Proclamations on the White House website).

Pending Federal Law Suit Regarding the Travel Ban

On February 2, 2026, the National Immigration Law Center, Democracy Forward, The Legal Aid Society, the Western Center on Law & Poverty, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the Columbo & Hurd law firm, filed a federal complaint in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York arguing that the US Department of State has imposed an illicit, nationality-based ban on legal immi-gration that strips families and working people of the process guaranteed by law. The plaintiffs include the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc (CLINIC), African Communities Together, and various individuals. 2

2 See link: https://www.nilc.org/press/immigrant-families-workers-legal-assistance-groups-challenge-trump-admins-75-country-visa-ban-in-federal-court/

What is the “Adjudications Pause” by USCIS & the Administration’s Reasoning Behind This?

Separate but related to the Travel Bans, on January 1, 2026, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a memorandum directing all USCIS personnel to place a “hold” on all pending benefits applications, including “green cards”/U.S. residency status and naturalization “citi-zenship” applications, for foreign nationals from countries listed on the Administration’s December 16, 2025, travel ban proclamation. The “hold” means that the USCIS can proceed to process applications up to final adjudication (decision) but will not be able to approve the application until the Administration lifts the “adjudications pause.” So, the USCIS can review, take biometrics from, and even interview applicants from these countries but cannot approve applications for such foreign nationals.3

3 See link: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/policy-alerts/PM-602-0194-PendingApplicationsAdditionalHigh-RiskCountries-20260101.pdf

We shall see how the Travel Ban and USCIS Adjudications pause will evolve throughout the rest of 2026.