The new immigration laws affecting green card holders in 2025 and 2026 fall into three areas that matter most: naturalization officers are now scrutinizing voting and registration history far more closely, the Department of Justice has made stripping citizenship a stated enforcement priority, and USCIS has largely closed the door on adjusting to permanent resident status from inside the United States. Your existing green card still gives you the right to live and work here indefinitely.1U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Rights and Responsibilities of a Green Card Holder (Permanent Resident) What has changed is how the government polices the path to citizenship and how it treats people trying to become residents in the first place.
Adjustment of Status Now Requires Leaving the Country
In May 2026, USCIS announced that people temporarily present in the United States who want a green card must return to their home country and apply through the Department of State’s consular processing system. Adjustment of status from within the country will be granted only in extraordinary circumstances, decided case by case.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Will Grant Adjustment of Status Only in Extraordinary Circumstances
This is a sharp departure from prior practice, where many visa holders adjusted status without leaving. If you already hold your green card, this does not touch your current status. It matters if you are sponsoring family. A relative on a temporary visa who was expecting to file for adjustment here will now, in most cases, need to complete the process at a consulate abroad instead.
Denaturalization Is a Stated DOJ Priority
The Department of Justice has directed its Civil Division to “maximally pursue” denaturalization proceedings wherever the law and evidence support them. The internal memo sets a priority list topped by national security concerns, terrorism, and espionage, followed by war crimes, gang activity, undisclosed felonies, sex offenses, and financial fraud, among other categories.3U.S. Department of Justice. Civil Division Enforcement Memo – Denaturalization
Denaturalization revokes citizenship obtained through fraud or concealment of material facts. The practical implication for a green card holder considering naturalization is direct: anything you omit or misstate on your application can be used to strip your citizenship later, even years after you have taken the oath. That risk is not new in the statute, but the enforcement posture behind it is. The naturalization form itself is now the point of exposure, and questions about criminal history, past immigration filings, prior addresses, employment, and affiliations should be answered with the assumption that every answer will be checked and preserved.
Voting and Voter Registration Under Closer Review
In August 2025, USCIS revised its Policy Manual to provide stricter guidance on how officers evaluate false claims to U.S. citizenship, unlawful voter registration, and unlawful voting during naturalization interviews. The agency described the changes as implementation of recent executive orders.4U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12 Part F – Good Moral Character
Under federal law, any noncitizen who voted in a federal, state, or local election in violation of voting restrictions is inadmissible.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens Registration alone can create problems even without a ballot cast. The most common trap is a state motor-voter interaction: getting a driver’s license and being handed a voter registration form. Being auto-registered by a state system without knowing carries less weight than affirmatively checking a citizenship box on a registration form, but both scenarios now get close attention during the naturalization interview. If either has happened in your history, address it with counsel before you file, not after an officer raises it.
What This Means for a Naturalization Application Today
The five-year residency clock, physical presence requirement, and good moral character standard have not changed. To naturalize, you generally need five years as a permanent resident (three if married to a citizen), physical presence for at least half of that time, and demonstrated good moral character throughout the statutory period.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1427 – Requirements of Naturalization Officers are not limited to the five-year window. The statute allows them to consider your conduct at any point in your life.
Certain acts remain permanent or statutory-period bars to good moral character: an aggravated felony conviction (a lifetime bar), confinement of 180 days or more during the statutory period, false testimony to obtain any immigration benefit, convictions or admitted conduct involving crimes of moral turpitude or controlled substances, deriving most of your income from illegal gambling, and habitual drunkenness.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1101 – Definitions These bars leave officers no discretion, and dismissed criminal cases still matter because officers evaluate the underlying conduct rather than the court outcome.8U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12 Part F Chapter 4 – Permanent Bars to Good Moral Character
The controlled substance exposure deserves separate mention because it catches people in states where marijuana is legal. Federal immigration law does not recognize state legalization. A possession conviction, work in the marijuana industry, or an admission of use during your naturalization interview can trigger a denial or removal proceedings. Any drug trafficking, of any substance in any amount, qualifies as an aggravated felony.
Selective Service and Tax Compliance
Two compliance areas often surface at the naturalization stage. Male permanent residents between ages 18 and 26 are covered by the Selective Service requirement. Under recently updated law, registration is automatic rather than something you have to complete yourself.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3802 – Automatic Registration If you turned 26 before automatic registration took effect and never registered, USCIS asks about it on the N-400, and an unexplained failure can be treated as evidence of poor moral character.
The IRS treats you as a U.S. resident for tax purposes for any calendar year in which you hold a green card, which means reporting worldwide income on a federal return.10Internal Revenue Service. U.S. Tax Residency – Green Card Test This continues even if you have been living outside the country, as long as you have not formally surrendered your card. Failure to file works against you twice: it can be read as abandonment of residency, and it appears on the naturalization side as a compliance failure.
Travel Now Interacts With Tighter Enforcement
Extended time abroad has always carried risk, but the current enforcement environment sharpens it. If you spend more than 180 consecutive days outside the United States, you are treated as an applicant for admission when you return, which means you can be screened for inadmissibility grounds that would not otherwise apply.11U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Traveling Outside U.S. – Documents Needed for LPR/Green Card Holders Health-related grounds, criminal history, and the public charge test can all come into play at the port of entry.
If you need to be abroad for more than a year, apply for a reentry permit on Form I-131 before you leave. A reentry permit is valid for two years from issuance and preserves your ability to return without being treated as having abandoned residency.12USAGov. Travel Documents for Foreign Citizens Returning to the U.S. The application must be filed while you are physically in the United States.
If your absence outlasts a reentry permit, or you never obtained one, your remaining option is an SB-1 returning resident visa. You apply at a U.S. consulate and must prove three things: you were an LPR when you left, you always intended to return, and your extended stay was caused by circumstances beyond your control. The burden falls entirely on you, and the process involves a medical exam, visa fees, and typically two interviews.13U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Mexico. Returning Resident Visas (SB-1) If you cannot meet that standard, you start over with a new immigrant visa application.
Travel also affects your naturalization timeline separately. Any single trip of six months or more creates a presumption that you broke continuous residence. A trip of one year or more resets the clock.
Keep Your Card Current
Your permanent resident status does not expire when your physical card does, but federal law requires every noncitizen 18 or older to carry valid registration documents at all times, and failure to do so is a misdemeanor.14U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Replace Your Green Card In the current environment, an expired card is a needless vulnerability at the border, at work during I-9 reverification, and any time you are asked to prove status.
File Form I-90 to renew or replace the card.15U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card (Green Card) Once USCIS accepts the filing, the receipt notice you receive extends your expired card’s validity by 36 months from its original expiration date. Presented with the expired card, that receipt is evidence of your status and work authorization while the renewal is processed.14U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Replace Your Green Card
The through-line across every change of the last two years is that documentation and disclosure now carry more weight than they did. The rules on paper for who can hold a green card and who can naturalize are largely the same. What has shifted is the willingness of the government to enforce them at every stage: at the consulate, at the port of entry, at the naturalization interview, and after the oath. Treat every form you file with USCIS as a permanent record that a future officer, or a future DOJ attorney, may read closely.