If you're married to a US citizen and you're in the process of getting your green card — or you're about to start — this article is for you specifically.
A lot of the scary headlines you've been reading aren't talking to you the way you think they are. And where they do apply to your situation, you need to understand exactly what that means and what to do about it. That's what this is for.
Let's start with the most important thing first.
My name is Jacob Tingen. I'm the managing partner at Tingen Law in Richmond, Virginia. We focus on humanitarian and family-based immigration, and we work with clients nationally. USCIS issued a new policy memorandum in May 2026 — PM-602-0199 — and it has a lot of people worried. Here's what it actually means for spouses of US citizens.
Your Eligibility as an Immediate Relative Has Not Changed
I want to lead with this, because it matters and because the headlines buried it.
The legal rule that says you can get a green card based on your marriage to a US citizen has not changed. If you're the spouse of a US citizen, your marriage is real, and you entered the United States lawfully — you are still eligible to apply for a green card from inside the United States. The immigration statute that gives you that right is untouched.
Spouses, parents, and unmarried children under 21 of US citizens are what immigration law calls immediate relatives. That statutory category is intact. USCIS did not change who qualifies. They changed how they evaluate whether to approve applications from people who qualify.
That is an important distinction, and it deserves a moment before we go further.
There's also a specific legal protection worth knowing: the § 245(c) bars that block certain other applicants from adjusting status do not apply to immediate relatives. And if you entered the country lawfully — inspected and admitted or paroled at a port of entry, as most people on tourist or other temporary visas do — the lawful entry requirement under § 245(a) is not an obstacle for you.
Additionally, if you're pursuing a green card through asylum, a U visa, a T visa, or the Special Immigrant Juvenile process — PM-602-0199 doesn't apply to you at all. Those statutory pathways have their own frameworks that this memo doesn't touch.
What Has Changed: Discretion Is Now a Live Question
So what did change?
USCIS is now telling its officers to actively weigh whether you deserve the green card — not just whether you qualify for it.
For a long time, those two questions felt like the same question. You're married to a US citizen. You have a qualifying relationship. You're admissible. Approve. That was the practical reality for a lot of families.
The new policy memo says: those are two different questions now, and officers should treat them that way. Eligibility gets you in the door. Discretion — USCIS's judgment about whether you should receive this benefit — is what gets you out with the green card.
USCIS has always had this authority. That's not new. What's new is the instruction: use it. Weigh the whole file. Don't just check the eligibility boxes and stamp approve.
There's a sentence in the memo that captures this shift precisely: "The absence of adverse factors, by itself, does not demonstrate such unusual or outstanding equities." Not having problems is not the same as deserving the benefit. A clean record is the floor — it's what gets you to the table. Now you also need to show affirmatively why the answer should be yes.
The Specific Risk Factor for Spouses of US Citizens
Here is the factor most relevant to someone in your situation.
The memo says that when someone came to the United States on a temporary visa — a tourist visa, a student visa, a work visa — and then stayed to apply for a green card instead of going back home to apply through a US consulate, that choice is something officers can now weigh against them.
That sounds alarming. So let's put it in context.
A lot of people who are married to US citizens did exactly that. You came to visit. Life happened. You met someone. You fell in love. You got married. That is not fraud. That is not a crime. It is a human thing that happens all the time, and USCIS knows it happens all the time.
What the memo is doing is telling officers to look more carefully at whether your original trip was genuinely a visit — or whether it was the first step in a plan to stay permanently. Those are different situations. And the vast majority of the couples we work with are in the first category: life genuinely changed. The question is whether your application shows that clearly and documents it.
This is also where the 90-day rule connects. If you entered on a visitor visa and took steps toward permanent residency — got married, filed for a green card — within your first 90 days in the US, USCIS can presume you misrepresented your intent at entry. After 90 days, that presumption flips in your favor on that specific question.
But the new memo adds a layer on top of that. Even past 90 days, with a clean entry timeline, officers are now separately asking: why did you adjust from inside the US instead of going back home and consular-processing? That question is now live regardless of timing. Both issues need to be addressed in a well-built application.
What a Strong Application Looks Like Now
Three concrete things your application needs to do differently under this policy.
- First: build an honest, coherent entry narrative. When did you arrive? What was your actual intent? When did your relationship develop, and how did things change? The true story is almost always the right story — you came here, life changed, you fell in love, you got married. Document that timeline clearly. Records of when the relationship developed. Consistency between your entry documents and your adjustment narrative. A USCIS officer who has never met you needs to be able to read your file and follow that story.
- Second: document your financial and shared life. And here's where specificity matters, because there's a common misconception about what documentation actually means. Photos can be staged. Wedding albums are corroborating at best. What actually moves a file is financial documentation: joint bank accounts with regular activity, tax returns filed together, both names on the lease or the mortgage, both names on the car insurance and utility bills. If you have US-citizen children together, their birth certificates, school records, and medical files belong in the application — that is one of the strongest equities you can have. The evidence a USCIS officer can look at and conclude: these two people have a real, shared financial life. They live together. They're building something together.
- Third: if anything in your immigration history is complicated, address it before you file. Status gaps, any period of unlawful presence, prior inconsistencies — those things become bigger problems under heightened discretionary review. Get a lawyer's eyes on your file before you submit, not after you receive an RFE.
Who Needs to Be Most Careful Right Now
Let's be specific about who faces the most exposure under this policy.
- If you entered on a tourist or other temporary visa, stayed, and are filing from inside the US — that is exactly the fact pattern the memo's adverse factor language describes. That does not mean you'll be denied. It means your application needs to be built more carefully than it would have been a year ago.
- If you have any gaps in your immigration status — any period where you weren't in lawful status before filing — that's a red flag under this policy and warrants a lawyer's review of your file before you do anything.
- If your documentation of your marriage is thin — not much financial record, not a clear picture of a shared household — address that now, before an interview or a Request for Evidence arrives.
- None of these situations is disqualifying on its own. But they are situations where the quality of your application determines the outcome in a way it didn't used to. Getting it right means building a file that doesn't just prove eligibility — it proves that USCIS should exercise their discretion in your favor.
If your situation involves any of these factors — a tourist visa entry, limited documentation, a gap in status — this is a conversation to have with an immigration lawyer before you file. Tingen Law's first evaluation is free. Take our eligibility quiz.
The Bottom Line
Your path hasn't closed. The law that makes you eligible as a spouse of a US citizen is intact. What has changed is the standard of preparation required to build a file that earns approval under the current policy.
If you have a pending application, don't panic and don't withdraw. The policy change doesn't automatically disqualify pending cases. But if your evidence file is thin, that's a conversation worth having with a lawyer before your interview — there are often things that can be added or clarified while the case is still pending.
If you haven't filed yet, this is exactly the right time to get an experienced immigration lawyer to look at your situation before you do. The difference between a minimal application and a strong one matters more right now than it has in years.
We handle family-based immigration cases at Tingen Law from across the country. We work with families navigating exactly this kind of situation every day, and we'd love to help yours. Book a case evaluation call today with our team.