A Court Just Ordered USCIS to Stop Sitting on Applications From 39 Countries
Court Decision · Decided August 24, 2026 · JBNP Law
If your green card, work permit, or asylum case has been sitting at USCIS with no movement because of where you were born, there is now a second federal court order telling the agency to process it. USCIS confirmed it on August 28.
What happened
On August 24, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted class certification and a preliminary injunction in Red Eagle Law, L.C. v. Edlow, No. 3:26-cv-04850 (N.D. Cal.), enjoining USCIS Policy Memoranda PM-602-0192 (December 2, 2025) and PM-602-0194 (January 1, 2026) — the memos that put benefit applications from nationals of proclamation-listed countries on indefinite hold. USCIS is ordered to adjudicate applications in the normal course of its process.
The court certified a class of individuals who are citizens or natives of one or more of the 39 countries listed in Presidential Proclamation 10949 or 10998, or the Palestinian Authority, and who either have a pending I-589 asylum application or otherwise have a benefit application pending at USCIS that was subject to the hold and has not received final adjudication as of the date of class certification.
USCIS acknowledged the order in an alert published August 28, saying it “strongly disagrees with the Court’s order but will follow its terms pending possible further judicial review.”
This is the second ruling, not the first
In June, the District of Rhode Island reached the same conclusion in separate litigation and vacated these memos as unlawful under the Administrative Procedure Act. That court denied the government’s request to stay its own ruling in July. On August 14 the First Circuit granted a stay in part — limited to a separate re-review policy — and otherwise denied it.
We flag this because the picture is genuinely layered, and because it explains why an additional order in August was worth having: Red Eagle adds a certified class and direct injunctive relief in a second circuit. If you have read that these holds were struck down months ago and wondered why your case still had not moved, that gap is what this order is aimed at.
What it actually means
If you are in the class, USCIS is barred from applying those two memos to your case while the injunction stands. Your application has to move in the normal course rather than sit on an indefinite nationality-based hold. That is a real change from where things stood a week ago.
What the order does not do matters just as much.
It is not an approval. Adjudication in the normal course means your case gets decided, not granted. Every eligibility requirement still applies, and so does the discretionary scrutiny USCIS built into adjustment of status in its May 2026 memo.
It is not final. This is a preliminary injunction, not a final judgment, and USCIS has flagged possible further review. Given that the parallel Rhode Island litigation has already been stayed in part on appeal, treating this as settled would be a mistake.
It does not lift every other layer of screening. These two memos are enjoined. Other vetting policies are not, and they still apply.
No timeline was promised. “The normal course” is doing a lot of work in a system carrying a year of backlog behind these holds.
Who this reaches
Anyone who is a citizen or native of a listed country — or holds Palestinian Authority travel documents — with a pending I-485, I-765, I-589, or other USCIS benefit request that has been in limbo. In our practice that has mostly meant adjustment of status applicants and their work-permit filings: people with clean, approvable cases who simply could not get them looked at.
What we’re doing about it
For affected clients we are pulling case status now and documenting the pause — receipt dates, date of last action, and every inquiry response. If a case does not start moving in a reasonable window, that record is what supports a service request or a mandamus filing later, and it is far easier to assemble now than in six months.
We are also refreshing files that went stale. Cases that sat for a year often need new medicals and updated employment and tax records. When a paused case suddenly moves, an RFE for something that expired while you waited is an avoidable problem — particularly now that USCIS can deny some filings without issuing an RFE at all.
And we are watching both dockets, because this litigation has already changed direction more than once.
If your case has been frozen and you want to know whether this order covers you and what to do next, book a consultation.
This post is general information, current as of when it was written — not legal advice, and no substitute for talking to an attorney about your own case. This area is changing quickly, and reading this doesn’t make us your lawyers. Please get advice on your specific situation before you act.