USCIS Updates Guidance on Discretionary Factors in Immigration Benefit Adjudications

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published policy guidance on 19.Aug.2025, updating the factors officers may consider when exercising discretion in certain immigration benefit requests. The update emphasizes negative discretionary weight for applicants with connections to “anti-American” or terrorist organizations.

Understanding Discretionary Analysis

Many immigration benefit requests include various discretionary factors USCIS officers may take into consideration in determining whether an application or petition should be approved. For instance, applications to extend / change nonimmigrant status (form I-539), applications for employment authorization (form I-765), and even adjustment of status applications (form I-485) all technically include discretionary factors the USCIS is allowed to take into consideration when deciding whether to approve such a case. In practice, however, these discretionary factors have not been widely used as a basis to deny such applications. Based on the latest changes to the USCIS Policy Manual, however, it seems the USCIS will scrutinize discretionary factors more closely, including news factors added to the analysis.

Emphasis on Anti-American and Terrorist Activities

The updated guidance places significant emphasis on activities related to anti-American ideologies or terrorist organizations. Under the new policy, USCIS will assign “overwhelming negative discretionary weight” to cases where an applicant has endorsed, promoted, supported, or espoused the views of terrorist organizations or groups supporting anti-American ideologies. This includes activities that show support for organizations that espouse antisemitic ideologies. The updated Policy Manual further specifies that USCIS may take into consideration “social media content by, or involving an alien” in making a discretionary analysis.

Conclusion

The policy guidance became effective immediately upon publication and applies to all requests that are pending or filed on or after August 19, 2025. It remains to be seen how in-depth background checks researching these discretionary factors will be, and how this may impact processing times.

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