US Citizenship and Immigration Services said on 28 August 2026 that it will comply with a federal court order requiring it to decide immigration applications from nationals of the 39 countries covered by the US travel bans "in the normal course" of its process. The order, signed on 24 August by Judge Charles R. Breyer of the US District Court for the Northern District of California in Red Eagle Law, L.C. v. Edlow, certifies a class of every citizen or native of those countries, or holder of Palestinian Authority documents, whose pending USCIS application is still subject to the adjudication hold imposed by policy memoranda PM-602-0192 (2 December 2025) and PM-602-0194 (1 January 2026). It is the first order to cover the whole affected population rather than named plaintiffs. USCIS said it "strongly disagrees with the Court's order but will follow its terms pending possible further judicial review" and "will issue updated instructions pending further litigation developments".
Background
On 2 December 2025 USCIS told its officers to stop making final decisions on benefit applications filed by nationals of the countries named in Presidential Proclamation 10949 of 4 June 2025, and on 1 January 2026 it extended the hold to the longer list in Proclamation 10998 of 16 December 2025. Together the memos froze green-card, work-permit, travel-document, naturalisation and asylum cases for people from 39 countries plus holders of Palestinian Authority documents, with no published end date. The District of Rhode Island held the related policies unlawful and vacated them on 5 June 2026 (Dorcas International Institute v. USCIS); the government appealed, and on 14 August the First Circuit stayed only the separate re-review policy while leaving the vacatur of the hold in place (see /news/first-circuit-uscis-re-review-partial-stay-2026). District courts in Massachusetts, Ohio and the Northern District of California have granted injunctions for individual plaintiffs since April. Red Eagle Law, an immigration firm, filed this case on 21 May 2026 on behalf of about 400 people from 38 countries and asked the court to certify a class.
What exactly changed
Judge Breyer granted both motions on the briefs, without a hearing. He certified the class under Rule 23(b)(2), the rule used when a single injunction can protect everyone in the group, and appointed Red Eagle Law as class counsel with 18 named plaintiffs as representatives. On the merits, the court found the plaintiffs likely to succeed on their claim that the memoranda are arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act, because there is no evidence USCIS considered the reliance interests of applicants or any alternative to an indefinite pause. The government itself admitted USCIS "is currently processing immigration benefit applications without adjudicative holds" following the Rhode Island vacatur, but the court entered a "follow-on" injunction anyway because that vacatur is non-final and under appeal. One request was refused: the plaintiffs had asked for decisions within 60 days, and within 10 days for work-permit applications. The court found no legal basis for a fixed deadline and instead ordered USCIS to put class members "back in the normal queue", so their cases move at the same pace as anyone else's. No bond was required.
Who is in the class
- Citizens or natives of one or more of the 39 countries listed in Presidential Proclamations 10949 or 10998, or the Palestinian Authority; and
- who have an asylum application (Form I-589) pending, or any other benefit application pending with USCIS;
- that is subject to the hold under PM-602-0192 or PM-602-0194 and had not received a final decision as of 24 August 2026.
- The countries, as listed by class counsel: Afghanistan, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, The Gambia, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe, plus the Palestinian Authority.
Who it affects
Membership is automatic: nobody needs to sign up, pay a fee or file anything, unlike the earlier "group lawsuits" that required each participant to become a named plaintiff. The class reaches people already in the United States: an Iranian engineer whose adjustment-of-status application has sat untouched since December while her work permit expired, a Nigerian nurse waiting on a work-permit renewal, a Venezuelan asylum seeker whose interview was never scheduled, a Haitian family whose naturalisation applications were frozen. It does not help people applying for visas at consulates abroad, and it does not touch the travel bans themselves, which remain in force.
What to do now
If you fall inside the class definition, your file should now move through the ordinary queue rather than being set aside. Keep your receipt notices and any evidence of the hold, such as case-status pages or USCIS correspondence, in case you later need to show your case was covered. Check your online case status over the coming weeks and watch the USCIS newsroom for the "updated instructions" it has promised. If your application has been pending well beyond the posted processing time for your form and office, a case inquiry, or a consultation with a lawyer about a mandamus action, now rests on firmer ground. Our United States guide (/country-guides/united-states) covers the status categories involved.
When it takes effect
The order was signed on 24 August 2026 and is effective immediately. USCIS acknowledged it publicly on 28 August 2026 and says it will comply pending any further review.
What is not yet confirmed
The government has not said whether it will appeal to the Ninth Circuit, and the First Circuit appeal of the Rhode Island vacatur is still pending. A separate order on the government's motion to dismiss was entered on 28 August but its text was not yet public at the time of writing. The court set no deadline for decisions, so "normal course" means the usual, often slow, USCIS processing time for each form.
Key Takeaway
Every pending USCIS application from a national of the 39 travel-ban countries that was frozen under the December and January hold memos is now covered by a class-wide injunction, and USCIS has said it will process those cases in the normal queue.