Defending Visitor and Student Visa Adjustments After the May 2026 USCIS Discretion Memo

USCIS Policy Memorandum PM-602-0199, effective May 21, 2026, hands adjudicating officers’ broad discretion to deny Form I-485 applications from B-1/B-2 visitors and F-1 students who are otherwise statutorily eligible—turning temporary-intent classification into an affirmative liability. The 90-day preconceived-intent doctrine now compounds the memo’s adverse-factor analysis, and the proposed replacement of Duration of Status with fixed I-94 end dates sharpens the exposure for students moving through the F-1-to-H-1B-to-adjustment pipeline. Even immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, exempt from most §245(c) bars, face denial on discretionary grounds. Attorneys still advising clients on pre-memo assumptions risk an unanticipated NOID on a filing they treated…