Transcription
Five new trends that will be impacting green card holders in 2025 and moving forward. This is going to be trends about DUI, speeding tickets, paying taxes, and travel internationally. All the information, all the trends in this video.
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Hello everybody and welcome back to immigration channel. In this video, we'll cover five new trends that are impacting green card holders right now in 2025 and moving forward when it comes to many, many things like DUI, speeding tickets, travel, paying taxes, speaking against the government. I want to cover all these in this video. So, make sure you watch it all the way until the end. Super important, especially if you're a green card holder or about to become a green card holder or thinking about getting a green card. This information is crucial. It's changing all the time and I'm trying to give you the most up-to-date information at the time of watching this video.
As of October 2025, the government introduced stricter policies, stricter enforcement when it comes to immigrants as a whole, but specifically when it comes to green card holders. Very strict vetting, very strict scrutiny when green card holders are coming into the country. Very strict application of the law to people that actually committed certain crimes like DUIs, failing to pay taxes. And this is something that is important to address because we believe that green card holders are permanent. Their status is strong. It's always been that notion. But in the past six months, we've realized that is not the case. Green card holders are as temporary as non-immigrant visas. In my mind, it's really, really scary these days for green card holders. And I want to make sure that you understand what's happening specifically with the five trends I'm going to cover in this video.
Number one, DUI driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. This has been a controversial issue because the DUI conviction. This one single DUI conviction was the main reason why so many green card holders were detained at the airport. You've read the stories. You've read the many, many stories. The Irish green card holder. He came back and he had a DUI conviction 20 years ago, detained at the airport, sent to jail, spent two weeks in ICE custody. They stripped him down and he was shipped to a Louisiana holding facility just for that one single DUI 20 years ago. Why is this happening? The reason it's happening is because under this new policies, one single DUI renders non-citizens inadmissible. Which means if you leave the country and you come back, they have the right to not only not let you in but also detain you. Now again, this is what we see in practice. In reality, as a green card holder, just because you had one DUI, it doesn't make you deportable. You can live your life in the United States uninterrupted, nobody's going to do anything to you. But it seems like when you are leaving the country under their policies now make green card holders inadmissible. In fact, there is legislation that is being introduced right now to make this a permanent law HR875 that is being introduced. But I'm telling you that right now the policy as it is with CBP, if you had one single DUI, no matter when as a green card holder, you should not be traveling.
Under a USCIS memo from August of 2025, it seems that if you have two DUIs, it will presume that you don't have good moral character for citizenship. So, as a green card holder, you'll have to provide more evidence and convince immigration that you're eligible for citizenship. But those two DUIs are going to be a big problem for you. I mean, right now, the reality is that even one DUI is going to trigger review under the new good moral character policies that they just released about a month ago. So, be mindful that if you're a green card holder, if you have one DUI or more in the 5-year statutory period before applying for citizenship, you got to be very careful. Speak with an attorney because the concern is that if you go into that interview, it may even impact your green card. What is going to be the implication on a green card holder? Again, if you leave the country, it could be detention, potentially even deportation depending on how severe and the recency of your offense. If you apply for naturalization, it's going to make the process more complicated, subject you to further review, and potentially even subject you to being a person of lack good moral character, which means that you're not going to be eligible for citizenship if you apply right now, especially if the DUI happened 5 years before applying for citizenship. Now, remember, if you don't have a green card yet and you're applying for adjustment of status, DUI could also be an issue. That's why it's very important to speak with an immigration attorney and a criminal attorney before pleading anything when it comes to DUI.
Number two, speeding tickets. Now, before we talk about speeding tickets, guys, if you're here for the first time and you're not a subscriber to my channel, please subscribe to my channel, click the notification bell so you don't miss any of my videos, and also give us a big like so YouTube will be able to show this video to more people just like you. As always, if you need help with your immigration matters, send me a text to 619-483-4549 or go to www.immigrationasap.com. Leave your details there. One of our team members will contact you ASAP. And now, let's go back in the video.
Number two, speeding tickets. The same August 2025 memo about good moral character requires disclosure of all speeding tickets. And we're talking specifically about multiple tickets. Somebody that has excessive tickets, we need to disclose it now. And when I say multiple tickets, we're talking about three or more. Three or more speeding tickets can signal some kind of a pattern for USCIS, which means that you could be potentially a person of bad moral character and you may not qualify for citizenship. It could also signal a pattern that you disregard the law and you're somebody that shouldn't be allowed to become a US citizen as well. So remember, under this memo, it expanded their discretion. So now when they're looking at you, they say, "Okay, you're a green card holder. I get it. You know, a speeding ticket is not crazy, but you have three, four, five, you know, we have a client that had 10." And that makes you somebody who's not responsible. And in our mind, you're lacking good moral character. And that that's the discussion now that clients who apply for citizenship now, they have to prove to USCIS that they do have good moral character because this happened many years ago. Now they don't have speeding tickets. They do other activities to show that they're responsible. This is where we're going to be seeing the shift. You'll have to come with documents to show that you're not that person that you know has all these tickets and you are responsible. It will be on you to prove to them that that's how these speeding tickets are going to be impacting green card holders. It's not going to impact your renewal of a green card or anything that you do inside the United States. However, again, if you travel and they see that you have a lot of violations and specifically unpaid tickets that lead to a warrant, a single warrant, that could be a problem and maybe make you inadmissible or or or cause them to send you to secondary inspection. So, be mindful of these speeding tickets. If you have a lot of them, try to resolve it. Um, make sure you you take care of it. And when you go for your citizenship application as a green card holder, you're going to need to have very specific documents to explain what what happened. Show what kind of person you are today. And that's going to be an issue that you can resolve when you apply for citizenship. But this is something that they're really really paying attention to right now. It's all fairly new and you're watching this video right now in October and now is when they're starting to enforce it. So, it's essential for you to be mindful and if you have your appointments, be prepared to disclose it and explain it.
Number three, not paying taxes, being late on your taxes or ignoring IRS orders to pay taxes. Once again guys, if you are omitting to pay taxes, you're not meeting your obligations, it can also be a problem for you when you apply for citizenship, but also depends on what is the relationship you have with IRS. Is there some sort of an order? Is there a judgment against you? We've seen people that were traveling and they were flagged for issues with the federal government, including IRS, that reports violations like that to other government agencies, including CBP. So, just be mindful if you're behind, if you're not making payment plans, it could impact travel, but also specifically your citizenship application. Once again, it goes into that memo. Good moral character. Are you somebody who's responsible? Do you meet your obligations? All these things are going to come into play.
Number four, spending too much time abroad. If you spend too much time abroad as a green card holder over a year right now, they're flagging everyone who's coming back to the airport. They're checking to see where did you go, where is your place of residence and many many green card holders report that when they come back they wanted to see like where they exactly went and what are their intentions about coming back like is their primary address in the United States or another country. And specifically when you travel a little bit longer officers will try to pressure applicants to give up their green cards by signing a form I-417. Never sign that form. But remember, they have a way in their system to know how long you've been outside the United States. If they ask you verbally and you tell them the wrong information, they'll pull you to secondary inspection, try to charge you with misrepresentation and fraud. So, be very mindful, be very careful, and be diligent in terms of tracking your time abroad. And if you need to spend more time abroad, even with a re-entry permit, they're questioning you like, "Where do you live? What's your intention? When did you apply for the re-entry permit?" So be mindful even if you have a re-entry permit you need to have a clear understanding of what is the reason behind it and what is your ultimate goal when you travel so long outside United States. So be mindful extensive travel abroad will flag you in the system and you will be subjected to secondary inspection. So please be mindful of that. Apply for re-entry permit when you can.
Number five, green card holders who speak against the government. Social media posting. You're very vocal, you know, supporting Palestinians, uh, talking about, you know, against the government, you know, having extreme opinions. They're checking, they're monitoring, they have systems and they have technology to do that. And as a green card holder, specifically when you travel or apply for citizenship, that's when they cross-reference all this information and it could come back and haunt you. So remember they are watching, they will be monitoring this, they'll be bringing up this especially when you travel, especially when you apply for citizenship. These kind of statements that you do on social media when you, you know, appear in protest, your photo is taken, you know, guys, this is something that will stay on the record and it's going to be very difficult for you to clear that.
So five things we talked about. Number one, DUI, very important, even one single DUI could impact you. Number two, speeding tickets, more than three could impact you. Be mindful. Number three, not paying taxes or being late on taxes. Be mindful. It could hurt you. Number four, staying abroad too long, over a year. Be careful, especially as a green card holder. Number five, speaking against the government on social media and other areas. Be careful. All these five things are going to hurt green card holders in 2025. And it's very easy how to avoid it. If it happens to you, deal with it. Speak with an attorney and you'll be fine.
If you need help with an immigration matter, send me a text 619-483-4549.