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In June 2025, the Trump administration ended a longstanding exception that allowed families of refugees and asylees who could not lawfully marry, often due to laws that discriminated against refugees or LGBTQ couples, to reunite in the United States. This change is one of many harmful executive orders and policy changes that deny immigrants basic rights and prevent loved ones from being together.
In the legal advisory blog below, IRAP shares details about the new policy for legal practitioners to use when representing clients. IRAP is also working on a guide for refugee applicants and impacted communities that will be shared on our legal information website in multiple languages.
This blog post is intended for a legal practitioner audience. It is provided for informational purposes only and not as legal advice. If you would like legal information about the family reunification process in multiple languages, or to request help from IRAP, please use IRAP’s Legal Information website. Legal practitioners can also use IRAP’s family reunification resources on our legal practitioner page.
What was the policy change?
On June 24, 2025, USCIS issued a policy alert that rescinded prior guidance recognizing informal marriages of refugees and asylees.
In U.S. immigration processes, applicants seeking family reunification through a marital relationship are required to produce evidence that their marriage was valid in the place where they got married, known as the “place of celebration.” Until the first Trump administration, a decades-old exception allowed more flexibility to recognize certain informal marriages of refugees and asylees, who were often prevented from legally marrying due to persecution and discrimination. The first Trump administration ended that flexibility, and the Biden administration, in the now rescinded informal marriage guidance, returned to and expanded the original policy to recognize an informal marriage when a refugee or asylee could not lawfully marry due to their flight from persecution and circumstances beyond their control or because of restrictive laws or practices in their country of origin or country of first asylum.
The June 2025 policy underscores the return to the restrictive approach of the first Trump administration in which only a marriage that is legally valid in the place of celebration can be recognized.
What is the basis of this policy change?
USCIS cites President Trump’s January 20, 2025, Executive Order 14148, “Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions,” and Executive Order 14163, “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program,” as basis for the rescission.
Who is impacted by this policy change?
Refugees and asylees who were not able to legally marry their spouse are impacted. The policy is effective as of March 3, 2025 and applies to applications pending or filed on or after that date.
The absence of considerations, such as flight from persecution or restrictive laws or practices that prevent a refugee or asylee from lawfully marrying, is particularly detrimental to adjudications of individuals in LGBTQ relationships. These applicants are often not permitted to marry in their country of origin or country of first asylum. In many cases, they would even be subject to criminal charges if they identified as being LGBTQ, as detailed in Immigration Equality’s country conditions materials. USCIS’s announcement only affects adjudications of refugee applications (I-590’s), asylum applications (I-589’s), and refugee/asylee family reunification petitions (I-730’s), as the more restrictive approach is already used in all other USCIS adjudications.
The policy change will also be implemented by Department of State (DOS) consular officers who process “V92” (asylee follow-to-join) and “V93” (refugee follow-to-join) cases because DOS consular officers “effectively act as agents” of USCIS service centers for processing these cases and are not responsible for final adjudication.
What options can legal practitioners look into for impacted clients?
If a refugee or asylee is in the United States and is seeking to reunify with their spouse abroad to whom they are informally married:
The I-730 process will no longer be viable for them and per the memo, pending applications will now be denied. In most cases, this will likely be through USCIS issuing a Request for Evidence to show the marriage is legally valid or issuing a Notice of Intent to Deny based on a legally invalid marriage.
Legal practitioners could:
- Review the facts to consider if there is sufficient evidence to establish a marriage that was legally valid in the place of celebration, including through secondary evidence if no marriage certificate is available.
- Counsel clients about whether there are any possible options to legally marry and related legal challenges and risks. Options could include international travel to a jurisdiction where they can legally marry or considering jurisdictions where virtual marriage (marriage by proxy) is allowed, followed by travel together to a location where they can physically be together.
- Explore alternative U.S. immigration pathways such as humanitarian parole or, if the U.S.-based spouse can naturalize, a fiancé(e) K-1 visa.
IRAP’s Practice Guide on U.S. Immigration Law and Marriages Abroad contains additional tips and information for practitioners, and we will be updating it to reflect this most recent policy change.
For refugee couples who are both abroad, with at least one spouse applying through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP):
As of July 2025, the USRAP suspension will likely prevent the principal applicant’s case from moving forward indefinitely. However, because the rescission includes adjudications of refugee applications (I-590’s), even if the case was able to move forward, the couple would not be able to be processed together on the same case with the spouse as a derivative. Only the principal applicant, as an unmarried individual–along with any children–would be able to apply.
Legal practitioners can help clients explore other options for access to USRAP for the derivative spouse. In some cases, if the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) referred the family to USRAP originally, they may be able to refer the spouse independently, allowing the family to still process at the same time. A legal practitioner could also help the family explore any, usually extremely limited, alternative pathways such as resubmission by UNHCR to another refugee resettlement country.
If both informally married spouses are already in the United States:
The guidance will prevent the marriage to be recognized in an asylum adjudication (I-589) or follow-to-join refugee/asylee petition (I-730). Legal practitioners should undertake a detailed and careful legal and factual analysis to understand if the marriage is legally valid in the place of celebration. If the marriage is informal, the legal practitioner should ensure that the client(s) understand that the marriage will not be recognized and the spouse cannot receive derivative asylee or refugee status.
Significantly, if the couple is together in the United States, they are likely to have options to legally marry in a U.S. state. A legal practitioner could advise on any immigration pathways they could pursue once legally married such as derivative status (if an asylum application is still pending) or an I-130 (if the spouse with asylee or refugee status becomes a lawful permanent resident).
This blog was published in July 2025 and will not include any legal changes since publication. Please use IRAP’s Legal Practitioner Resources page to find our most recently published resources.
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