Afghan U.S. Allies Fear Losing Green Cards in Visa Crackdown

Hundreds of Afghans who fought alongside U.S. troops and supported the U.S. government in Afghanistan are now worried their green cards could be revoked, five years after the chaotic American withdrawal from Kabul. The federal government has sent notices warning that the basis for their visas has been revoked or denied, according to NPR.

In Afghanistan, their efforts ranged from custodial jobs at the U.S. embassy to technology and engineering roles with U.S. contractors. Some served on the frontlines of combat as interpreters. Families who have built new lives in America—raising children, learning English, enrolling in college—are now scrambling to find answers on how to respond to the government’s letters.

The Special Immigrant Visa Program Under Scrutiny

The Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program, authorized by Congress in 2009, was designed to bring Afghans employed by or on behalf of the U.S. government to America. Since its inception, the State Department has issued 160,000 of those visas, with more than half granted after the U.S. closed its embassy in Kabul in 2021.

The first stage in the SIV application process requires obtaining “Chief of Mission” approval, which involves providing an employer verification letter, letters of recommendation from a supervisor, and proof that the employer was either the U.S. government or a contractor. Such verification became significantly more difficult after the U.S. withdrawal, as many companies shut down and destroyed their records.

“Especially after the withdrawal of troops, many companies were shutting down, destroying all of their records, making it impossible in many cases to verify someone’s employment,” said Jennifer Patota, deputy director of U.S. legal services at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP).

The notices themselves are not necessarily new. The federal government began sending some out at the end of the Biden administration after suspecting that some supporting documents for Afghans’ SIV applications were not collected through correct processes, potentially amounting to fraud. But advocates, lawyers, and Afghan nationals say the letters are now arriving at a higher frequency and volume than expected, leaving U.S. allies at risk of deportation.

Fraud Concerns and the Crackdown

Fraud concerns have been a central driver of the revocations. In one case prosecuted by the Justice Department, a Navy Reserve commander was sentenced to 30 months in prison for a years-long bribery scheme in which he accepted payments from Afghan nationals in exchange for drafting, submitting, and verifying fraudulent letters of recommendation for SIV applicants.

Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, an organization that advocates for Afghans who worked alongside U.S. troops, said his organization was notified by the previous administration that the notices would be going out.

“When this started, it had nothing to do with the Afghans. It was very much about the letter writers and companies,” VanDiver said. “There were some companies and some letter writers that were up to no good—like selling letters and every single case associated with those companies or letter writers then got poisoned.”

The expectation was that if SIVs were fully revoked, individuals could still apply for, and would likely receive, asylum. But now, his organization and others are hearing from hundreds of people and believe the scope of the revocations is much larger than anticipated.

A Shrinking Path to Legal Status

The letters arrive at a time when Afghan nationals feel particularly excluded from the U.S. legal immigration system. The Trump administration has paused other avenues for legal immigration available to Afghans, including the refugee resettlement program, which was halted on the first day of Trump’s second term, and the processing of other types of visas. Those already in the country on programs like Temporary Protected Status have also been stripped of that permission.

In June 2025, Afghanistan was added to a list of 19 countries for which travel to the U.S. would be restricted. Following the November 2025 shooting in Washington in which an Afghan national was accused of killing a U.S. National Guard member, the administration paused asylum cases, green cards, and other immigration services for those from the listed countries and suspended visa processing for Afghan passport holders.

Presidential Proclamation 10998, effective January 1, 2026, further restricted the entry of Afghan nationals. Only three Afghan nationals were resettled in the United States during fiscal year 2026, according to IRAP.

Families Fear for Their Futures

Across the country, Afghan nationals who helped the U.S. and their families are grappling with stress, confusion, and potential financial instability after receiving the notices. Several asked that NPR use only their first names because they fear their immigration status could be affected by speaking to the press.

Abdul, an engineer in Texas who worked with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan from 2017 to 2021, was evacuated from Kabul to Qatar by the State Department and eventually got his SIV approved. He came to the U.S. with his wife and two young children.

“Most of my friends living in the U.S. three or four years, all of them receive a letter,” he said. “All my friends are very depressed, most of them very worried about this issue. What will happen to us? What should we do?”

The letters are reaching people with long histories of working alongside American efforts. Sasad, a former engineer in Washington state, worked with the U.S. government from 2014 until the withdrawal. He lives with his wife and U.S.-born children, including one with health issues requiring surgery and regular hospital visits. Sasad will soon be eligible to apply for citizenship but is afraid to begin the process.

“I’ve been here for more than four years, and then in the next year, I am eligible to apply for my citizenship. But when I go to the USCIS, I’m stressed that they will detain me,” he said.

Broader Community Impact

The anxiety extends beyond SIV holders. Afghan immigrants across the country report living in fear of immigration enforcement. Sultan, a 52-year-old Afghan immigrant in California who worked with U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Teams, told EFE that ICE agents have continually arrived in his neighborhood and knocked on doors since last year, despite the fact that these families arrived on American planes with promises of safety.

“The fear of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service, its incursions and its interference in daily life has deeply affected us, creating an atmosphere of great fear; it is a fear that can almost be perceived in the air,” Sultan said, as reported by News247Plus. “I fear losing my green card for no apparent reason.”

Jill Marie Bussey, director for legal affairs at Global Refuge, which has been helping hundreds navigate the visa issue, said the State Department’s re-review of Chief of Mission applications in 2024 was understandable. But she noted a recent decline in the quality and clarity of some department communications, “including final appeal decisions that appear to raise questions about factual accuracy and provide little explanation for the outcome.”

Political Divisions and the Path Forward

Some Republicans in Congress have expressed concern about the impact on Afghan allies. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) cautioned against a “knee-jerk reaction” that could block Afghans with valid cases, noting the importance of these allies for U.S. special operators. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said she has talked to veterans who are “very concerned about the safety of Afghans who have helped us.”

However, the administration has defended its approach. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the Afghan national charged in the November shooting “would’ve never been here if not for Joe Biden’s dangerous policies which allowed countless unvetted criminals to invade our country.”

Advocates argue that Congress has failed to assert its role. “Instead of asserting its constitutional role, Congress has allowed itself to be sidelined, failing to provide meaningful oversight,” VanDiver said. “Failing to modernize the asylum, refugee, or special immigrant visa systems. The vacuum they have left is being filled with fear-mongering, not facts; politics, not policy.”

For now, it does not appear that Afghan nationals who received letters have had their green cards or citizenship revoked at scale. But advocates say the letters, alongside the crumbling of other programs, cause confusion and fear among a population that risked everything to support the U.S. mission.

“These folks were on the frontlines of our war. They were interpreting. They were enabling our mission,” VanDiver said. “Now it feels like it’s all coming crashing down and they get no explanation of what to do.”

As the fifth anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal passes, the fate of thousands of Afghan allies remains uncertain. IRAP has accused the U.S. government of betraying its promise to protect Afghan refugees, saying that “whether it is arbitrarily targeting Afghan green card holders or stranding allies abroad, the U.S. government has betrayed its promise.” For the Afghans who served alongside American troops, the question of what comes next remains unanswered.