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USCIS canceled naturalization interviews and oath ceremonies nationwide, including for applicants outside its travel-ban list

The Seattle Times reported on January 8, 2026, that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had, since early December 2025, canceled naturalization interviews and oath ceremonies for lawful permanent residents nationwide, including many applicants from countries outside the Trump administration's travel-ban list. At one Seattle nonprofit, 55 clients had appointments canceled as of early January 2026 -- 49 of them nationals of non-travel-ban countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Ecuador, Mexico and Samoa -- and received only a form notice citing "unforeseen circumstances." USCIS attributed the cancellations to a "commonsense approach to balancing out workloads," without naming a legal basis, individualized reason, or rescheduling timeline.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

The Seattle Times reported on January 8, 2026, that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had, beginning in early December 2025, abruptly canceled naturalization interviews and oath ceremonies for lawful permanent residents across the country, including large numbers of applicants from countries outside the Trump administration's expanded travel-restriction list. Seattle's Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, which supports ten community-based citizenship-assistance organizations, said all ten had clients' interviews or ceremonies canceled since early December, with more than 80 naturalization interviews affected in Seattle alone. At the Asian Counseling and Referral Service, 55 clients had appointments canceled as of early January 2026; 49 were nationals of countries never named in any Trump administration travel restriction, including Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Ecuador, Mexico and Samoa. USCIS gave affected applicants only a form notice citing "unforeseen circumstances," with no individualized reason or rescheduling timeline.

USCIS spokesperson Matthew J. Tragesser confirmed the cancellations on the record, calling them a "commonsense approach to balancing out workloads at offices across the country" and citing "rigorous screening and vetting" as a priority; the agency named no specific legal authority for the pause. This pattern is distinct from a separate, already-disclosed USCIS policy memorandum freezing benefit adjudications specifically for nationals of the administration's travel-ban countries: independent reporting confirmed it reached applicants outside that list entirely and remained unresolved months later. CNN identified affected applicants in Washington, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Arizona and Massachusetts, including a 61-year-old Ecuadorian woman and a Massachusetts nurse from Haiti pulled from a citizenship line. Oregon Public Broadcasting reported in March 2026 that 18 ceremonies for Mexican nationals in the Yakima Valley remained canceled, with USCIS citing only "an internal issue."

Why we recorded this

The Immigration and Nationality Act creates naturalization as a defined legal process, and Congress did not give USCIS open-ended discretion to halt adjudications indefinitely without a stated legal basis. USCIS canceled dozens of already-scheduled citizenship interviews and oath ceremonies nationwide -- including applicants who had already cleared background checks and fingerprinting, and who are not subject to the administration's travel-ban country list -- offering only a form "unforeseen circumstances" notice and no individualized reason or timeline. This archive records the freeze because substituting unexplained, indefinite delay for the adjudication process Congress established lets an agency rewrite the law by omission rather than through any stated rule or exception.

Sources

  1. WA green card holders seeking citizenship are seeing their interviews canceled — The Seattle Times primary accessed September 3, 2026
  2. How a freeze on some US citizenship decisions is affecting these would-be Americans — CNN investigative accessed September 3, 2026
  3. Their citizenship ceremonies were abruptly canceled. Months later, they are still waiting for them to be rescheduled — Oregon Public Broadcasting / Northwest News Network investigative accessed September 3, 2026

See also