They fought for the U.S. in Afghanistan. Now they worry about losing their green cards

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.

In Afghanistan, their efforts ranged from custodial jobs at the U.S. embassy, to technology and engineering roles with U.S. contractors and companies. Some were on the frontlines of combat as interpreters.

In the years leading up to the U.S.'s chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Kabul, Congress and the Biden administration facilitated several programs for Afghans involved in military efforts to come to the U.S. with their families. Among them is the Special Immigrant Visa for Afghans, which was authorized in 2009. Since then, the State Department has issued 160,000 of those visas. More than half of them were granted since the U.S. closed its embassy in Kabul in 2021.

But now, five years after the U.S. left Afghanistan, hundreds of people who came on SIVs and now have green cards have received notices from the federal government warning them that the basis for their visas has been revoked or denied.

Families, many of whom were having children, learning English and enrolling in college, are now scrambling to find answers on the best way to respond to the government's letters.

"We are trying to work, study, raise our children and build a normal life in the U.S," said M., who asked NPR to refer to him by his first initial because he's concerned that speaking to the media could affect his green card. "But now we are also trying to find lawyers, contact congressional offices and understand what may happen to our green cards. It is very stressful because even immigration lawyers give different opinions."

The notices themselves are not necessarily new. The federal government began sending some out at the end of the Biden administration because they suspected some of the supporting documents for Afghans' SIV applications were not collected through the correct processes, potentially amounting to fraud.

But advocates, lawyers and Afghan nationals who spoke with NPR said the letters appear to be sent at a higher frequency and volume than what advocates expected, and are leaving some of these U.S. allies at risk of being deported. Over the last year, those helping allies settle into the U.S. noticed an uptick in the letters and a lack of pattern as to who was receiving them. The letters have added to the dwindling pathways for Afghans to become U.S. citizens and settle into their new lives.

"What we have seen specifically with the SIV program is people who are issued these visas and come to the U.S. have built lives here, gotten jobs, their kids are in school, they've integrated into their communities and are living their lives," said Jennifer Patota, deputy director of U.S. legal services at the International Refugee Assistance Project. "To get a withdrawal of approval letter years after the actual visa has been issued is something we haven't ever seen before."

The State Department and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services branch of the Homeland Security Department, which are sending the letters, did not respond to requests for comment.

Fraud detection efforts combine with a mass deportation strategy

The first stage in the process of applying for the SIV is to get what is called a "Chief of Mission" approval. It involves providing an employer verification letter — letters of recommendation from a supervisor and proof that shows the employer was either the U.S. government or a contractor with the U.S. government, among other things.

Such verification became more difficult after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"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," Patota said.

And then there was a concern of fraud — particularly that these immigrants, even unknowingly, had paid for letters of recommendation. In one case prosecuted by the Justice Department, a man was sentenced to 30 months in prison for a years-long bribery scheme where he accepted payments from Afghan nationals in exchange for drafting, submitting and verifying fraudulent letters of recommendation for Afghan nationals who applied for SIVs.

To combat the risk of fraud, the Biden administration created a plan to verify SIV information of individuals who could have connections to employers later suspected of such schemes. Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, advocates for Afghans who worked alongside U.S. troops. He 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, he said, was that if the SIVs were fully revoked, individuals could still apply for, and would be likely to receive, asylum. But now, his organization and others are hearing from hundreds of people and believe the scope of the revocations is much larger.

Under this Trump administration, the letters and revocations come at a time when Afghan nationals feel particularly left out of the legal immigration system. The U.S. has paused other avenues for legal immigration available to Afghans, including the refugee resettlement program, which Trump halted on the first day of his 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 to stay.

"When the Department of State initiated a re-review of Chief of Mission applications in 2024, we understood the importance of that effort," said Jill Marie Bussey, director for legal affairs at Global Refuge. That group has been helping hundreds navigate this visa issue, as well as resettlement in the U.S. "The correspondence we saw at that time was generally tailored to the individual case and provided applicants with enough information to understand the decision and any available next steps."

But she says more recently, "there is a 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."

For now, it does not appear that Afghan nationals who received letters have had their green cards or citizenship revoked at scale. But advocates like VanDiver said the letters, alongside the crumbling of other programs like Temporary Protected Status and immigration application pauses, cause confusion and fear.

"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."

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.

One of those people is Abdul who lives in Texas and was an engineer working with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan from 2017 to 2021. He was evacuated from Kabul to Qatar by the State Department and eventually got his SIV approved and came to the U.S. with his wife and two young kids.

"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 who had a long history of working alongside American efforts. Sasad, who lives in Washington state and is a former engineer, worked with the U.S. government in 2014 until the withdrawal. He began his visa process in 2019, before the fall of Kabul.

He lives with his wife, and they have U.S.-born children, including one with health issues that has required surgery and regular hospital visits. Sasad will soon be eligible to apply for citizenship, but after receiving his letter, he 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 [United States Citizenship and Immigration Services], I'm stressed that they will detain me," he said, adding that his plans to go back to school and work are less certain now that he fears losing his legal permission to stay.

The Afghan nationals NPR spoke to described returning to Afghanistan as unimaginable, stressful and a death sentence. The country, which has been under the complete control of the Taliban, has also experienced deadly strikes from Pakistan, earthquakes and widespread hunger and malnutrition.

"When I came here, I thought that all my problems were solved, that now is the time to build my future right here," Sasad said, adding that he is concerned about his ability to stay in school, have a career or even travel outside the U.S. in an emergency. "What now? I cannot focus on my long-term goals. Now all of my thoughts are 'what if?' situations. A lot of 'what if?' situations [are] giving me anxiety and depression."