The details of this story have glaring mistakes and don't make sense. I know this because I'm a naturalized citizen to the US and I came in on H1B.

> He's been doing the paperwork to finally become a citizen, and as one of the final steps he was required to leave the country

You don't have to leave the country to become a citizen. I recently became a US citizen a few years back and leaving the country is not required.

If you somehow meant Green Card, the timeline still doesn't make sense. Until May 2026, 3 months ago, you could do Adjustment of Status within the country without having to leave. So there's no reason why you friend would need to leave the country to get his Green Card unless he chose Consular Processing.

Getting denied CP is rare, but it means that they lied about something.

And if he did live in the US for decades without having his GC, well, applying for GC under Trump in this climate was a huge mistake, especially leaving the country having been in here for decades illegally. He should have waited 2 years until the Republicans were voted out and maybe he would have some modicum of amnesty where at least ICE would get him.

> His wife and child aren't citizens of his home country either, so it's not like they can move to be with him.

This also doesn't make sense. First off, the country's immigration is even more restrictive than the US?? They can't even visit on a travel visa??

They can definitely move to his home country, since he's a citizen. There's a spousal visas for almost all countries, and the child is most definitely allowed to come in since they can usually get citizenship via the father.

But there's no way he hasn't seen his daughter in over a year since the forced Consular Processing didn't start until this past May, and his spouse and daughter can most definitely travel to see him.

None of this story makes sense, so either you have the details very drastically incorrect or this is completely fake.