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

Murals are seen along the walls at a quiet U.S embassy on July 30, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Paula Bronstein/Getty Images hide caption

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now have green cards have received notices from the federal government warning them that the basis for their visas has been revoked or denied.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.