On June 17th, 2024, the Department of Homeland Security announced a major shift in President Biden’s immigration policy, the ‘Parole in Place’ for spouses and children of U.S. citizens.
The established law has meant that noncitizens married to a U.S. citizen may apply for lawful permanent residence, based on that marriage, with a significant number of those applicants forced to first depart the United States and wait to be processed abroad. This procedural requirement can cause severe hardship to affected families, given the lengthy amount of time often required to go through the consulate visa process.
This new process (PiP) will allow DHS to consider, on a case-by-case basis, requests of persons married to U.S. Citizens provided that they:
- have lived in the United States for 10 years or more;
- do not pose a threat to public safety or national security;
- are otherwise eligible to apply for adjustment of status;
- merit a favorable exercise of discretion.
There are significant restrictions to this process, however. To qualify, an individual must also:
- Be present in the United States without admission or parole.
Broadly speaking, this means those still in the United States on a visa overstay will not be eligible.
Additionally, qualified individuals must:
- Have been continuously present in the United States for at least 10 years as of June 17th, 2024; and
- Have a legally valid marriage to a U.S. citizen as of June 17th, 2024.
The noncitizen children of the requesting applicant may also apply, so long as they have a qualifying stepchild relationship to a U.S. citizen as of June 17th, 2024. Please note that this process is not yet in effect; it is expected that additional details will be announced by official notice, in the Federal Register, in the coming weeks.
While it is not specified that children with such a qualifying relationship to a divorced step-parent are eligible, statutory language here does suggest they should be able to apply, so long as they can demonstrate the valid and on-going nature of that relationship.
It is estimated that his updated process could potentially be available to approximately 500,000 noncitizen spouses, and approximately 50,000 noncitizen children of these spouses.
In addition, DHS announced that will be working closely with the Department of State to ‘more efficiently facilitate certain employment-based nonimmigrant visas for eligible individuals, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and undocumented citizens, who have grated from an accredited U.S. institution of higher education.’ Since these changes are adjustments to executive discretion, they can very easily be reversed by any subsequent administration. Nonimmigrants who believe that they qualify for either of these announced changes to policy are urged to speak with a qualified immigration lawyer as soon as the policy goes into effect.
