Approximately half a million illegally immigrated spouses of U.S. citizens and thousands of stepchildren now have the opportunity to apply for permanent residency, or a “green card.”
The Department of Homeland Security announced Monday that it is opening a path to permanent residency for some husbands and wives who entered the United States without authorization or parole.
Under the new procedure, which took effect on August 19, the children of these noncitizens, who were also born outside the United States, could also be eligible.
“Too often, the spouses of noncitizen U.S. citizens – many of them mothers and fathers – live in uncertainty because of unreasonable hurdles in our immigration system,” said Ur M. Jaddou, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, in a press release.
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According to DHS estimates, more than two-thirds of noncitizens without legal immigration status who are married to a U.S. citizen have not been eligible to apply for adjustment of status.
Instead, they were forced to return to their home country and apply, often waiting many years for a visa to rejoin their spouse and family.
For those who meet the DHS’s new criteria, this will no longer be necessary.
Who can now apply for a status adjustment?
DHS said spouses who have been in the United States without authorization or parole and who have resided continuously since at least June 17, 2014, through the date of filing the documents are eligible to apply.
You must also have a legal marriage to a U.S. citizen that occurred on or before June 17, 2024.
Other criteria include that the person does not have a disqualifying criminal history and does not believe the government poses a threat to public safety, national security, or border security.
It is estimated that approximately 500,000 spouses will be able to apply using Form I-131F from the U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Service.
Noncitizen stepchildren are eligible if they are younger than 21 years old and unmarried on June 17, 2024, and have resided in the country continuously for the ten years prior to that date.
Similar criteria regarding criminal record and public safety apply to non-citizen stepchildren. An estimated 50,000 of them are currently eligible.
The DHS said that people without legal status who have been approved by immigration authorities to enter the United States are not eligible to apply.
The aim is to keep families together
In 2021, President Biden asked DHS to explore ways to reduce immigration barriers for such groups. The department said this new program would “promote family unity” while removing hurdles to legal status.
It is also hoped that the plan will stimulate the US economy by allowing spouses to work legally.
DHS also argues that this approach will advance diplomatic and foreign policy goals, increase national security, and reduce pressure on the government’s limited resources.
“Designed to keep American families together, this process will remove these unjustified barriers for those who would otherwise be eligible to live and work legally in the United States, while making the immigration system more efficient, implementing more effective screening and oversight, and focusing on noncitizens who contribute to and have long-standing ties to American communities across the country,” Jaddou added.
The move was widely welcomed by immigration groups and immigration lawyers.
“As immigration lawyers, we see every day how outdated laws keep U.S. citizens’ families in long-term legal limbo, forcing them to go through a laborious bureaucratic process to obtain legal residency,” said Kelli Stump, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), in a press release.
“With this action, the administration is using its congressional authority to put families first and implement common sense solutions,” Stump continued. “This program is long overdue, and we are excited and hopeful about the meaningful change it will bring for our clients and their American family members.”
The National Immigration Center for Enforcement, which advocates for stricter border security measures, said the program shows how Democrats have failed the American people.
“Illegal aliens come first, American families come last in Kamala Harris’ America,” the group posted on X, formerly Twitter.
The program is similar to others introduced under the Biden administration that provide “local parole” for citizens of Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela, among others.
This means that USCIS can adjudicate cases while the person is in the United States without fear of deportation, but approval is not guaranteed.
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