New Immigration Rules to Facilitate Family Unity

The USCIS just announced the new rules to facilitate family unity and avoid protracted separation from loved ones. As has been covered elsewhere, the new rule will encourage more people to step out of the shadows and address their immigration status.

Under the new rule, an applicant must meet all of these requirements to qualify for the waiver:

• Applicant must be present in the U.S. at the time they file for the waiver;
• Applicant must prove hardship to U.S. citizen spouse or parent;
• Applicant must be barred from readmission based only on unlawful presence in the U.S. and have no other grounds of inadmissibility;
• Applicant must be a beneficiary of an approved immediate relative petition;
• Applicant must have a case pending with the Department of State based on the approved immediate relative petition and paid the immigrant visa processing fee;
• Applicant must depart from the United States to obtain the immediate relative immigrant visa; and
• Applicant must be able to prove extreme hardship to her or his U.S. citizen spouse or parent.

This is great news for thousands of foreign nationals who qualify for unlawful presence waiver, but are afraid of taking trip overseas for fear of long separation from their loved ones. We join other immigration advocates all over the country in thanking and congratulating the Obama Administration on the steps it has taken in the past one year in making the immigration system more humane. More remains to be done.