Washington, D.C. — On January 6, 2012, the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced its intent to stop requiring certain undocumented family members of U.S. citizens to leave the United States before they can apply for a waiver to allow them to remain with their family members.
Church World Service, a global humanitarian agency, applauds this announcement as a common-sense, first-step reform to improve immigration policies and keep families together. But CWS notes with disappointment that the proposed family waiver would not apply to family members of lawful permanent residents (LPRs).
Currently, undocumented relatives of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents (LPRs) face many barriers to family unity. When a U.S. citizen or LPR files a visa petition for an undocumented relative, the relative most be interviewed at a U.S. consulate in his/her country of origin. However, when the relative leaves the United States for that interview, he/she may trigger a 3- or 10-year bar to re-entry to the United States.
At that point, the only option is to apply for a waiver to that bar while outside the United States. Decisions on waiver applications can take weeks, months or even more than a year to be completed, and the relative must remain outside of the United States, separated from his/her family members, during the entire process.
If finalized and implemented, USCIS’s announced proposal would allow the spouse, or certain qualifying children or parents, of a U.S. citizen to remain in the United States while they apply for a waiver to the 3- or 10-year bar. This new procedure does not change the legal standard for the family unity waiver and it does not create any new benefit or right for applicants. The applicant would still have to meet the difficult burden of showing that a 3- or 10-year bar from the United States would cause their U.S. citizen spouse or parent “extreme hardship.”
“The CWS network has witnessed first-hand the heartache endured by families forced to spend lengthy times apart during the wait for a waiver. We welcome this proposed change, and urge USCIS to finalize and implement it as soon as possible,” said Erol Kekic, Director of the CWS Immigration and Refugee Program.
“The family members of Lawful Permanent Residents should also be able to apply for these waivers while remaining in the United States,” continued Kekic. “The anguish of family separation is felt just as strongly by a family member with a green card as by a family member with U.S. citizenship. We welcome this change in process, and will advocate for it to be extended to family members of Lawful Permanent Residents, in addition to U.S. citizens.”
Church World Service is a long-time advocate of immigration reform that reunites families, protects all workers and provides a way for undocumented immigrants to earn legal status.