Immigration & Deportation Defense Lawyers

On January 3, 2013, the Department of Homeland Security published a regulation allowing immediate family members of U.S. citizens who entered the U.S. without inspection, or are otherwise ineligible to adjust their status in the U.S. due to unlawful presence, to apply for “form I-601A provisional waivers” in the United States. Once their waivers are approved by the USCIS, they will be eligible to attend their appointments for immigrant visas (green cards) in their countries of origin.
The aim of this new program, which became effective on March 4, 2013, is to avoid having spouses and sons and daughters of US Citizens be separated from their families for months or even years while their waivers are pending.
Now, these family members will obtain their waivers before departing the U.S., will be interviewed abroad, and will then return to their families in the U.S. within just a few days or weeks.

ELIGIBILITY

To qualify, a person must be at least 17 years old, and be the beneficiary of an approved I-130 visa petition as an immediate relative of a U.S. Citizen. Immediate relatives are spouses, parents and children of U.S. citizens. To be considered a “parent”, the sponsoring son or daughter must be at least 21 years of age. To be considered a “child”, the person must be under 21 years of age, although many persons over 21 years of age may still be classified as children under the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA)
The law requires that in order to obtain a waiver, the applicant must demonstrate “extreme hardship” to a qualifying relative. Qualifying relatives must be spouses or parents who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents (LPRs). However, a person with only an LPR spouse or parent, while eligible to apply for a regular I-601 waiver abroad, is ineligible to qualify for an I-601A provisional waiver in the U.S.
Persons who are in the numerically-limited family or employment- based preference categories do not qualify for provisional waivers, although the USCIS indicates that the program could be expanded at some point in the future.

GROUNDS OF INADMISSIBILITY TO WHICH THE WAIVER APPLIES.

The waiver applies solely to inadmissibility based on “unlawful presence” in the U.S. Applicants must be subject to either the 3-year or the 10-year bar once they leave the U.S. Persons subject to the “permanent bar” cannot submit a waiver application until they have remained outside the U.S. for 10 years. Hence, they are ineligible for provisional waivers.
Persons who are inadmissible under another section of the law (e.g.fraud, criminal convictions, etc.) are also ineligible for provisional waivers. Persons already outside the U.S. or already scheduled for an immigrant visa interview outside the U.S. are ineligible to submit provisional waivers.

REMOVAL PROCEEDINGS OR FINAL ORDER OF REMOVAL

If you are in Removal Proceedings or subject to a Final Order of Removal, you may participate in the provisional waiver program unless your removal proceedings have been “administratively closed” and has not been recalendared as of the time that the waiver is submitted to the USCIS.
If you are in removal proceedings and have applied for Deferred Action (DACA), you may apply for provisional waivers after USCIS grants your DACA applications, but only if you meet all the requirements for filing a provisional waiver and your removal proceedings have been administratively closed. Please contact the Law Office of Guerline L. Laurore for a complete evaluation of your case.
If the USCIS approves a provisional waiver for a person in removal proceedings, the person must seek termination or dismissal of the removal proceedings by the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) this must be granted before the person departs the U.S. for their immigrant visa interview abroad. Failure to do so could prevent the person from obtaining an immigrant visa and returning to the U.S. Persons under final orders of removal are ineligible to participate in the provisional waiver program.

Immigration & Deportation Defense Lawyers

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The Law Offices of Guerline L. Laurore, P.C. Have Moved!

Friday, June 6, 2014

Provisional Waivers

ELIGIBILITY

GROUNDS OF INADMISSIBILITY TO WHICH THE WAIVER APPLIES.

REMOVAL PROCEEDINGS OR FINAL ORDER OF REMOVAL

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Immigration and Deportation Defense Attorney in Wilkes Barre, PA