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On June 17, 2024, President Biden announced a new regulation to keep families together. This regulation will benefit a group of immigrants who entered the U.S. without inspection or permission and who married a U.S. citizen prior to 06-17-2024 and have been in the U.S. for at least 10 years. Noncitizen children of these spouses may also benefit from this procedure, if they are physically present in the United States without admission or parole and have a qualifying stepchild relationship to a U.S. citizen as of June 17, 2024.
This regulation will provide these immigrants with the benefit of Parole-In-Place, which would allow them to lawfully remain in the U.S. as a parolee and may permit them to apply for Legal Permanent Resident status. Currently, many of these non-citizen spouses are required to go back to their countries of origin/citizenship to appear at a U.S. consulate to obtain their permission to enter the U.S. as a Green Card Holder. This results in unnecessary separation from their US Citizen spouses and children. DHS estimates that approximately 500,000 noncitizen spouses of U.S. citizens and 50,000 children of these spouses could be eligible to access this process.
In order to be eligible for this benefit an individual must meet the following qualifications:
- Be present in the United States without admission or parole;
- Be Continuously present in the U.S. from 6-17-2014 or earlier;
- Be married to a U.S. Citizen on 6-17-2024 or earlier;
- Do not have any disqualifying criminal history or pose a threat to security or safety; and
- Merit a favorable exercise of discretion.
Additionally, President Biden announced that understanding that it is in the U.S. national interest to utilize and benefit from the skills of individuals educated in the U.S., the government will allow individuals who have a degree from an accredited U.S. higher education institution and who have an job offer related to their degree from a U.S. employer, to receive work visas faster. DACA recipients and other Dreamers will also be able to benefit from this regulation.
President Biden and the Department of Homeland Security must complete the legal procedures to have this proposed regulation implemented which will give it the “force of law”.
This procedures require that the proposal for Parole-In-Place be published in the Federal Register (where all new regulations get published for comment before they become law) for a period of 30-60 days.
Afterwards, the Department of Homeland Security will provide a period of time for the public to make “comments” on the proposed rule, and this period is generally 30-60 days. The agency must review the comments and then make any modifications or changes to the rule that are necessary.
A final rule is then published in the Federal Register and the effective date of the regulation is generally 30 days later.
Regulations occasionally are reviewed by courts when legal actions are filed, and this can delay their implementation. In addition, a change in administration (President) can impact whether the procedure for implementing a regulation is completed. This rule is specifically designed to allow families to stay together and we are hopeful that these benefits will be available soon for our immigrant community.
