Proposed New Immigration Rule Would Ease Waiting Time for the Spouse of U.S. Citizens Requiring a Waiver
While the foreign national spouses and children of U.S. citizens living in the U.S. can apply for a green card, those who entered the U.S. illegally or entered legally yet overstayed their period of authorized stay, must leave the U.S. and apply for their green card at the U.S. Consulate abroad. For those who have accrued a year of unlawful presence in the U.S, once they leave the U.S. they trigger a ten year bar from the U.S. They can apply for a waiver to allow them to return to their families before ten years by showing that their U.S. spouse or parent would face extreme hardship as a result of the separation. But under current procedures, waiver applicants must first leave the U.S., be interviewed at the U.S. Consulate and be told to apply for a waiver, and then must submit the waiver. This can result in family members being stuck outside the U.S. for months, and even years while they wait for their U.S. Consulate appointments and for their waiver to be approved – if it is.
The proposed new rule would allow U.S. citizen spouse waiver applicants to apply for a “provisional waiver” while they are still in the U.S. Instead of leaving the U.S. and first applying for a green card, and first waiting for a waiver application to be adjudicated, this would allow spouses to wait in the U.S. while their waiver application is adjudicated, and then leave the U.S. to apply for the green card at the U.S. Consulate. While this proposed rule would minimize the time that the spouses and children of U.S. citizens are apart, one of the real, but unstated benefits is that it allows spouses to “test” whether they can overcome the ten-year bar before they actually trigger the bar by leaving the U.S.
You can read the USCIS Director's thoughts about this on his blog.
The New Times reported on this proposed change as well.
