Obama's Proposed Visa Policy Change Will Help American Families Stay Together; Should be Expanded

Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center welcomes the Obama administration’s proposed changes to the green card application process, which would reduce family separation for thousands of U.S. citizens with family members applying for permanent residence.

The proposed regulation would allow immediate relatives of U.S. citizens to apply for waivers to reentry earlier in the process, reducing the time which they must spend waiting abroad while seeking to legally immigrate to the United States.

“This is a positive step that will allow thousands of U.S. citizens to keep their families together as their spouses and children face the grueling application process for a green card,” said NIJC Executive Director Mary Meg McCarthy. “The administration should issue proposed regulations immediately.”

With limited exceptions, all immigrants who apply for lawful permanent residence, also known as a “green card,” are required to leave the United States to attend interviews at consulates in their native countries. Currently, nearly all green card applicants who leave the United States to seek permanent residence are subject to three- or 10-year bars to reentry. The current rules forbid them from applying for waivers to these bars until their consular interviews. Under the proposal, a green card applicant could apply for and receive a “provisional waiver” to the reentry bar before leaving the United States. This change would reduce the amount of time an individual would have to spend abroad waiting to reenter the United States as a permanent resident. Under the administration’s proposal, the waiver would only be available to the spouses and children of Americans who show that an applicant’s prolonged absence would cause extreme hardship.

“NIJC encourages the Department of Homeland Security to extend the provisional waiver to all family-based visa categories, including spouses and children of lawful permanent residents,” McCarthy said. “We need more policies that provide opportunities for immigrants who already have roots in our communities to fully integrate into our society.”

Links:

Download the Department of Homeland Security proposal in PDF form from the Federal Register site

Download an information sheet for immigrants about how the proposed procedure would work