US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on July 17 that will begin accepting applications on August 19 under the expanded Parole In Place program announced by the Biden administration back in late June.  The initial announcement hadn’t provided clarity on the date for the start of the program, or on what the requirements would be to qualify.

The program seeks to assist those who are married to a US citizen but who still have no way – or no practical way -to apply for US permanent residence based on the marriage because they had entered the US without lawful inspection.  Once admitted lawfully, an individual married to a US citizen can apply while in the US without having to leave – even if their immigration status has since expired or they have otherwise violated that status.

A person not lawfully admitted would have had to leave the US to process at a US embassy or consulate abroad, and by leaving would typically incur a reentry bar prohibiting readmission for a period of years even of the marriage-based permanent residence case was otherwise approvable. While there is a process for waiver of these reentry bars, not everyone will qualify for a waiver and they are extremely time-consuming and expensive even where an individual might qualify.

The Parole in Place program seeks to solve the problem by creating what is essentially a fictional lawful “admission” to the US for someone who is present now but had entered without lawful inspection and admission.  This would allow such a person to complete the process of obtaining permanent residence while here in the US. A similar program already exists for unlawfully-entered parents of US citizen members of the US military.

As announced, the requirements to qualify include:

1. The applicant must have been physically present in the US for ten years, continuously and without interruptions as of the July 17, 2024 program announcement date (this requirement may in practice prove difficult to demonstrate and document);
2. The applicant must be legally married to a U.S. citizen as of the July 17, 2024 program announcement date;
3. The applicant must not have a disqualifying criminal history or be considered a threat to U.S. national security or public safety (as to what constitutes disqualifying criminal history, this may include felonies, “serious crimes” involving murder, torture, rape, or sexual abuse, and crimes involving firearms or explosives even if somehow non-felony, human trafficking and slavery, crimes involving violence and abuse, drug offenses involving anything other than simple possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana – .
4. The applicant must be physically present in the U.S. without admission or parole; and
5. The applicant must merit a favorable use of discretion by USCIS (non-disqualifying crimes may still be considered here as a negative factor against the applicant, but the applicant can argue mitigating factors).

While the program is intended for spouses of US citizens without lawful entry, qualifying step-children of a US citizen may be considered under the program as well, subject to the same requirement of physical presence in the US on July 17, 2024.