Today I’d like to talk about the special immigrant juveniles status, which is a path to a green card for foreign-national children present in the United States who cannot be reunified with their parents for certain reasons.  Those reasons are generally because the parents abused them, abandoned them or neglected them. The child must be under 21 when the SIJS application is filed.  It’s ok if the child is over 21 after the application is filed.  The child must also not be married, ever (divorced doesn’t work), and present in the United States. 

So how does this work?  It’s a two-step process.  The first step happens in state family court, and the second step is with immigration.  First and foremost, the child must be declared dependent by a state juvenile court, which requires a process showing that the child is not able to be unified with their parents, or that the parents abuse the child.  The child must explain where the parents are, if they exist, and why reunification is not possible.  The standard for this process is different depending on the state you find yourself in, and immigration is not involved in this process.  Usually there must be another adult who is willing to take guardianship over the child.  This guardian can be undocumented by the way, no need to worry about green card because you’re dealing with state court, not immigration.  So the family court part of the process can take a few months depending on the state. 

In state court you have to show neglect or abandonment, so what qualifies?  Death of one parent by itself can qualify without additional neglect or abuse.  If a parent is abroad, and has shown that they do not wish to be involved in the child’s life, that may be the basis for a special findings order.  By the way, it doesn’t have to be the case that both parents abandoned the child, one parent abandoning the child is enough even if the child is living with the other parent in New York, although in other states like Nebraska, you have to show that reunification is not possible with both parents.

Once family court grants that special findings, then you go to the second step, with immigration.  So you take the special findings order from family court and attach it to your SIJS application that you’re going to file with immigration.  The nice thing about SIJS is that the child need not have entered, or be present in the United States, legally.  SIJS may be granted even if the child cross the border without inspection, or presented someone else’s passport, or was on a visa that expired, those grounds of inadmissibility or removability may be waived.  The SIJS application can take anywhere from six months to a year for immigration to process. 

This is not the only avenue of relief for children who are present in the United States without a parent.  As of now, these individuals are treated carefully by immigration courts because they understand that they are children who are present here in the United States through no fault of their own.  An alternative to SIJS is adoption, but adopting a foreign national child can be a more complicated process that involves a home study to ensure that the child lives in proper circumstances.  The easier alternative is prosecutorial discretion, which just means that the court takes mercy on the child who is present unlawfully and defers removal for a few years, which may then be renewable.  Of course that can change with the new administration, so if you are, or you know a child who is in this circumstance, you should probably move forward with your application sooner rather than later.