Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) (sometimes also written as Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) Status) is a special way for minors currently in the United States to adjust status to that of Lawful Permanent Resident despite unauthorized entry or unlawful presence in the United States, that might usually make them inadmissible to the United States and create bars to Adjustment of Status. The key criterion for SIJS is abuse, neglect, or abandonment by one or both parents.
Contents
History
The Immigration Act of 1990 amended the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 to add the Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. Specifically, Section 203(b)(4) allocates a percentage of visas to "Special Immigrants", and Section 101(a)(27)(J) defines Special Immigrant Juveniles. The scope of SIJS was clarified and expanded as part of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008.
Some questions surrounding the validity of court orders used in Form I-360 petitions were settled as part of the settlement agreement for Perez-Olano v. Holder.
The program's usage has significantly increased since 2013, and the increase has been attributed to the use of these special statuses by some of the child migrants who arrived as part of the 2014 child migrant surge.
Eligibility and limitations
The following are some important eligibility constraints on SIJS:
SIJS places limitations on family sponsorship. In particular:
When comparing SIJS with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, law resource NOLO noted that whereas DACA does not confer any real legal status, SIJS does. However, it noted the limitation on sponsorship of one's non-abusive parent as a potential drawback of SIJS.
Application process
Special Immigrant Juvenile Status is adjudicated by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
State court finding of abuse, neglect, or abandonment
A first step to applying for SIJS is to obtain a State Court finding (in the United States state where the applicant resides) that the applicant is neglected, abused, or abandoned by one or both parents, and that it is not in the child's best interest to return to his or her home country. Court terms, procedures, and legal standards vary from state to state. The abuse or neglect may be brought to the attention of the court by:
Form I-360 Petition for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status
The applicant must petition for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status using Form I-360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant. Form I-360 is a generic form that covers many categories of special immigrants. To use it for SIJS, one must check box c in Part 2. The Form I-360 petition must be accompanied by documents including a birth certificate (or other proof of age) and copies of the court order of dependency, custody, or guardianship. There is no fee for filing this application.
The form may be filled by the child or a guardian acting on the child's behalf. If the child is over the age of 14, he/she must sign the form, otherwise it may be signed by the guardian who filled it out with a clear indication of who the guardian was and what child the guardian was signing on behalf of. For the Form I-360 to be considered valid, both these conditions must be satisfied:
As part of a settlement agreement for a class action lawsuit, the USCIS has agreed to accept Form I-360 petitions where the underlying court order has ceased to be valid solely on account of age.<refn name=perez-olano/>
Form I-485 for Adjustment of Status
Form I-485, requesting Adjustment of Status to that of Lawful Permanent Resident, may be filed either concurrently with Form I-360 or separately after the petition has been approved. Even if filed concurrently, the forms are processed by USCIS in sequence, so that action on Form I-485 begins only after Form I-360 is approved. There may be some wait times after the approval of Form I-360 before the Adjustment of Status application can be processed, due to numerical limits on the number of people per year who can use Special Immigrant Juvenile Status; however, in general the Priority Dates for these applications are current for most countries of chargeability. SIJS falls under the EB-4 category.
Once the Form I-485 is approved, the applicant transitions to Lawful Permanent Resident status and acquires a Green Card, at which point he or she becomes just like any other LPR, with the exception of not being able to sponsor siblings (till naturalization) or parents (ever).
Other forms
People seeking SIJS may file these forms, typically along with Form I-485:
Statistics for Form I-360
The USCIS releases and updates a dataset on the number of applications received, approved, and denied by quarter for SIJS. According to this data set, the usage of the program has been steadily increasing, and the rate of petition processing has not completely kept pace, resulting in an increase in the number of pending applications at any given point in time. Note that counts of petitions received, approved and denied are during the period in question, whereas counts of petitions pending are at the end of the period.
The increase since 2013 has been attributed to the use of these special statuses by some of the child migrants who arrived as part of the 2014 child migrant surge.
Despite this increase in the number of pending applications, the processing times for Form I-360, as reported by USCIS, are still within the processing time goal of 5 months.
Statistics for Adjustment of Status applications
For most countries of chargeability, the Priority Dates for the EB-4 category that SIJS falls in is current, which means there are no wait times on account of the numerical limits.
The processing time for Form I-485 is listed as 4 months; however, processing times may be longer in case the Form I-485 is accompanied by a Form I-601, since the processing time for the Form I-601 is about 7 months.