While more than 500,000 individuals and their families await the fate of the Keeping Families Together program, there are several special programs and laws that allow for individuals who entered without inspection or have accumulated more than 180 days unlawful presence to secure lawful permanent residence.
In 2010, USCIS created a policy allowing immediate relatives of military members to apply for parole-in-place. Like Keeping Families Together, this allows for children, spouses, and parents of active duty and honorably discharged U.S. military members to be paroled, making them eligible for lawful permanent resident (LPR) status. With an immediate-relative petition, these family members, if otherwise admissible, can pursue adjustment of status within the United States.
Many humanitarian benefits provide lawful status and a long-term pathway to obtain lawful permanent residence. Certain victims of crime and human trafficking can secure four-year temporary visas that allow them to be eligible for permanent residence after three years of holding such status. Foreign nationals subject to abuse and/or extreme cruelty by their U.S. citizen or LPR spouses, parents, and children are eligible to self-petition for lawful permanent residence, regardless of whether they entered with inspection or are currently in lawful status. Asylees also may secure lawful permanent residence, even if they were not admitted lawfully.
In immigration court, certain individuals who are non-LPRs can apply for cancellation of removal as a defense, and if granted such relief, they will be issued a green card. This is a challenging benefit that requires proving 10 years of continuous lawful presence, good moral character, and that a qualifying relative would suffer from exceptional and extremely unusual hardship if separated or forced to relocate, among other criteria. This benefit also has numerical limitations, so individuals otherwise eligible often have to wait several years after their final court hearing to receive an approval.
While increasingly rare, Section 245(i) of the LIFE Act – commonly referred to as just 245(i) — continues to benefit individuals who initially entered without inspection and are subject to unlawful presence bars secure a green card without leaving the United States. The program has helped hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals since its inception, and it allows individuals who were beneficiaries of approvable-when-filed labor certifications and immigrant visa petitions filed on or prior to April 30, 2001, seek adjustment of status by paying a penalty fee. This particular law is complex, as it allows derivative beneficiaries to be “grandfathered,” and permits after-acquired spouses access to benefits.
Even more rare, Section 203 of NACARA still allows certain Guatemalans and Salvadorans to gain lawful permanent residence, even if they initially entered without inspection. While the eligibility criteria may be difficult to fulfill as a primary beneficiary as the required entry dates are from three decades ago, there are still some existing primary and derivative beneficiaries who can take advantage of this program.
