USCIS Implements Help HAITI Act of 2010

On January 3, 2011 the United States Citizenship & Immigration Service announced the implementation of the Help HAITI Act of 2010; a law aimed at granting Lawful Permanent Resident status to certain orphaned children devastated by the Haiti Earthquake and paroled into the United States under the Haitian Orphan Parole Program.

To be eligible, children must: 1) file aForm I-485; Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, with fee, on or before December 9, 2013; 2) have been inspected and granted parole into the United States under the humanitarian parole policy announced by the Secretary of Homeland Security on January 18, 2010(this program was closed to new parole requests on April 15, 2010); 3) be admissible to the United States as an immigrant, however visa and passport requirements are waived; and 4) be physically present in the United States on the date the application is filed and on the date that CIS makes a decision on the case. Importantly, CIS states that it is not necessary for a U.S. citizen to adopt a Haitian parolee in order for the Haitian parolee to obtain a green card under the Help HAITI Act of 2010. However, adoption by a U.S. citizen will be necessary for the Haitian parolee to obtain automatic citizenship under section 320 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The Act will serve to give opportunity never known before by these orphans whose lives were so completely altered by the earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010.

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