More
than eight months after President Obama announced his intention to expand the
provisional waiver program, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has
issued proposed regulations on the expansion of the I-601A provisional waiver program. I-601A provisional waivers allow an applicant
to waive a ground of inadmissibility triggered by unlawful presence if they are
statutorily eligible for a waiver, are seeking such a waiver in connection with
an immigrant visa application, and meet other conditions.
The
provisional waiver process currently allows a qualifying applicant to get his
inadmissibility waived prior to leaving the United States, saving the applicant
from many months or even years outside of the country waiting for his waiver to
be adjudicated.
The new
regulations would expand the provisional waiver process (1) by eliminating the
requirement that provisional waiver applicants be certain immediate relatives
of U.S. citizens and instead opening the process to all who qualify for the
unlawful presence waiver under the applicable statute and meet certain other
conditions; and (2) by allowing the requisite “extreme hardship” be shown to
any U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse or parent instead of limiting
the extreme hardship to U.S. citizen spouses.
The
proposed regulations are not final yet and are open for written comment by
interested parties until September 21, 2015.
If the proposed regulations are implemented, they will greatly expand
the number of applicants who can consular process with a provisional waiver.
Further Reading:
Previous Posts on Provisional Waivers:
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