On Tuesday, June 18, 2024, President Biden announced his plan to offer a solution for undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. Citizens and have been in the United States for at least ten years.

The program, called Parole-in-Place, would afford applicants a work permit as well as a safe-haven from removal (deportation). Additionally, because the program “paroles” the applicants into the United States lawfully, applicants who qualify and obtain Parole-in-Place will then be eligible to pursue U.S. lawful permanent resident status based on their qualifying relationship with a U.S. citizen spouse or child.

Currently, undocumented immigrants who entered the United States without inspection are barred from pursuing permanent residency based on their familial relationships or employment. This is true even for those who were brought to the United States as minors and later even obtained work authorization under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

To qualify, the applicant must be lawfully married to a US citizen and must have resided in the United States for at least ten years as of June 17, 2024. Applicants who are approved will have three years to apply for permanent residency.

The White House estimates the Parole-in-Place program will benefit approximately 500,000 noncitizen spouses of U.S. citizens as well as thousands of minor noncitizen children of the noncitizen spouses. The plan offers a solution to the problem of keeping families together when one spouse entered the country unlawfully, sometimes decades ago.

Applicants who require assistance in navigating the application process for Parole-in-Place should contact a qualified immigration attorney for help. Foster attorneys are ready to assist applicants in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Foster will continue to monitor developments in U.S. immigration law and will make future updates available via the Foster website at www.fosterglobal.com