Fact Sheets: Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS)
Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) is a federal law that helps certain undocumented
children in the state juvenile system to become Legal Permanent Residents (LPR).
An LPR receives a green card and is authorized to work.
Children under the jurisdiction of a juvenile court who are deemed eligible for long term
foster care may be able to obtain special immigrant juvenile status and, based on that,
apply to become a LPR. To do this, you must submit two applications and meet two
sets of requirements:
1) You must apply for special immigrant juvenile status with Form I-360, and
2) Based on the special immigrant juvenile application, you also must apply for
permanent residency (the green card). In immigration terminology, applying
for permanent residency is called applying for adjustment of status to that of a
legal permanent resident.SIJS Requirements:
The applicant must be under the jurisdiction of a juvenile court. This means that
the applicant is either in dependency (foster care), delinquency (probation), probate
(link to probate guardianship fact sheet) or another state juvenile court. ICWC works
with applicants on delinquency SIJS and probate SIJS.
The applicant must have been "Deemed Eligible For Long-Term Foster Care."
The INS regulation on SIJS defines "deemed eligible for long term foster care" to mean
that the court has found that family reunification is not a viable option and, usually,
the child will go on to foster care, adoption or guardianship.
The court or some administrative agency must rule that it is not in the childís best
interest to be returned to his or her home country. The court must make it clear that it
made its findings and orders based on abuse, neglect or abandonment of the child.
The juvenile court judge must sign an order making the above findings.
The applicant must be under age 21 and be unmarried.
Along with the SIJS Form I-360 Application, Form I-485 Application to Adjust Status is
filed to change your status to a LPR. This process includes a criminal check by
fingerprinting and a medical exam. Applicants might be barred from permanent residency
if they have a record of involvement with drugs, prostitution, or other crimes, if they are
HIV positive, committed visa fraud, were previously deported, or have certain other
"bad marks" against them. Waivers are sometimes available for criminal and health
conditions but immigrants with these issues are advised to have their cases reviewed by an
immigration attorney. After the I-485 has been filed, you can apply to work in the
United States. By filing the Form I-765 Application for Employment Authorization,
immigrants are able to work while they wait for their interview date.
More information is available at:http://uscis.gov/graphics/services/residency/family.htm and
http://www.ilrc.org/sijs.html
E-mail questions to: info@icwclaw.org
|
