US CIS has released an advanced copy of the Federal Register notice of the final rule to allow certain immediate relatives of U.S. citizens who are physically present in the U.S. to request provisional unlawful presence waivers prior to departing from the U.S. for consular processing.

The final rule, which takes effect on March 4, 2013, will allow certain immediate relatives (the spouse, minor children, or parents of a U.S. citizen) who can demonstrate extreme hardship to a U.S. citizen spouse or parent to receive a provisional waiver of the unlawful presence bars before leaving the United States to complete the consular visa issuance process. Currently, those immediate relatives of U.S. citizens who have accrued a certain period of unlawful presence in the United States have to leave the U.S. as part of the legal immigration process, and are barred from legally returning to the U.S. for as long as 3 or 10 years. The new rule would streamline the waiver application process (based on unlawful presence) by permitting the processing of the waiver application in the United States before the immigrant visa applicant departs the U.S. for the immigrant visa interview at the Consulate.

Information regarding the Federal Register's notice is available here.

Please contact us to schedule a consultation to speak with an attorney to discuss if your family member would be able to benefit from this final rule.