There is hope for certain immediate relatives who currently have to return to their home countries for consular processing. The proposed program would serve to streamline processing of certain applicants for permanent residence who under current law, must leave the US for an extended period for their final green card interview, and appear before a US consular officer in their home country. Instead, these individuals would be able to complete the entire immigrant visa process in the United States and await approval of their petitions with their families.
What this means is that instead of facing a long wait to receive a decision on their waiver application while outside the US, away from their families, the new proposal will allow for a wait as little as a few days outside the US, since the individual will have an approval in hand before departure.
This program would benefit those individuals who are requesting an “I-601 waiver” application to excuse the individual’s previous period of unlawful presence in the U.S. and waive the 3 or 10 year bar, provided the applicant can demonstrate that his denied reentry will pose extreme hardship for his U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse or parent.
Contact the attorneys at Sachs Law Group today or call (215) 854-8440 to learn more about “state-side 601 processing.”