Last week, President Joe Biden announced that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will take action to ensure that U.S. citizens with noncitizen spouses and children can keep their families together.
According to the press release, to be eligible, noncitizens must have resided in the United States for ten or more years as of June 17, 2024, and be legally married to a U.S. citizen.
On average, those eligible for this process have resided in the U.S. for 23 years.
Those approved after DHS’s assessment will be afforded three years to apply for permanent residency.
They will be allowed to remain with their families in the United States and be eligible for work authorization for up to three years.
This will apply to all eligible married couples.
This action will protect half a million spouses of U.S. citizens and 50,000 noncitizen children under 21 whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen.
President Obama and then-Vice President Biden established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy to allow young people brought here as children to come out of the shadows and contribute significantly to the economy.
Twelve years later, DACA recipients who started as high school and college students are building successful careers and establishing their own families.
The June 2024 announcement will allow individuals, including DACA recipients and other Dreamers, who have earned a degree at an accredited U.S. institution of higher education in the United States and have received an offer of employment from a U.S. employer in a field related to their degree, to obtain work visas more quickly.
The DREAM Act, short for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, was a bill in Congress that would have granted legal status to certain undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children and who attended school here.
Despite various versions of the bill being introduced in Congress since 2001, it has never passed.
Recognizing that it is in our national interest to ensure that individuals who are educated in the U.S. can use their skills and education to benefit our country, the administration is taking action to facilitate the employment visa process for those who have graduated from college and have a high-skilled job offer, including DACA recipients and other Dreamers.
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