Every time we turn around we find one more legal reason foreign nationals can stay in the US.
The one federal program (besides refugee resettlement/asylum) we have noted most often on these pages is Temporary Protected Status a ridiculously named program since it is rarely temporary. We still have Central Americans living here legally ten years and longer after some storm/earthquake roughed-up their landscape. Their “temporary refugee” status (allowing them to work and do anything a legal immigrant can do, and since they get drivers licenses, they probably vote!) simply gets extended every 18 months or so. See our complete TPS archive by clicking here.
In fact, Liberians have been begging again for an extension of their legal status in the US, guess they will get their wish.
I didn’t know we had this program—Humanitarian Special Situations—-which reader Robin alerted me to last week.
Here is a press alert from USCIS entitled: Ebola Outbreak-related Immigration Relief Measures to Nationals of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone Currently in the United States.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is closely monitoring the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. USCIS offers relief measures to nationals of those three countries who are currently in the United States.
Immigration relief measures that may be available if requested include:
- Change or extension of nonimmigrant status for an individual currently in the United States, even if the request is filed after the authorized period of admission has expired;
- Extension of certain grants of parole made by USCIS;
- Expedited adjudication and approval, where possible, of requests for off-campus employment authorization for F-1 students experiencing severe economic hardship;
- Expedited processing of immigrant petitions for immediate relatives (currently in the United States) of U.S. citizens;
- Expedited adjudication of employment authorization applications, where appropriate; and
- Consideration for waiver of fees associated with USCIS benefit applications.
To learn more about how USCIS provides assistance to customers affected by unforeseen circumstances in their home country, visit www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/special-situations.
For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit www.uscis.gov, call the National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283, or follow USCIS on Facebook (/uscis), Twitter (@uscis), YouTube (/uscis) and the USCIS blog The Beacon.