Dear Atty. Lou,
My mom wants to sponsor my sister to join us here in Chicago her name is Rebecca, 31 years old, mentally retarded from birth. My mother feels bad for her that she was left behind with a caregiver who is also a relative. My mother is a U.S. citizen since 2006. What can she do so my sister Rebecca can come to the United States and live with my mother? Will the Child Status Protection Act cover cases like these?
Jose
Dear Jose,
The Child Status Protection Act generally applies to certain categories of children who aged out while the petitions filed on their behalf by their parents were pending. Unfortunately, it is not intended for special children. The best route to take is for your U.S. citizen mother to file a petition for your sister under the first preference category which is the petition by U.S. citizens for their adult unmarried children.
For Filipino nationals, this first preference category is taking more than 15 years before the visa is actually issued to the beneficiary. Hence, under normal circumstances, your sister will have to wait that long before she can join you in the United States.
If you feel that there is really an urgent humanitarian or medical reason for your sister to come here, there is what you call a “humanitarian parole” visa. This is not a substitute for regular visa issuing procedures but it is intended to address a humanitarian need of an individual abroad.
Humanitarian parole is provided for under Section 212(d)5 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The denial rate is high- 75%. What constitutes humanitarian reason is not defined in the legislation. It basically refers only to (1) life threatening medical emergencies; (2)family reunification for compelling humanitarian reasons; (3)emergent, defined by the Humanitarian Assistance Board as including the need to visit an ill family member or to resolve matters associated with the death of a relative or to attend a funeral; and (4) “other”.
Reasons for denial mostly include: (1) the applicant had not first exhausted alternative immigration processes that might have been available, such as obtaining a visa, (2) absent urgent circumstances that made it impractical to do so, or (3) had not provided sufficient evidence of a claimed medical emergency, or (4) that the applicant had committed a prior immigration violation or crime.
If you think that your sister Rebecca needs to be in the United States for a humanitarian reason your mother may file a request for humanitarian parole using Form I-131, Application for Travel Document, with the Form I-134, Affidavit of Support, following the instructions on the Form or the USCIS website.
All supporting documents should be included with the application when it is submitted to USCIS or the application may be rejected. For medical parole or for medical reasons documentations should include among others (1) an explanation from a medical doctor stating the diagnosis and prognosis and how long the treatment is going to last and (2) information on the reasons why your sister cannot obtain treatment in the Philippines or neighboring country.
I hope this information is helpful.
Atty. Lou
(Atty. Lou Tancinco may be reached at law@tancinco.com or at 1 888 930 0808)
