Illegal Immigrants Can Become Legal While Staying In US

31 Mar 2012

Illegal immigrants, who happen to be immediate relatives of an American citizen, can apply for permanent residence while staying in the USA. This move taken by the Obama administration will impact about 11 million illegal immigrants living in the US. This would reduce the time of separation period from families while applying for permanent residency.

As of now the illegal immigrants have to leave the country and then apply for legal visa. This would mean that they would be separated from their families for a very long time as they have to wait till their legal visa is processed.

The proposal has been made with the view to make use of executive power to revise immigration rules without violating the immigration law.

The new law will soon be posted by the Department of Home Security for public comment. Earlier, the move made by the president to have the Dream Act, a law that was meant to create a clear path for citizenship among illegal immigrants who are enrolled in universities and colleges was actually defeated in the Senate in December.

Many illegal immigrants do not go in for legal status out of fear that they would not be able to secure a hardship waiver of the strict US immigration rules. According to these strict rules, an illegal immigrant who happened to over stay the visa period beyond six months will not be allowed to re-enter the country for about 3 years. Those who overstay over a year are barred for 10 years.