OVERCOMING ANALYSIS PARALYSIS: PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR ADJUSTING STATUS BASED ON SIJS

The ABA Children’s Immigration Law Academy presents this webinar on adjustment of status to legal permanent resident based on an approved special immigrant juvenile status (SIJS) petition. In the last few months, the Department of State’s “Visa Bulletin,” which signals when a visa is available for certain priority-based immigration categories, has advanced rapidly for those with approved SIJS petitions. This has raised many questions for practitioners, as many children and young adults who have been waiting years for “green cards” based on their special immigrant juvenile status are suddenly eligible. In response to data CILA has gathered from the field, this presentation will address:

• The basics of adjustment of status based on SIJS;
• Jurisdictional considerations for which forum should be chosen for adjudication;
• Specific issues for SIJS adjustment applicants at USCIS;
• Specific issues for SIJS adjustment applicants in immigration court;
• Common grounds of inadmissibility;
• Dilemmas on answering questions on Form I-485; and
• The impact of USCIS’s changes to their policy on discretion.

CILA aims for this webinar to be interactive and engaging, and we will be using hypotheticals so that participants can think through all the potential issues, choices and decisions to be made during the adjustment process.

Produced for the Vera Unaccompanied Children’s Network