The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) grants humanitarian parole visas to noncitizens who wish to enter the country for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. In the past, the U.S. has used this visa type to help migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti, and Ukraine after the Russian invasion, among other countries. If this is something you are potentially interested in, please read on to discover whether you are eligible for a humanitarian parole visa and how a seasoned immigration services lawyer at Lupton Law LLC can help you gain entry into the United States in any conceivable way.
How do I know if I am eligible for a humanitarian parole visa?
For starters, you should know a humanitarian parole visa differs from a temporary protected status. While both grant a temporary stay in the United States, the former is granted on a case-by-case basis; while the latter is a form of broader protection for noncitizens from specific countries facing extraordinary conditions that prevent them from returning to their homes safely.
Therefore, the USCIS may observe your unique circumstances to determine your potential eligibility for a humanitarian parole visa. Importantly, your circumstances must be pressing enough, and affecting your welfare and wellbeing significantly enough, to constitute an urgent need for a temporary stay.
A common example of this is if you have a terminal illness that requires immediate medical care, which you cannot access in your home country. Or, if you are volunteering to donate an organ to a terminally ill family member currently residing in the U.S. Lastly, if you are planning to participate in a U.S.-based medical trial with predicted benefits for the wider community.
As with other visa types, the USCIS may also look into whether your presence in the country would be a potential national security concern. With this, they may review your past criminal history or immigration violations, if you have any. Also, it may help the USCIS to know that you have a person in the country who is willing and able to support you financially during your temporary stay.
How long is a humanitarian parole visa supposed to last?
A humanitarian parole visa is also different than an asylum status in that it may not provide a direct pathway for permanent residency in the United States. This is to say that you must anticipate your stay in the country to be, without a doubt, a temporary one.
Essentially, the USCIS may rule your period of stay based on your unique circumstances. But usually, the length of this parole is up to one year. Your parole period is set to end once you exit the U.S., acquire another immigration status in the U.S., or otherwise hit the one-year mark. While there is no option to extend this parole period, you may reapply for parole if you find it necessary for your safety and protection.
At Lupton Law LLC, we share the same goal as you, which is likely to achieve safety and protection within the U.S. borders. So please do not hesitate to work with a competent immigration services lawyer from our firm today.
