It is not known when the new immigration policy will go into effect. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has only announced its desire to change the process for requesting a waiver of the punishment law for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens.
USCIS now has to publish the specific process that individuals will have to follow and ask for public comments. Then, it will have to finalize the procedures and publish them in the "Federal Register". This whole process may go quickly or it may take months or years. There is a chance that it will never be approved.
In the meantime, the punishment law will continue to affect thousands of citizen and permanent resident families.
In my "Migratory Consultation" column this week in La Opiniónexplained the proposal and who could benefit in the future.
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