SIJSpecial immigrant juvenile

To be classified as an SIJ, you must

• ✓Be under 21 years of age on the date you file the petition.^[1]
• ✓Be unmarried both when you file and when USCIS decides the petition.^[1]
• ✓Be physically present in the United States.^[1]
• ✓Obtain the consent of the Secretary of Homeland Security. For USCIS to consent, your request must be bona fide: you must show that a primary reason the juvenile court findings were sought was to obtain relief from parental abuse, neglect, abandonment, or a similar basis under state law. USCIS may withhold consent if the evidence materially conflicts with the eligibility requirements so that the record shows the request was not bona fide. USCIS approval of the petition is the grant of consent.^[1]

You must be the subject of juvenile court order(s) that include

• ✓A custody or dependency finding and a reunification finding. A juvenile court, meaning a U.S. court with jurisdiction under state law over the dependency and/or custody and care of juveniles, declared you dependent on the court, or legally committed you to or placed you in the custody of a state agency or department or of an individual or entity appointed by a state or juvenile court. It also found that reunification with one or both parents is not viable due to abuse, abandonment, neglect, or a similar basis under state law; it does not have to terminate parental rights to make that finding.^[1]
• ✓A best-interest finding: a court or agency recognized by the juvenile court and authorized by law decided, in judicial or administrative proceedings, that it would not be in your best interest to be returned to your or your parent's country of nationality or last habitual residence.^[1]
• ✓Orders made by the juvenile court acting on its authority over you as a juvenile, with the findings made under state law. The orders must be in effect on the date you file and continue until USCIS decides the petition. The exception is when the court's jurisdiction ended solely because you were adopted, placed in a permanent guardianship, or reached another child welfare permanency goal (other than reunification with a parent the court had found you could not reunify with), or because the order ended based on age and you were under 21 when you filed.^[1]

• •Form I-360, filed by you or on your behalf according to the form instructions, and proof of your age: a valid birth certificate, official government-issued identification, or another document that USCIS, in its discretion, accepts as establishing your age.^[1]
• •The juvenile court order(s) with the required findings. If the best-interest finding was made in administrative proceedings, it may be a separate document issued in those proceedings.^[1]
• •If the court found reunification not viable on a basis similar to abuse, neglect, or abandonment: evidence of how that basis is legally similar under state law, either the court's own determination or other evidence that the court made that judicial determination.^[1]
• •For USCIS consent, the order(s) and any supplemental evidence must show the factual basis for the court's findings and the relief from parental abuse, neglect, abandonment, or a similar basis that the court granted or recognized. That relief may include a court-ordered custodial placement, or court-ordered dependency on the court for child welfare services and/or other court-ordered or court-recognized protective or remedial relief, including recognition of your placement in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).^[1]
• •Documentation of specific consent from HHS, if you are or were in HHS custody and, while in HHS custody, you obtained a juvenile court order that changed your HHS custody or placement status.^[1]

To get a green card as an SIJ, you must

• ✓Properly file Form I-485 while you are physically present in the United States, and merit USCIS's favorable exercise of discretion.^[2]
• ✓Be eligible to receive an immigrant visa, meaning you have an approved SIJ Form I-360, a pending one, or one filed together with your I-485 (a pending or concurrently filed I-360 must ultimately be approved), and have an immigrant visa immediately available both when you file Form I-485 and when USCIS or the immigration court makes a final decision.^[2]
• ✓◈High confidence Have been inspected and admitted or paroled. SIJs are deemed paroled for this purpose, so USCIS treats you as paroled regardless of how you arrived in the United States.^[2,12]
• ✓◈High confidence Not be barred from adjusting. SIJs are exempt from every bar to adjustment except the terrorist-related bar in INA section 245(c)(6), which applies if you are deportable for terrorist activity or association with terrorist organizations. There is no waiver of or exemption to that bar.^[2,12]
• ✓◈High confidence Be admissible, or eligible for a waiver or other relief. These grounds of inadmissibility do not apply to SIJs: public charge, labor certification, being present without admission or parole, misrepresentation, stowaways, immigrant documentation requirements, and unlawful presence (INA 212(a)(9)(B)). All other grounds in INA 212(a) apply.^[2,12]
• ✓For grounds that do apply, USCIS may grant a waiver for humanitarian purposes, to assure family unity, or in the public interest, except for: certain crime convictions, multiple criminal convictions, and controlled substance trafficking (for each of these three, a single offense of simple possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana can be waived); security grounds; terrorist activities; foreign policy grounds; and participation in Nazi persecution, genocide, torture, or extrajudicial killing. Your relationship with your natural or prior adoptive parents cannot count as a family-unity factor.^[12]

What to file with Form I-485

• •Form I-485, and a copy of the Form I-797 receipt or approval notice for your SIJ Form I-360 (unless you are filing the I-360 together with the I-485).^[2]
• •2 passport-style photos, a copy of your government-issued photo identity document (if available), and a copy of your birth certificate.^[2]
• •If they apply to you: copies of the passport pages with your nonimmigrant visa and with your admission or parole stamp, and a copy of your Form I-94 arrival/departure record or of the CBP admission or parole stamp on your travel document.^[2]
• •Form I-693, Report of Immigration Medical Examination and Vaccination Record, or a partial Form I-693, if it applies to you. If you are required to submit it, it must go in with your Form I-485.^[2]
• •If they apply to you: certified police and court records of any juvenile delinquency findings, criminal charges, arrests, or convictions; Form I-601, Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility; and documentation of past or present J-1 or J-2 status, including proof that you complied with, or received a waiver of, the 2-year foreign residence requirement.^[2]

• ✕Getting married before USCIS approves your Form I-360. You must be unmarried when you file and when USCIS decides the petition, so marrying before approval makes you ineligible for SIJ classification.^[9]
• ✕Emailing documents to USCIS. USCIS generally cannot accept documents by email. To answer a request for evidence (RFE) or a notice of intent to deny (NOID), follow the instructions in the notice. Documents about your SIJ Form I-360 that USCIS did not ask for go by mail to the National Benefits Center address in the USCIS SIJ FAQ, with your name, date of birth, A-Number (Alien Registration Number), and receipt number.^[9]
• ✕Not updating your address. To change your mailing address, file Form AR-11, Alien's Change of Address Card, online through the Change of Address page on USCIS.gov, or by mail.^[9]