Special Immigrant Juvenile Status: the basics

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) lists the requirements on its SIJ page. You must be under 21 on the day you file the petition. You must live in the United States and be unmarried, both when you file and when USCIS decides. You cannot apply from another country.

You also need a state juvenile court order. A juvenile court here means any state court that can decide the custody and care of young people; its name changes from state to state. The order must find three things: that you depend on the court or were placed in someone's custody, that you cannot reunify with one or both parents because of abuse, abandonment, neglect, or a similar reason under state law, and that returning to your home country is not in your best interest.

Step one is the state court case, often a guardianship or custody case. USCIS warns that some juvenile courts can only issue these orders before age 18, so the real deadline in your state may come years before 21.

Step two is Form I-360, the federal petition, filed with USCIS with proof of age (a birth certificate, passport, or a document such as a cédula) and the court order. USCIS says it generally decides these petitions within 180 days. After approval, you may apply for a green card with Form I-485. Visas for this group come from a limited category, so some young people must wait before they can file that second form.

USCIS also says it will not require you to contact the parent who hurt or abandoned you.

Waiting can take a long time. In Plyler v. Doe (1982), the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that let schools turn away children who were not legally admitted to the country. Public schools must enroll you while your case moves forward.

One recent change: USCIS's page now says that earlier grants of deferred action (a temporary promise not to deport someone) for SIJ youth stay valid unless USCIS ends them case by case. It does not describe new grants. Ask a lawyer what that means for you.