The US enables process of temporary stay for Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians: how to apply?

The Department of Homeland Security of the United States has announced the processes through which the citizens of Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua, and their immediate family members, can request to go to the United States in a safe and orderly manner, by a period of temporary stay of up to two years for urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit.

The measures are an extension and expansion of the process for Venezuela enabled in October 2022, which “demonstrated that the provision of legal pathways, combined with a consequence at our border, can fundamentally alter migration flows at our border and throughout the region,” said Blas Nuñez-Neto, acting assistant secretary for Border Policy and Immigration at the US Department of Homeland Security.

The Temporary Permanence Process, whose information is at this link, is aimed at a total of 30,000 people from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua, who will be able to participate each month in the process.

Participants, like the Venezuelans, will have to have a sponsor who has legal status in the United States and who demonstrates the ability to provide financial and any other type of support that is necessary for the beneficiaries.

Nuñez-Neto said that “there are civil society groups that are also playing a very important role and connecting migrants who may not have sponsors or family in the United States with individuals who have legal status in the United States, who want to be connected if they want to be sponsors for migrants.”

THE REQUIREMENTS TO APPLY

The first step in the process is for the support person residing in the United States to file a Form I-134A, Online Application to Become a Support Person and Declaration of Financial Support, with USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) for each beneficiary you seek to support, including minor children.

The US government will then review the support person information provided on Form I-134A to ensure that the support person can financially support the beneficiaries they agree to support.

In addition to having a US sponsor and Internet connection, eligible recipients must be outside of the US, undergo and pass a robust security background investigation, meet other eligibility criteria and ensure a favorable exercise of discretion.

“This process is totally free, and if someone is charging for this service, migrants should notify USCIS because it is a fraud. The only cost is the cost of the ticket to come to the United States,” Nuñez-Neto said.

Recipients who have confirmed sponsors and who pass background checks and a national and public safety database check “will be authorized to come to the United States directly from where they are for a period of two years and receive authorization from work while they are here,” added the official.

In addition, the participant must possess a valid passport for international travel; comply with all other requirements, including vaccination and other public health requirements; and demonstrate that the grant of temporary stay is justified on the basis of significant public benefit or urgent humanitarian reasons, and otherwise warrants a favorable exercise of discretion.

People who cross irregularly to the Panama border, the Mexico border or the United States after the date of the announcement (January 5), will not be eligible for this process and will be subject to expulsion to Mexico.

WHO IS NOT ELIGIBLE FOR THE PROGRAM?

A person is not eligible to be considered for temporary stay if they are a dual citizen or permanent resident, or have refugee status in another country, unless the Department of Homeland Security operates a similar temporary stay process for nationals of that country.

However, this requirement does not apply to immediate family members (spouse, common-law partner, or unmarried child under the age of 21) of an eligible Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, or Venezuelan national with whom you are traveling.

In addition, a prospective beneficiary is not eligible for travel authorization to the United States or for temporary stay under these processes if you do not pass the national security and public safety background investigation or it is considered that you do not deserve a favorable exercise of discretion.

Also if you have been removed from the United States within the previous five years or are subject to a bar of inadmissibility based on a prior removal order.

Also if you have crossed into the United States irregularly after the date the process was announced, except for persons who were allowed a single instance of voluntary departure or withdrawal of their application for admission under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

Additionally, if you have irregularly crossed the Mexican or Panamanian border after the date of announcement of the process; or is under the age of 18 and is not traveling through this process accompanied by a parent or legal guardian, and as such is a minor who would be determined by the inspecting officer to be an unaccompanied minor.

With information from Bloomberg

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