The process will allow family members to reunite in the United States while they wait for their immigrant visas to become available
WASHINGTON— U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today published a notice in the Federal Register implementing a new humanitarian family reunification (FRP) authorization for Ecuador. This legally advances the Biden-Harris administration’s successful combination of road expansion and strengthens legal oversight to reduce irregular immigration. FRP processes promote family unity and are part of global measures announced in April to promote safe and orderly migration pathways in line with the goals of the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection.
The new FRP process is available only to certain nationals of Ecuador by invitation and allows an eligible beneficiary to be considered for temporary residency in the United States on a case-by-case basis while awaiting issuance of their family-based immigrant visa available. The aim of the process is to accelerate family reunification and offer an alternative to dangerous irregular migration.
Certain Ecuadorian nationals who are beneficiaries of an approved Form I-130 (Petition for Foreign Relatives) may be eligible for temporary residency under the new FRP process. Qualified beneficiaries must be located outside of the United States, meet all requirements including screening and background requirements and medical requirements, and must not have previously received an immigrant visa.
The process begins when the Department of State issues an invitation to initiate the process to certain U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents of the United States who have an approved Form I-130 on behalf of an Ecuadorian beneficiary. Beneficiaries awaiting an immigrant visa could include certain children and siblings of U.S. citizens and certain spouses and children of permanent residents. The invited applicant may then submit an application to become a support person for the beneficiary and eligible family members, who may then be considered for early travel authorization and temporary residence permit.
DHS will use Form I-134A (Online Petition for Support of a Person and Declaration of Financial Support) for this process beginning November 17, 2023.
As with all applications for temporary residence permits, such authorization under this Ecuador FRP process will only be approved on a discretionary basis, on a case-by-case basis and on a temporary basis, after determining that there are urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit for the temporary to approve a residence permit and that the person entitled deserves a favorable exercise of discretion. Noncitizens who are granted temporary parole into the United States through this process will generally be considered for temporary parole for up to three years and may apply for work authorization while they await the availability of their immigrant visa. Once their immigrant visa becomes available, they can apply for legal permanent residency.
Section 212(d)(5)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act grants Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas the discretion to grant temporary permission to applicants to enter the United States, if necessary. Case, e.g. for urgent humanitarian reasons or for reasons of significant public benefit. Previous secretaries of various administrations have similarly exercised their parole authority to establish other humanitarian family reunification parole processes administered by USCIS, including the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program in 2007 and the Haitian Family Reunification Humanitarian Parole Program in 2014. This DHS announced new FRP processes for Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in July and modernized FRP processes for Cuba and Haiti in August.
The Federal Register notice explains the application process and eligibility criteria.