The U Visa Obtaining Status for Immigrant Victims of Crime

Description

The U nonimmigrant status is a nonimmigrant (temporary) status that allows non-citizen victims of crime to stay in the United States, obtain employment authorization, apply for lawful permanent resident status, and help certain family members obtain immigration status as well. It was created by the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act (hereinafter “VTVPA 2000”), 2 enacted in October 2000. It was later amended by the Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 (hereinafter referred to as “VAWA 2005”), enacted in January 2006; the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (hereinafter referred to as “TVPRA 2008”), 4 enacted in December 2008; and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (hereinafter referred to as “VAWA 2013”), combined with the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), signed into law on March 7, 2013. Although U nonimmigrant status and its unique adjustment provisions have been implemented through interim regulations, much of the procedure is still being worked out in USCIS policy guidance memoranda, and some of those memoranda are still pending and forthcoming.