Immigration Corner | Was my daughter’s application denied?

Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,

I am kindly seeking your assistance with a matter regarding my daughter, who is 15 years old.

She had travelled to see her father in the USA in 2022 and overstayed her time. He proceeded with her filing in 2023 because he is a US citizen. However, he sent her back to Jamaica in December 2023 before her paperwork was finalised.

I only got back one response from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) since she returned to Jamaica, which was a denial for her to travel because they say that she had returned to Jamaica. However, I am not seeing any update on the system regarding her other submissions. Please advise.

SB

Dear SB,

As a minor child of an American citizen who entered the United States legally, your daughter was entitled to file an application to adjust her status to that of a permanent resident. Once she became a permanent resident while under the age of 18 and resided with her father, he could have then applied for derivative US citizenship for his daughter.

An adjustment of status application (AOS) means that – if you are eligible to apply – you will remain in the United States and submit your AOS package to USCIS. You would either be interviewed by a USCIS officer in the United States or be approved without an interview. Among the documents that can be filed with an AOS package is a request for permission to travel while the AOS is pending.

If the applicant for AOS leaves the United States before receiving the permission to travel, or before the AOS is decided, the applicant is considered to have abandoned the AOS process. While notification may have been received that the request for permission to travel was denied because your daughter left the United States, the status of the other documents that were filed should also be checked. You will need the receipt numbers to receive an update on the status of those other applications. The AOS package is a series of applications that are submitted at the same time. The actual AOS applications may not yet have been processed and so show no update other than the date received. It may take a while for the entire package to be denied.

It appears that your daughter’s father has had a change of heart and has abandoned the process of applying for his child’s residency and subsequent US citizenship. Sending her home after she accrued unlawful presence (overstayed her visa) will not subject her to the three- or 10-year mandatory unlawful presence bar, because she is under 18 years of age. Scenarios such as this, where a child is at the whim of a parent and is not in charge of their own destiny, is exactly why the rules for unlawful presence do not apply to anyone under 18.

Have a heart-to-heart talk with your daughter’s father, or have a family member intercede on your behalf, as his actions could alter her future.

Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington, Esq, is a Jamaican-American attorney who practises immigration law in the United States; and family, criminal and international law in Florida. She is a diversity and inclusion consultant, mediator, and former special magistrate and hearing officer in Broward County, Florida. info@walkerhuntington.com