Special Immigrant Juvenile Status
Predicate Order Resource Center
Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) is a humanitarian protection which results in lawful permanent residence status for children and youth who have been abandoned, abused, neglected or had similar harsh experiences recognized by state law and for whom reunification with one or both parents is not viable due to that abuse. It is the only lifeline for tens of thousands of eligible young people already in the United States as every child who meets the qualifications is eligible for relief no matter how long ago they arrived.
SIJS process is a hybrid, bridging the family law expertise of the state and the immigration powers of the federal government. It begins by obtaining a dependency order from a state “juvenile court.” This “predicate order” undergirds the SIJS petition which is filed with USCIS. Once that is approved, the child’s application for permanent residence is filed either with USCIS or the immigration court.
The purpose of the Predicate Order Resource Center is to bring curated material from diverse sources to a single repository to simplify finding the law and best practices for representing undocumented children in state juvenile courts and understanding where to look for more information. We seek to guide and empower attorneys across diverse state bars to build capacity so that many more children will be able to legalize and have stable lives free from the fear of detention and deportation.
Our service introduces advocates, especially those new to the field, to organizations that work with youth and SIJS and provide legal references, updates and training about predicate orders. We believe that mentoring by individuals and groups is the most effective way to assure good results and the development of a robust and lasting bar.
We are interested in talking with you about your SIJS cases and about what you need to support your work. You can contact us at info@projectlifeline.us.
The goal of the Predicate Order Resource Center and this page is to provide advocates with easy access to publications and other resources to be used as a starting place for research and further investigation. It is not a substitute for independent thought, research and, if applicable, obtaining legal advice.
This section provides a simple overview of the SIJS, focusing on what is required so that the predicate order will support the approval of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) petition.
In addition to deciding the dependency issues, the court must find that it is not in the child’s best interest to return to the child’s or parent’s previous country of nationality or last habitual residence. This section contains citations to publications to understand how to prove this requirement, and country reports to assist with putting the child’s situation in context.
This library contains a curated collection of books, advisories, webinars and other publications from diverse sources to assist advocates in researching and understanding predicate orders and finding the issues and answering the questions about the many challenges faced in representing children in dependency proceedings. The library includes some state-specific materials.
This library of publications discusses abuse-related and violence-based harms and the trauma experienced by children on account of them. The insights provided assist advocates in evaluating the types of trauma the client has experienced and supports best practices for trauma-informed lawyering. Understanding the harms assists the court in making trauma-informed, culturally-sensitive, safety and developmentally appropriate placements.
Trauma-informed lawyering is an approach using a particular skill set to work with the child client in a way that takes into account the impact of trauma and aims to create a supportive and empathetic environment. This leads to effective representation and improved client outcomes while minimizing the adverse impact on the child.
This library provides resources to navigate the complex ethical issues involved in SIJS state court representation. This includes an original handbook authored by Professor Theo Liebmann, the leading ethics expert for SIJS Predicate Order cases.
This is a quick reference guide with a mapped state-by-state analysis of age-out provisions and a database. Some states have statutes specifically for SIJS dependency proceedings. Citations to those statutes are under the state tab. Intended as an educational tool, this database is to be used in conjunction with research and outreach.
Representing children who are in the child welfare system requires knowledge of child welfare and immigration law. This unique resource provides information to assist lawyers representing children who are in foster care.
Aging out of the foster care system refers to young adults who have reached the age of 18, 19, 20, or 21, depending on the state, who have not achieved any type of permanency. Because a child is already the subject of a dependency order, the issue here is a continuation of court involvement, which is where a predicate order can be obtained. This state-by-state database looks at continuation of court jurisdiction and the ending of agency services.
The goal of the Predicate Order Resource Center and this page is to provide advocates with easy access to publications and other resources to be used as a starting place for research and further investigation. It is not a substitute for independent thought, research and, if applicable, obtaining legal advice.