{"id":424,"date":"2012-03-27T19:39:33","date_gmt":"2012-03-28T01:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=424"},"modified":"2026-08-15T23:19:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T05:19:15","slug":"new-i-601-hardship-waiver-filing-procedure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=424","title":{"rendered":"New I-601 Hardship Waiver Filing Procedure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newly Proposed Filing Procedures Will Allow Spouses and Children of US Citizens to File Their I-601 Waiver in the United States<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is an I-601 Hardship Waiver?<\/span><\/p>\n

Certain classes of foreign nationals are not eligible to immigrate to the United States because of previous immigration violations, the commission of serious aggravated felonies, drug or alcohol abuse, fraud or misrepresentation or for other reasons.\u00a0 These persons are not eligible to adjust their status to permanent resident (green card) in the United States or obtain an immigrant visa at a Consulate abroad.\u00a0 The current rule is that they must leave the United States, apply for a hardship waiver and then, if approved, they may re-enter the country.<\/p>\n

I-601 Hardship Waiver Standard<\/span><\/p>\n

Current law requires the foreign national to prove that they have a “qualifying relative,” either a citizen or lawful resident spouse, parent, son, daughter or US citizen fianc\u00e9(e), depending on the reason why the waiver is required and that this qualifying relative would suffer extreme hardship if the foreign national is not able to return to the United States.<\/p>\n

New I-601 Filing Procedure<\/span><\/p>\n

The current filing procedure requires the foreign national to leave the United States to apply for the hardship waiver.\u00a0 Most foreign nationals do not want to leave the United States to apply for this waiver because if their waiver application is denied, they will not be able to return to the US for three years or longer.\u00a0 President Obama’s new proposed filing procedure would allow spouses and children of US citizens who are in the United States but need a waiver of unlawful presence in order to get a green card to apply for that waiver within the United States.\u00a0 After securing the waiver, the foreign national will have to leave the US to obtain their immigrant visa at the US Consulate abroad but the risk of being denied the immigrant visa is small so long as your case is handled appropriately by your attorney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newly Proposed Filing Procedures Will Allow Spouses and Children of US Citizens to File Their I-601 Waiver in the United States What is an I-601 Hardship Waiver? Certain classes of foreign nationals are not eligible to immigrate to the United States because of previous immigration violations, the commission of serious aggravated felonies, drug or alcohol … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,116],"tags":[222,253],"class_list":["post-424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hardship-waiver","category-i-601","tag-hardship-waiver","tag-i-601"],"yoast_head":"\nNew I-601 Hardship Waiver Filing Procedure - US Immigration Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=424\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New I-601 Hardship Waiver Filing Procedure - US Immigration Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Newly Proposed Filing Procedures Will Allow Spouses and Children of US Citizens to File Their I-601 Waiver in the United States What is an I-601 Hardship Waiver? 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