U nonimmigrant status, also known as the U visa, is a four-year visa available to victims of certain crimes that occur in the U.S. Applicants must be a victim of a qualifying crime, must have been helpful to law enforcement in the investigation and/or prosecution of that crime, and must have suffered substantial physical or emotional abuse because of the crime. The primary goal of the U visa program is to encourage undocumented crime victims to report crimes to law enforcement, recognizing that many undocumented immigrants are fearful of interacting with law enforcement and that criminal perpetrators often use that fear to their advantage. On paper, the U visa program seems like an appealing benefit for many crime survivors.
However, long wait times lead many U visa applicants to question whether they’ll receive a visa at all. Currently, anecdotal evidence shows that immigration officials are reviewing U visa applications filed between 2016 and 2017. This means that the current wait time from filing to adjudication is between six and seven years, and only getting longer. Immigration attorneys predict that, without legislative changes, immigrants who are applying for U visas in 2023 will have to wait almost 20 years before their case is reviewed and a decision is made.
The long wait times in U visa cases relate directly back to the legislation that created the program. When congress created the U visa program they included statutory caps which say that only 10,000 U visas can be issued in each fiscal year. However, every year, more than 10,000 immigrants apply for U visas. This means that every year, more and more people are placed on the waitlist, which grows longer from year to year. Based on the number of pending cases, combined with the 10,000 statutory cap, immigration practitioners predict that people applying for U visa status this year will have to wait at least 17 years before their case will be reviewed by an immigration officer.
The attorneys at Bennett & Harker have represented hundreds of clients in U visa cases. If you were a victim of a crime and would like to learn more about the U visa, please contact us!
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