When Congress created the U visa category, they limited the number of approvals that can be issued each year to 10,000. That’s for the entire United States, so it is no surprise that as the word about U visas reached more and more people, demand has exceeded supply.
U Visa Cap
In December 2014, the immigration service announced that they reached the 10,000 U visa statutory cap for fiscal year 2015. Note the fiscal year 2015 began on October 1, 2014, so all 10,000 numbers were used up in two months. We are left with a long wait list of people who applied for U status, the government agreed they qualify and should be approved, and they are pre-approved and placed in deferred action status.
The immigration service will issue more final U visas in October 2015. Once again, it may take a couple of months for the government to use up the 10,000 U visas they are allowed.
Deferred Action while we wait
Deferred action is the same thing that DACA confers. It is not exactly an immigration status, but it is protection from deportation, and people who demonstrate need can also obtain work authorization while in deferred action. With the work permit, people with pre-approved work permits can live normal lives, get driver’s licenses and social security numbers, travel within the United States, and breathe freely without the threat of possible deportation looming.
But deferred action does count toward the time U visa holders need to wait until being eligible to apply for permanent residence. It also does not allow derivative family members waiting outside the U.S. to join the U-1 principal applicant in the U.S. while the family waits for their place in the U visa wait list. Humanitarian parole is an option for people who can show reuniting the family will be a “significant public benefit.”
Place on the wait list
The immigration service is adjudicating U visa cases on a first in, first out basis. This means the date that counts is the receipt date, not the pre-approval date. We do not know exactly how many people are applying for U visas right now, but for the last few years it has been approximately 25,000 per year.
Work authorization now issued two years at a time
Just in the last couple of months, the immigration service began granting work authorization to U visa deferred action applicants in two-year increments. This is good because driver’s license validity, insurance, and other deadlines are connected to the work permit expiration date.