US President Joe Biden has issued an executive order that has pardoned over 500,000 people living in the United States without status.
The executive order that was issued on Tuesday June 17, 2024, will have some conditions and requirements that the estimated number of people living in US illegally will need to meet.
According to a report that was published by the CNN on the order, the undocumented people will need to be spouses of US citizens. They will be required to have lived in the US for at least ten years. They will also be required to have been married to US citizens as at June 17, 2024.
At the same time, 50,000 non-citizen children of people who are undocumented but who are married by the US citizens will also be granted pardon and the opportunity to have their status regularized under the Green Card pathway. These children will need to be aged 21 years and younger.
“One of the federal government’s biggest relief programs for undocumented immigrants since the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was announced by then-President Barack Obama in 2012,” the CNN reported.
The new immigration declaration by President Biden will take effect within Summer which kicks off this week in North America.
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“Those who qualify will have three years to apply for permanent residency and will be eligible for a three-year work permit. On average, the White House believes that those eligible for the process have been in the US for 23 years. A majority will have been born in Mexico. They will be “paroled in place” and allowed to remain in the US while their status is changed,” a related report by the BBC stated.
The BBC further reported that the “White House is also planning to ease and speed up the visa process for highly skilled undocumented immigrants who have received degrees from US universities or who have received a job offer in their field.”
The expectation is that with the job offers, the employers will then set these candidates on the pathway to Green Card by supporting their Green Card aplications.