The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued new guidance to assist stateless persons in the United States who want to obtain immigration benefits or who have submitted other requests to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
What is a stateless person?
A stateless person is an individual who is a citizen of no country. Stateless persons often struggle to obtain identity documents and face obstacles with accessing education, healthcare, marriage, and job opportunities. A person can be born stateless or become stateless because of changing borders, changing laws, armed conflicts, or discrimination. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there are approximately 218,000 individuals across the United States who may be stateless.
“All over the world, people who are stateless live with fear and uncertainty,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. “DHS is fully committed to addressing the global issue of statelessness and to breaking down barriers that these individuals face in the United States. With this historic step, stateless individuals will be given the opportunity to apply for immigration protections and benefits for which they are eligible.”
What is the new guidance around stateless people?
The new guidance will enable USCIS to gather more comprehensive and accurate data on stateless persons and use that information to assist these individuals. The guidance clarifies when and how USCIS may consider a noncitizen stateless for the purpose of adjudicating immigration benefits or other requests. Towards that end, USCIS will be creating and implementing new procedures to assist its officers in the assessment of an individual’s potential statelessness. This includes:
- updating existing training documents on statelessness
- developing better training procedures for officers, including establishing standard operating procedures for them to request an internal assessment of potential statelessness where it may be relevant to an individual’s application or benefit request
- having specially trained USCIS personnel provide the adjudicating officer with an advisory report clarifying how the officer might consider an individual’s statelessness in making decisions about an individual’s application or benefit request
- providing examples of documentation or evidence that may help USCIS officers determine whether noncitizens may be considered stateless for USCIS purposes
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