https://www.sijsbacklog.com/homeoldversion daily 0.75 2023-12-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fe8d735a897d33f7e7054cd/1611873613419-MZDD6RJUHGPW2H5GVXWT/Screen+Shot+2021-01-28+at+5.38.44+PM.png Home Graphic courtesy of The Marshall Project https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fe8d735a897d33f7e7054cd/1611874058622-2MAGUOUEDHBZURGFBDLE/SIJS.jpg Home Image by Julia Kuo of The Marshall Project https://www.sijsbacklog.com/contact daily 0.75 2025-07-15 https://www.sijsbacklog.com/join-us daily 0.75 2025-07-15 https://www.sijsbacklog.com/any-day-they-could-deport-me daily 0.75 2025-07-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fe8d735a897d33f7e7054cd/1638373329607-QWTL49829FON31E6OCR9/map.jpg Any Day They Could Deport Me https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fe8d735a897d33f7e7054cd/1637700730548-ZN873P2CMJGDM502TFX8/Youth+Researchers.jpg Any Day They Could Deport Me https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fe8d735a897d33f7e7054cd/1637700788815-BCDBPVWE3XC0NZ1I9QG9/The+Authors.jpg Any Day They Could Deport Me https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fe8d735a897d33f7e7054cd/1637700817919-FOSZBRVDMNAY572K694M/SIJSBacklog_Cover.jpg https://www.sijsbacklog.com/press-releases daily 0.75 2025-11-21 https://www.sijsbacklog.com/youthresources daily 0.75 2026-03-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fe8d735a897d33f7e7054cd/2ade4944-53ec-4382-9e0f-c4c2fa35385b/PG+1+English+Updated_SIJS+FACTSHEET.pdf.png Youth Hub Title: I‘ve Filed My Petition for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status! NOW WHAT? Congratulations! You have filed your petition for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (“SIJS”)! But now... you are waiting. There are two steps in the SIJS process that require a wait. First, you wait for the agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) to make a decision about whether to approve or deny your SIJS petition. Second, if it is approved, many applicants have to wait for a visa to become available before they can apply for lawful permanent residency (a green card). What is the SIJS backlog? The SIJS backlog is a long waiting period that certain SIJS applicants face after their SIJS petition is approved, but before they can apply for a green card. Unfortunately, even when SIJS petitions are approved, right now applicants from all countries are “backlogged” and face a waiting period that can last several years before they can apply to become lawful permanent residents. Why is there a backlog? The "backlog" is created by two different limits the government has put on the number of green cards available each year. First, current rules put a cap on the total number of green cards available each year to SIJS applicants. Second, only a certain number of people from any given country can get this type of green card per year. SIJS applicants from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala have had to wait because there were more approved SIJS petitions from these countries than the allotted number of green cards available each year. Today, all SIJS applicants from all countries are waiting in the "backlog" to apply for their green cards. Where am I in the Process? The timeline below shows four key points in the process from SIJS petition to Green Card. WAIT #1: It is supposed to take USCIS six months to make a decision on the SIJS petition, but sometimes the agency takes longer. You should reach out to your attorney if you have been waiting more than 6 months. WAIT #2: This impacts SIJS applicants from all countries. This is the time you spend waiting for a visa to become available before you can apply for your green card. Currently, it can be a very long wait of multiple years. But the good news is that as of May 2022, the government may grant Deferred Action to SIJS applicants in the backlog! If you receive Deferred Action, you can apply for a work authorization during this time. See more information on Page 2 about this process. The “backlog” timeline: 1. You file your SIJS petition 2. Your SIJS petition is approved or denied. If it is approved, Deferred Action and Work Authorization is available 3. You file your green card application 4. USCIS approves or denies your green card https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fe8d735a897d33f7e7054cd/126aa700-92ac-436a-8c80-a57fd8a8304f/PG+2+English+Updated_SIJS+FACTSHEET.png Youth Hub Title: While I'm in the backlog, can I… Get a work permit? Unfortunately, your SIJS Petition must be approved (wait #1 above) before you can apply for a work permit. But fortunately, once you are in wait #2, with an approved SIJS Petition, you can apply to receive a work permit if you receive a grant of deferred action. Get a state ID or drivers’ license? It depends on the state you live in. For example: In California, undocumented people can get a driver’s license as long as they are able to meet all the other requirements for a license and provide proof of identity and California residency. In New York, people can apply for a driver’s license regardless of their status if they can provide a combination of documents that prove their name, date of birth, and New York residency. Get financial aid? At this time, undocumented students are not eligible for financial aid from the U.S. government. Some states provide state financial aid to immigrant students, for example, the California Dream Act. Additionally, you may be eligible for merit and need-based financial aid directly from your school. Check out TheDream.US, which is the largest scholarship fund for undocumented students. Open a bank account? To open a bank account, you need an identification number and government issued photo ID. If you do not yet have a social security number, you may be eligible to apply for an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) from the Internal Revenue Service. For information on how to obtain an ITIN number, visit the IRS ITIN website: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/individual-taxpayer-identification- number Do Keep immigration court and USCIS updated with any changes in your address. Keep in contact with your immigration attorney. Policy is changing often and your situation may change based on new policy or your circumstances. Please let them know if your number or address changes. Register for the Selective Service if you are male and over 18 years old. Talk to your attorney about Deferred Action and the process for applying for work authorization. Obtaining a government issued photo ID or school ID will help once you are able to apply for your work authorization. File your taxes if you work and make over $12,000 a year. Don’t Don’t miss any of your immigration hearings. It is mandatory to attend all immigration court hearings. Don’t forget that even minor incidents with law enforcement can impact your case. Do not wait to speak to your immigration attorney if you have any contact with law enforcement. Remember, while it may be legal to use in your state, marijuana is still illegal federally. Don’t leave the United States. Contact your attorney if you are considering traveling. Don’t get married while your SIJS petition is pending. SIJS requires applicants to be unmarried. Don’t get married before you receive a decision on your SIJS petition as that will make you ineligible. Talk to your attorney about any immigration consequences of getting married after your petition is approved if you are in the backlog waiting for a green card. Don’t forget to pay all of your parking tickets. And tell your attorney about any parking or traffic tickets, citations, and arrests. The Backlog is Unfair! What Can I Do About It? Join the End SIJS Backlog Coalition! This coalition of impacted youth, lawyers, and activists has been working to end the backlog, and in the meantime, address the problems that young people face while they are stuck in the backlog. Recently, the coalition successfully advocated for protection from removal and work authorization for young people in the backlog. The coalition especially welcomes young people who are in the backlog to get involved. Please check out their website or scan the QR code to see how you can get involved. https://www.sijsbacklog.com/false-hopes daily 0.75 2025-07-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fe8d735a897d33f7e7054cd/ba992860-aaeb-46a7-a946-2cf3c324ebf0/SIJSBacklog_10302023+%281%29+27.png False Hopes: Over 100,000 Immigrant Youth Trapped in the SIJS Backlog https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fe8d735a897d33f7e7054cd/a4b84302-cfd0-435a-86fd-e9c1346b3876/authors.jpg False Hopes: Over 100,000 Immigrant Youth Trapped in the SIJS Backlog https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fe8d735a897d33f7e7054cd/80478400-4881-428d-804c-f13a2d0226b9/SIJSBacklog_10302023+%281%29-1.png False Hopes: Over 100,000 Immigrant Youth Trapped in the SIJS Backlog - “False Hopes”: Over 100,000 Immigrant Youth Trapped in the SIJS Backlog is the result of a collaborative research project conducted by The End SIJS Backlog Coalition, a project of the National Immigration Project, and Tulane Law’s Immigrant Rights Clinic. It is a follow-up to the End SIJS Backlog Coalition’s ground-breaking report, “Any Day They Could Deport Me”: Over 44,000 Immigrant Children Trapped in the SIJS Backlog. The report, based on never-before-seen data obtained from USCIS through FOIA litigation, details how federal actions have drastically increased the SIJS backlog over the past two years and highlights the first-hand stories of SIJS youth of how the growing backlog continues to impact their mental health, physical safety and ability to securely transition into adulthood. Since the publication of our initial report in 2021, the administrative landscape has shifted significantly including through the Biden administration’s implementation of a much-welcomed deferred action program for SIJS youth, the emergence of a worldwide backlog in December 2022 impacting SIJS youth from all countries, and the announcement in March 2023 of a new Department of State interpretation of visa caps. Major findings include that the government has been routinely violating the law in the length of time it takes to decide SIJS cases, impacting access to work authorization and protections from removal, and the breadth of the now world-wide impact of the SIJS backlog. The report also makes key recommendations, including the call for Congress to pass the amendments included in The Protect Vulnerable Immigrant Youth Act (S.1885/H.R. 4285) that would exempt thousands of SIJS youth from the employment-based visa caps, thereby ensuring SIJS youth can achieve the permanency in the United States that Congress intended. To quantify the harms of the SIJS backlog, we obtained a dataset of more than 200,000 SIJS petitions after suing USCIS under the Freedom of Information Act. This is the first time that this data on the SIJS backlog has been made available to the public. 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