US President Ensures Citizenship to Spouses of Americans

• 19 Jun 2024

On June 18th, 2024, US President announced a sweeping effort to provide a path to citizenship to hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the U.S. illegally who are married to U.S. citizens.

Key Points

• The program will be open to an estimated 500,000 spouses who have lived in the US for at least 10 years as of 17^th June 2024.
• Some 50,000 children under age 21 with a US-citizen parent also will be eligible.
• The US already provides a path to citizenship for immigrants who are married to Americans and entered the country legally on a visa. But in most cases, those who enter illegally must first leave the US for years before being allowed to return legally.
• The new program will allow the spouses and their children to apply for permanent residence without traveling abroad, removing a potentially lengthy process and family separation.
• If they are granted permanent residence, they could eventually apply for US citizenship.
• People who are considered public security threats or who have disqualifying criminal history would not be eligible.