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Book outline for Policy Manual
  • Policy Manual
    • Search
    • Updates
    • Table of Contents
    • Volume 1 - General Policies and Procedures
    • Volume 2 - Nonimmigrants
    • Volume 3 - Humanitarian Protection and Parole
    • Volume 4 - Refugees and Asylees
    • Volume 5 - Adoptions
    • Volume 6 - Immigrants
    • Volume 7 - Adjustment of Status
    • Volume 8 - Admissibility
    • Volume 9 - Waivers and Other Forms of Relief
      • Part A - Waiver Policies and Procedures
      • Part B - Extreme Hardship
        • Chapter 1 - Purpose and Background
        • Chapter 2 - Extreme Hardship Policy
        • Chapter 3 - Adjudicating Extreme Hardship Claims
        • Chapter 4 - Qualifying Relative
        • Chapter 5 - Extreme Hardship Considerations and Factors
        • Chapter 6 - Extreme Hardship Determinations
        • Chapter 7 - Discretion
      • Part C - Family Unity, Humanitarian Purposes, or Public or National Interest
      • Part D - Health-Related Grounds of Inadmissibility
      • Part E - Criminal and Related Grounds of Inadmissibility
      • Part F - Fraud and Willful Misrepresentation
      • Part G - Unlawful Presence
      • Part H - Provisional Unlawful Presence
      • Part I - Immigrant Membership in Totalitarian Party
      • Part J - Alien Smuggling
      • Part K - Noncitizens Subject to Civil Penalty
      • Part L - Refugees and Asylees
      • Part M - Temporary Protected Status Applicants
      • Part N - Special Immigrant Juvenile Adjustment Applicants
      • Part O - Victims of Trafficking
      • Part P - Crime Victims
      • Part Q - Violence Against Women Act Applicants
      • Part R - Other Waivers and Provisions Overcoming Inadmissibility
      • Part S - Consent to Reapply
    • Volume 10 - Employment Authorization
    • Volume 11 - Travel and Identity Documents
    • Volume 12 - Citizenship and Naturalization
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  2. Policy Manual
  3. Volume 9 - Waivers and Other Forms of Relief
  4. Part B - Extreme Hardship
  5. Chapter 2 - Extreme Hardship Policy

Chapter 2 - Extreme Hardship Policy

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  • Guidance
  • Resources (8)
  • Appendices (0)
  • Updates (4)
  • History (0)

A. Overview

Waivers of inadmissibility generally authorize U.S. immigration authorities to balance competing policy considerations when determining whether a noncitizen should be admitted to the United States despite his or her inadmissibility. 

On the one hand, the noncitizen has engaged in conduct that Congress considers serious enough to render the individual inadmissible to the United States. On the other hand, Congress specifically authorized waivers of these grounds of inadmissibility for those cases in which the refusal of admission “would result in extreme hardship.” To meet this “extreme hardship” requirement, the applicant must show that refusal of admission would impose more than the usual level of hardship that commonly results from family separation or relocation. Congress clearly intended the waiver to be applied for purposes of family unity and with other humanitarian concerns in mind. [1] 

B. What is Extreme Hardship

The term “extreme hardship” is not expressly defined in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regulations, or in case law (although DHS regulations and certain Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decisions have provided some relevant guidance with respect to what may constitute extreme hardship in certain contexts). As the U.S. Supreme Court recognized in INS v. Jong Ha Wang, “[t]hese words are not self-explanatory, and reasonable men could easily differ as to their construction. But the [INA] commits their definition in the first instance to the Attorney General [and the Secretary of Homeland Security] and [their] delegates.” [2] 

Therefore, “[t]he Attorney General [and the Secretary of Homeland Security] and [their] delegates have the authority to construe ‘extreme hardship’ narrowly should they deem it wise to do so.” [3] Conversely, “[a] restrictive view of extreme hardship is not mandated either by the Supreme Court or by [the BIA] case law.” [4] 

USCIS recognizes that at least some degree of hardship to qualifying relatives exists in most, if not all, cases in which individuals with the requisite relationships are denied admission. Importantly, to be considered “extreme,” the hardship must exceed that which is usual or expected. [5] But extreme hardship need not be unique, [6] nor is the standard as demanding as the statutory “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” standard that is generally applicable to non-lawful permanent resident cancellation of removal. [7] 

Footnotes


[^ 1] For example, see Matter of Lopez-Monzon (PDF), 17 I&N Dec. 280, 281 (BIA 1979) (“The intent of Congress in adding [the INA 212(i) waiver], which is evident from its language, was to provide for the unification of families, thereby avoiding the hardship of separation.”).

[^ 2] See 450 U.S. 139, 144 (1981) (per curiam).

[^ 3] See INS v. Jong Ha Wang, 450 U.S. 139, 145 (1981) (per curiam).

[^ 4] See Matter of Pilch (PDF), 21 I&N Dec. 627, 630 (BIA 1996). See Matter of L-O-G- (PDF), 21 I&N Dec. 413, 418 (BIA 1996).

[^ 5] See 8 CFR 1240.58(b) (hardship must go “beyond that typically associated with deportation”) (former suspension of deportation). The federal courts and the BIA have frequently relied on cases involving the former suspension of deportation statute when interpreting extreme hardship waiver statutes, as these statutes employed the same language. See Hassan v. INS, 927 F.2d 465, 467 (9th Cir. 1991). See Matter of Cervantes-Gonzalez (PDF), 22 I&N Dec. 560, 565 (BIA 1999), aff’d, Cervantes-Gonzales v. INS, 244 F.3d 1001 (9th Cir. 2001).

[^ 6] See Matter of L-O-G- (PDF), 21 I&N Dec. 413, 418 (BIA 1996).

[^ 7] See INA 240A(b). See Matter of Andazola-Rivas (PDF), 23 I&N Dec. 319, 322, 324 (BIA 2002) (holding the “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” standard to be “significantly more burdensome than the ‘extreme hardship’ standard” and intimating that the applicant “might well” have prevailed under the latter standard even though she failed under the former). See Matter of Monreal-Aguinaga (PDF), 23 I&N Dec. 56, 59-64 (BIA 2001) (same).

Resources

Legal Authorities

8 CFR 212.7 - Waiver of certain grounds of inadmissibility

INA 212(a)(9)(B)(v) - Waiver of the 3-year or 10-year unlawful presence bar

INA 212(h)(1)(B) - Waiver for certain criminal and related grounds

INA 212(i) - Admission of immigrant excludable for fraud or willful misrepresentation of material fact

Forms

G-28, Notice of Entry of Appearance as Attorney or Accredited Representative

I-601, Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility

I-601A, Application for Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver

Other Materials

How to Use the USCIS Policy Manual Website (PDF, 2.99 MB)

Appendices

No appendices available at this time.

Updates

Technical Update - Replacing the Term “Alien”

May 11, 2021

This technical update replaces all instances of the term “alien” with “noncitizen” or other appropriate terms throughout the Policy Manual where possible, as used to refer to a person who meets the definition provided in INA 101(a)(3) [“any person not a citizen or national of the United States”].

Affected Sections

1 USCIS-PM - Volume 1 - General Policies and Procedures

2 USCIS-PM - Volume 2 - Nonimmigrants

6 USCIS-PM - Volume 6 - Immigrants

7 USCIS-PM - Volume 7 - Adjustment of Status

8 USCIS-PM - Volume 8 - Admissibility

9 USCIS-PM - Volume 9 - Waivers and Other Forms of Relief

10 USCIS-PM - Volume 10 - Employment Authorization

11 USCIS-PM - Volume 11 - Travel and Identity Documents

12 USCIS-PM - Volume 12 - Citizenship and Naturalization

Technical Update - Moving the Adjudicator’s Field Manual Content into the USCIS Policy Manual

May 21, 2020

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is updating and incorporating relevant Adjudicator’s Field Manual (AFM) content into the USCIS Policy Manual. As that process is ongoing, USCIS has moved any remaining AFM content to its corresponding USCIS Policy Manual Part, in PDF format, until relevant AFM content has been properly incorporated into the USCIS Policy Manual. To the extent that a provision in the USCIS Policy Manual conflicts with remaining AFM content or Policy Memoranda, the updated information in the USCIS Policy Manual prevails. To find remaining AFM content, see the crosswalk (PDF, 350.49 KB) between the AFM and the Policy Manual.

Affected Sections

1 USCIS-PM - Volume 1 - General Policies and Procedures

2 USCIS-PM - Volume 2 - Nonimmigrants

3 USCIS-PM - Volume 3 - Humanitarian Protection and Parole

4 USCIS-PM - Volume 4 - Refugees and Asylees

5 USCIS-PM - Volume 5 - Adoptions

6 USCIS-PM - Volume 6 - Immigrants

7 USCIS-PM - Volume 7 - Adjustment of Status

8 USCIS-PM - Volume 8 - Admissibility

9 USCIS-PM - Volume 9 - Waivers and Other Forms of Relief

11 USCIS-PM - Volume 11 - Travel and Identity Documents

12 USCIS-PM - Volume 12 - Citizenship and Naturalization

Technical Update - Replacing the Term “Foreign National”

October 08, 2019

This technical update replaces all instances of the term “foreign national” with “alien” throughout the Policy Manual as used to refer to a person who meets the definition provided in INA 101(a)(3) [“any person not a citizen or national of the United States”].

Affected Sections

1 USCIS-PM - Volume 1 - General Policies and Procedures

2 USCIS-PM - Volume 2 - Nonimmigrants

6 USCIS-PM - Volume 6 - Immigrants

7 USCIS-PM - Volume 7 - Adjustment of Status

8 USCIS-PM - Volume 8 - Admissibility

9 USCIS-PM - Volume 9 - Waivers and Other Forms of Relief

10 USCIS-PM - Volume 10 - Employment Authorization

11 USCIS-PM - Volume 11 - Travel and Identity Documents

12 USCIS-PM - Volume 12 - Citizenship and Naturalization

POLICY ALERT - Determining Extreme Hardship

October 21, 2016

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is issuing policy guidance on determinations of extreme hardship to qualifying relatives as required by certain statutory waiver provisions. This guidance becomes effective December 5, 2016.

Read More
Affected Sections

9 USCIS-PM B - Part B - Extreme Hardship

Version History

No historical versions available.

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