Kramer Levin Obtains Special Immigrant Juvenile Status for Guatemalan Victim of Abandonment and Neglect

Kramer Levin recently obtained Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status for FCU, a minor who fled his native Guatemala after facing years of neglect and abandonment by his parents. After Kramer Levin successfully moved the Queens Family Court to appoint FCU’s relative in New York as his legal guardian, the team filed an application for SIJ status with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). FCU – who was nineteen years old at the time he applied for SIJ status – was originally ineligible due to the USCIS’ then-operative policy of rejecting SIJ applicants between eighteen and twenty-one years old, who the USCIS contended were not “juveniles” within the meaning of the SIJ statute. However, after a court found that this policy was in contravention of federal law, FCU’s application for SIJ status was granted. FCU is now eligible to apply for permanent residency.