MIAMI — As registration opened Monday for an estimated 500,000 spouses of U.S. citizens to gain legal status without having to first leave the country, Karen and Xavier Chavarria had nothing to celebrate.
Like many others, Karen left the United States voluntarily — in her case, for Nicaragua — as the price of living in the country illegally, planning to accumulate enough time away to be able reenter and reunite with her husband, Xavier, on a path to citizenship.
Joe Biden's offer of a path to citizenship without having to first leave the country for up to 10 years is one of the biggest presidential orders to ease entry for immigrants since 2012, when the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program allowed temporary but renewable stays for hundreds of thousands of people who came to the United States as young children with their parents.
To be eligible, spouses must have lived in the United States continuously for 10 years as of June 17, 2024, and been married by then. The Biden administration estimates 500,000 spouses could benefit, plus 50,000 stepchildren of U.S. citizens.
''Without this process, hundreds of thousands of noncitizen spouses of U.S. citizens are likely to instead remain in the United States without lawful status, causing these families to live in fear and with uncertainty about their futures,'' the Homeland Security Department said Monday in a document that details the policy. Forcing spouses to leave the country ''is disruptive to the family's economic and emotional wellbeing."
Spouses who fall outside the prescribed dates and other eligibility criteria face an agonizing choice: leave the country voluntarily for years for the right to reenter or remain in the United States without legal status.
Karen Chavarria returned to Nicaragua in 2017 and reported to a U.S. consulate for an interview as part of her petition to reunite with her husband in the United States. She crossed the border from Mexico in 2002 and applied for legal status after marrying Xavier, 57, who works a building maintenance job in New York and lives in Garfield, New Jersey. They have two children, both U.S. citizens.
Xavier travels at least twice a year to see Karen, 41, and their 12-year-old son, who live in Jinotega, north of Nicaragua's capital city of Managua. Xavier said he can't live in Nicaragua because he can't find work there, lacks treatment options for diabetes and fears for his safety because his family has been in the political opposition there for years. Their 20-year-old daughter lives in the U.S.
