Uniting American Families Act: A Section By Section Summary
The Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), also known as the Permanent Partners Immigration Act (PPIA), would permit a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident (LPR) to sponsor his or her same-sex partner for immigration purposes. Current immigration policy has the heartbreaking effect of tearing families apart based simply on borders. This bill permits families, including same-sex couples, to create homes together within the U.S., but continues to hold individuals who use the U.S. immigration system to high standards in order to prevent misuse. UAFA would deter fraudulent conduct by subjecting abusers to the same severe penalties for fraud that exist in current immigration law, including significant fines and prison sentences.
SEC. 1. Short Title
(a) Short Title
This section of the bill designates it as the “Uniting American Families Act” or the “Permanent Partners Immigration Act.”
(b) Amendments to Immigration and Nationality Act
This section also states that unless otherwise specified, all of the provisions that change sections or provisions of existing statutes refer to sections or provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
SEC. 2. Definitions
This section amends the definitions sections of the INA to include definitions for “permanent partner” and “permanent partnership.”
The act defines “permanent partner” as an individual who is at least 18 years of age who is in a committed relationship with another individual at least 18 years of age who is not a first, second or third degree blood relative, with the intent that this be a life long commitment. The individual must be financially interdependent with their partner, cannot be married or in another permanent partnership and must be unable to enter into a marriage recognized under the INA with their partner.
The act defines “permanent partnership” as a relationship between two permanent partners.
A K visa is a non-immigrant category known as the fiancé visa, through which foreign nationals who plan to marry a U.S. citizen within 90 days after entering the country are granted this unique status. This section of the bill would extend the K visa eligibility to a foreign national who is in a valid permanent partnership with a U.S. citizen. This section also extends K visa eligibility to the minor children of a person qualifying for K visa eligibility based on permanent partner status.
SEC. 3. Worldwide Level of Immigration
This section would add permanent partners to the definition of immediate relatives, which already includes children, spouses and parents of a U.S. citizen or LPR. The INA places numerical limitations on the number of people who can immigrate to the United States. A person defined as an immediate relative of a U.S. citizen is not included in this number.
SEC. 4. Numerical Limitations on Individual Foreign States
(a) Per Country Levels
The INA places per country numerical limitations on people seeking to immigrate to the U.S. The first priority is given to the immediate relatives of U.S. citizens. As a second priority, spouses, children and unmarried sons and daughters of LPRs are subject to rules that typically allow for visas to be issued to them without regard to the numerical limit. This section would make this family unity opportunity available to permanent partners, and their sons and daughters who are neither married or in permanent partnerships as defined in this act. It is worth noting that even under these rules, the shortest wait for family members to join those already in the U.S. is presently about four and a half years.
(b) Rules for Chargeability
Under the INA, each immigrant must be “charged” to a particular foreign country. Usually immigrants are charged to the foreign country where they were born. An exception to this general rule exists when spouses may be separated because they are charged to different countries. This section would provide permanent partners with the same protection against separation and allow one permanent partner to be charged to the same foreign country of the other permanent partner provided that partner received or would be eligible to receive a visa from that foreign country and that the numerical limit for that country has not been reached.
SEC. 5. Allocation of Immigrant Visas
(a) Preference Allocation for Family Members of Permanent Resident Foreign Nationals
The INA sets the preference allocation of visas for spouses and unmarried sons and daughters of LPRs of the U.S. This section of the bill would add permanent partners of LPRs, and sons and daughters who are unmarried and without permanent partners as defined in this act.
(b) Preference Allocation for Sons and Daughters of Citizens
Married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens get third preference visa status. This section of the bill would also include sons and daughters with permanent partners in the third preference category.
(c) Employment Creation
This section would amend the portion of the INA that makes visas available to qualified immigrants seeking to enter the U.S. to engage in a new commercial enterprise. In order to qualify, the new venture must benefit at least ten U.S. citizens or LPRs, not including the immigrant or the immigrant’s spouse, sons, or daughters. This section of the bill ensures that permanent partners receive no special treatment and would amend the INA so that an immigrant’s permanent partner is not counted as one of the required ten people that the new enterprise must benefit.
(d) Treatment of Family Members
The INA provides that a spouse or a child be entitled to the same status and same order of consideration if accompanying or following to join an immigrant spouse or parent who is immigrating under either the family sponsored preference, the employment based preference, or the diversity lottery program. The bill would amend this section of the INA to ensure that permanent partners are also given the same status and same order of consideration if accompanying or following to join a permanent partner immigrating under family, employment or diversity program preferences.
SEC. 6. Procedure for Granting Immigrants Status
(a) Classification Petitions
This section of the INA outlines the petitioning procedures for granting immigrant status. The bill would amend this section to allow permanent partners, as immediate relatives, to self-petition for immigrant status (this includes petitioning for children of the partnership as well) in case the partner is deceased, subject to certain conditions.
The bill also grants the right to a foreign national to self-petition, provided certain conditions have been met, if they have been battered or subject to extreme cruelty by their permanent partner (must be a U.S. citizen) or if their relationship was found to be illegitimate solely because of the bigamy of the U.S. citizen permanent partner, again subject to certain conditions.
(b) Immigration Fraud Prevention
This section of the bill would amend the INA to include a prohibition against entering into a permanent partnership for the purposes of evading immigration law. The INA already contains the prohibition against fraudulent marriages and this provision makes it so that permanent partners are held to the same standard, and, under Section 18, are subject to the same severe penalties.
SEC. 7. Annual Admission of Refugees and Admission of Emergency Situation Refugees
This section of the bill would amend the INA to entitle permanent partners of qualified refugees to the same status as the refugee partner if accompanying or following to join the refugee partner. Spouses and children are already entitled to this status.
This section also enables the Attorney General to terminate this status of the permanent partner in the same manner currently used to terminate the status of the foreign national refugee, spouse or child.
SEC. 8. Asylum
This section would amend the INA to allow the permanent partner of a foreign national who has been granted asylum to assume the same immigration status if accompanying or following to join the foreign national partner. Spouses and children are currently entitled to this status.
SEC. 9. Adjustment of Status of Refugees
This section would allow a permanent partner of a foreign national granted asylum to adjust his or her status to a LPR, provided all other conditions are met. Currently, the INA only authorizes foreign nationals granted asylum and their spouses and children to apply for this adjustment of status.
SEC. 10. Inadmissable Aliens
(a) Classes of Aliens Ineligible for Visas or Admission
The section of the INA to be amended by this portion of the bill deals with grounds for finding a foreign national inadmissible into the United States. People using UAFA/PPIA are subject to the same standards and grounds of inadmissibility that exist in current immigration law.
This section also states that a person who seeks admission into the U.S. or an adjustment of status, as an immediate relative and does not obtain the status of spouse, permanent partner or child, is not entitled to admission into the U.S. or to an adjustment of status.
This section further provides for the inclusion of permanent partners under the family unification exception to inadmissibility for smuggling. The section of the INA amended by this part of the bill states, in short, that if a foreign national has, before May 5, 1988, assisted only the foreign national’s spouse, parent, son, or daughter to enter the United States (i.e. helped to “smuggle” them into the country illegally) that foreign national is exempted from the inadmissibility standard for smuggling. By adding “permanent partner” to that definition, the bill would ensure that same-sex couples obtain access to this narrow exception as a matter of fairness.
This section of the bill also permits the Attorney General to allow an inadmissible permanent partner of a U.S. citizen or of a foreign national lawfully admitted into the U.S. to be admitted into the U.S. if the refusal to admit the permanent partner would cause extreme hardship to the citizen/LPR partner. This exception is subject to the same conditions as the current exception for spouses, sons or daughters.
(b) Waivers
This section allows for the same smuggling waiver from the previous section, however this section exemption is not subject to the May 5, 1988 cut-off date. It would also provide for a waiver of inadmissibility based on a civil penalty. If the civil penalty that makes the foreign national inadmissible arises from an offense committed solely to assist the foreign national’s permanent partner, spouse, or child, then a discretionary waiver may be granted and the foreign national may be admitted. This waiver exists to assure family unity.
(c) Waivers of Inadmssibility on Health - Related Grounds
This section would allow the Attorney General to waive the inadmissibility for health-related grounds for the permanent partner of a U.S. citizen or LPR., as the AG currently can if the foreign national is the spouse, child, unmarried sons and daughters of the spouse.
(d) Waivers of Inadmissibility on Criminal and Related Grounds
Under the INA, a foreign national may be denied admission into the U.S. on criminal grounds. The INA does provide for a waiver of this inadmissibility for a foreign national who is the spouse, parent, son or daughter of a U.S. citizen or LPR and the foreign national’s exclusion would result in an extreme hardship for these family members. This section of the bill would add permanent partners to this list of family members.
(e) Waiver of Inadmissibility for Misrepresentation
Under the INA, a foreign national may be inadmissible into the U.S. if the foreign national is unlawfully present in the U.S. But, again there is an extreme hardship exception and this section of the bill amends the INA to include permanent partners under this waiver. (It works the same way as the waiver for inadmissibility of criminal grounds)
SEC. 11. Nonimmigrant Status for Permanent Partners Awaiting the Availability of an Immigrant Visa
This section would amend the INA to keep it consistent by reaffirming that the numerical limitations for immigration only apply to the principal immigrating immigrant and not to that person’s permanent partner, spouse or children.
SEC. 12. Conditional Permanent Resident Status for Certain Alien Spouses, Permanent Partners, and Sons ans Daughters
(a) Section Heading
This section of the bill would simply change the section heading of this provision of the INA to include permanent partners (as has been done above).
(b) In General
The INA provides that spouses obtaining the status of a LPR receive such status conditionally. This section of the bill amends the INA to ensure that permanent partners receive this status subject to the same conditions as spouses.
This section of the bill amends the relevant INA section to add permanent partnership after marriage and would subject an immigrating permanent partner to the same requirements as an immigrating spouse. If these conditions are not met and the marriage or permanent partnership is deemed invalid or entered into solely for purposes of immigration, the permanent resident status of the spouse or permanent partner may be revoked.
(d) Requirements of Timely Petition and Interview for Removal of Condition
This section amends the INA to establish the process and rules for a permanent partner, after two years, to take action to have their “conditional resident status” changed to become an LPR.
(e) Contents of Petition
To have the condition removed, the U.S. citizen or LPR permanent partner must submit a petition supporting the validity of the permanent partnership. This section makes permanent partners subject to the same petition criteria that are used in current procedures related to marriages to ensure that the permanent partnership is valid and proper.
(f) Definitions
This section of the bill amends the INA definition of “alien spouse” to “alien spouse or permanent partner.” This section also reiterates that “immediate relative” includes permanent partners.
SEC. 13. Conditional Permanent Resident Status for Certain Alin Entrepreneurs, Spouses, Permanent Partners, and Children
(a) Section Heading
This section would amend the INA to include permanent partners in the section heading (See above).
(b) In General
This section of the INA deals with foreign nationals immigrating as entrepreneurs and specifies that the spouse and children of an immigrating entrepreneur are admitted into the U.S. as LPRs on a conditional basis and are entitled to notice from the Attorney General on how to have the condition removed. This section of the bill would clarify that the permanent partner of an immigrating entrepreneur would also be subject to conditioned residence and notice of the requirements for removing the condition.
(c) Termination of Status if Finding That Qualifying Entrepreneurship Improper
This section of the INA states that if an immigrating entrepreneur is found to have violated the immigration requirements of the entrepreneurship, such as becoming an entrepreneur solely to evade the U.S. immigration laws, then that foreign national and spouse and children will have their status as LPRs terminated. This section amends the INA to ensure that permanent partners of immigrants in violation of this provision would also have their LPR status terminated.
(d) Requirements of Timely Petition and Interview for Removal of Condition
This section outlines the requirements that the immigrant, immigrant’s spouse and immigrant’s children must fulfill to have the residency condition removed. This section of the bill makes these requirements applicable to an U.S. citizen’s or LPR’s permanent partner also.
(e) Definitions
This section adds foreign national permanent partner to the definition section of this provision of the INA. It defines foreign national permanent partner in the same terms as a foreign national spouse and child, i.e. that the residence status of all three are based on their relationship to the foreign national entrepreneur (spouse, permanent partner, child).
SEC. 14. Deportable Aliens
This section of the bill amends the INA to ensure consistency. This section of the INA details the types of deportable foreign nationals. The bill makes a permanent partner who has their status for being allowed in the country terminated, deportable, in the same manner spouses and children who lose their status are deportable. This section would also amend the INA to make the smuggling (a deportable offense) of a permanent partner subject to special rules and/or eligible for a discretionary waiver of deportation from the Secretary of Homeland Security. That is, if a foreign national would be deported for smuggling, but the smuggling involved the foreign national’s spouse, permanent partner, parent or child for humanitarian purposes, the Secretary of Homeland Security could waive enforcement of this provision and not deport the foreign national. This section would also allow for a discretionary waiver for the spouse, permanent partner, parent, or child of a LPR or U.S. citizen, if the deportable violation involved certain misrepresentations.
This section would also add a new paragraph to this section of the INA entitled “Permanent Partner Fraud.” This paragraph generally mirrors the “Marriage Fraud” paragraph and would make a foreign national deportable if the permanent partnership is found to be fraudulent (for purposes of immigration).
This section makes any foreign national convicted of a crime of domestic violence or stalking deportable. The INA defines a crime of domestic violence as a crime committed by a current or former spouse. This section of the bill would extend this protection by making a permanent partner who is a foreign nationals subject to deportation if he or she commits domestic violence against his or her permanent partner.
Finally, this section provides a waiver of deportability for LPRs who have been convicted of document fraud, if the fraud occurred solely to assist a permanent partner, in the same way existing law makes the waiver available if the fraud was to assist the immigrant’s spouse or child.
SEC. 15. Removal Proceedings
This section amends the INA to include the serious illness or death of a permanent partner under the definition of “exceptional circumstances,” as it does currently for spouses.
SEC. 16. Cancellation of Removal; Adjustment of Status
This section provides a discretionary waiver of removability if the Attorney General finds that removal would cause exceptional hardship to the foreign national’s permanent partner. The INA already provides this hardship exception for spouses.
This section also provides the Attorney General with the discretion to cancel the removal of a foreign national if the foreign national has been battered or subjected to extreme cruelty by their permanent partner who is a U.S. citizen or LPR.
SEC. 17. Adjustment of Status of Nonimmigrant to That of Person Admitted for Permanent Residence
(a) Prohibition on Adjustment of Status
This section deals with changing the status of a K visa holder. The Secretary of Homeland Security may not change the status of a fiancé visa holder to any other status than a conditional LPR. The bill ensures that this provision applies to persons who have a fiancé visa by virtue of a permanent partnership.
(b) Avoiding Immigration Fraud
This section of the INA states generally that a foreign national may not receive an immigrant visa on the basis of a marriage entered into during removal proceedings but provides for a good faith exception to this provision. The bill amends this section so that it would also apply to foreign nationals who have entered into a permanent partnership during removal proceedings and adds an additional paragraph establishing the good faith exception for permanent partnerships.
(c) Adjustment of Sttus for Certain Aliens Paying Fee
The provision of the INA that this section of the bill addresses permits the adjustment of status of certain foreign nationals who entered the U.S. without inspection provided that an immigrant visa is available and that the foreign national pays a $1,000 fine. This provision has expired, although it is still open to those for whom an approvable petition was filed on or before April 30, 2001. This section would include permanent partners after spouse (a category of foreign nationals eligible for this treatment), ensuring that permanent partners can take advantage of this provision as well.
SEC. 18. Misrepresentation and Concealment of Facts
This section of the bill would amend the INA to make the penalties for marriage fraud applicable to permanent partnership fraud as well. A knowing violator can be sent to prison for up to five years, fined up to $250,000, or be subject to both penalties.
SEC. 19. Requirements as to Residence, Good Moral Character, Attachment to the Principles of the Constitution
This section of the bill would amend the INA to include permanent partners in the category of immigrants eligible for exemptions to various residency requirements. Spouses and dependent unmarried children are included in this category also.
SEC. 20. Former Citizens of the United States Regaining United States Citizenship
The section of the INA amended by this provision provides for the reinstitution of citizenship for a U.S. citizen who lost his or her citizenship by marriage to a foreign national ineligible for citizenship, subject to certain requirements. The bill would amend this section of the INA to grant this same right to similarly-situated permanent partners.
SEC. 21. Application of Family Unity Provisions to Permanent Partners of Certain Life Act Beneficiaries
This section of the bill deals with the LIFE Act. The LIFE Act grants the possibility of legalized status to certain foreign nationals who entered the U.S. before January 1, 1982 and thereafter resided in continuous lawful status through May 4, 1988. Such foreign nationals’ spouses benefit from the Family Unity provisions of the LIFE Act amendments, under which spouses of LIFE Act beneficiaries are eligible for lawful status if they entered the U.S. before December 1, 1988 and were residing in the U.S. on that date. This section would add permanent partners and allow them to benefit from the LIFE Act’s Family Unity provisions as well.
For More Information
Bob Kearney
Senior Public Policy Advocate
Human Rights Campaign
1640 Rhode Island Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20006
(202) 216-1557 direct (202) 459-3299 cell bob.kearney@hrc.org
Cristina Finch
Senior Counsel
Human Rights Campaign
1640 Rhode Island Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20006
(202) 216-1537 direct (202) 386-8980 cell cristina.finch@hrc.org