As a practicing immigration attorney, I have recently heard a lot of inquiries from clients about a new “law” that allows them to gain a lawful status without having to leave the country and undergo consular processing. There has been a lot of confusion as to what this new “law” actually is. In early January, USCIS released a Notice of Intent indicating that they are planning on changing the process by which an immigrant applies for a waiver of grounds of inadmissibility when trying to obtain a lawful status to enter the United States. The current rule now requires immigrants to leave the United States and file the I-601 waiver at a U.S. Consulate. After filing the waiver, many of these immigrants spend many months waiting for their appointment to have the waiver adjudicated. This causes a lot of hardship on families because the immediate U.S. citizen relatives stay in the United States with their children while a spouse must remain outside the country. The Notice of Intent indicates that this change in policy would only apply to family based petitions where a I-130 petition has been approved. This step would help many part immigrant families to be able to stay together and fix one of the biggest obstacles to the stability of their families’ financial and emotional security. However, as I tell my clients, all of these changes are nothing more than plans or talk at the moment. There are no new “laws” yet. However, it is something to be excited about if one is an immigrant and would benefit from this potential change. For further information about this change, see http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-01-09/pdf/2012-140.pdf.