🇺🇸 Family reunification

The September 2026 policy directs the Department of State to use visa restrictions against individuals responsible for, or complicit in, impeding the prompt resolution of international parental child-abduction cases. The policy is grounded in Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the INA rather than creating a new statutory visa-ineligibility provision through legislation. The conduct described by the Department includes intentionally failing to implement or comply with laws, policies or court orders that are intended to resolve an international parental child-abduction case and return a child to their country of habitual residence. The policy therefore targets obstruction of the mechanisms through which an abduction case is supposed to be resolved, rather than treating the existence of a disputed custody situation as sufficient on its own. The policy can apply to foreign government officials, judges, judicial administrators, law-enforcement officials and other individuals whose conduct falls within the stated criteria. The State Department has not limited the policy to people in a particular country or region. Its stated scope is conduct connected to international parental child-abduction cases. Immediate family members of individuals subject to the policy may also be restricted from receiving U.S. visas. The announcement therefore establishes both an individual measure and a potential derivative consequence for immediate family members. The policy does not mean that every foreign official involved in an international child-abduction case will automatically become visa-ineligible. The State Department's wording focuses on people who are responsible for, or complicit in, intentionally impeding the prompt resolution of such cases. The policy also does not state that every case involving a foreign court or government that does not result in the child's return will constitute grounds for a visa restriction. The measure operates alongside, rather than replacing, existing mechanisms. The Hague Abduction Convention remains an important mechanism where the relevant countries are Convention partners, while the State Department continues to provide case assistance and other resources through its Office of Children's Issues.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has corrected the interim final rule (IFR) by restoring unintentionally removed regulatory language for evidentiary criteria at 8 CFR 264.2 (c)(2). Specifically, it corrects text at 8 CFR 264.2(c)(2)(v) and (vi) to recognise that children seeking to register permanent residence, whose parents were foreign government employees (but not necessarily foreign diplomatic officers), may not be required to file Form I-508, Waiver of Rights, Privileges, Exemptions, and Immunities. Under the corrected regulation, an applicant seeking lawful permanent residence as a person born in the United States to a foreign government employee must submit a completed Form I-485 with the applicable fee and required initial evidence, Form G-325A, the applicant's birth certificate, and, where applicable, an executed Form I-508. The applicant must also provide official confirmation of the parent's foreign government employment, including the parent's occupational title and, where applicable, diplomatic classification at the time of the applicant's birth. The application must include a list of the applicant's arrivals in and departures from the United States, proof of continuous U.S. residence and two photographs meeting the application specifications, subject to the officer's ability to waive the photographs for just cause. For children whose parents were foreign government employees but were not foreign diplomatic officers, the regulation clarifies that Form I-508 may not be required. Instead, evidence establishing the parent's foreign government employment must be submitted.