Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) provides a pathway to a green card for young people who have been “abandoned, abused, or neglected” by a parent. This Community Explainer unpacks what that means, what the SIJS key benefits are, and how one may become eligible to apply for this path to relief.
This updated guidance, written with our partners Immigrant Legal Defense (ILD), International Rescue Committee (IRC), and Legal Services for Children (LSC), includes recommendations for what information to include in state court predicate orders for special immigrant juvenile status (SIJS) in California. It incorporates guidance from the 2022 SIJS regulations as well as the USCIS Policy Manual, and includes helpful citations to California law. It also includes sample predicate orders from family, probate, dependency, and delinquency courts.