HIAS Praises State Dept For Expanding Eligibility for Refugee Reunification

WASHINGTON—Today, HIAS CEO and President Mark Hetfield welcomed the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Migration, and Refugees expansion of who is eligible for family reunion under the United States Refugee Admissions Program. According to the bureau’s annual report to Congress, same-sex life partners and heterosexual partners from countries where the right to choose one’s life partner is not respected, are now both considered as eligible family members for family reunion. For several years, HIAS, the global Jewish nonprofit protecting refugees, has strongly advocated for the inclusion of this much needed policy adjustment. 

“Refugees with same-sex partners will finally have the opportunity to reunite with them and to make their families whole again,” said Hetfield. “This long overdue change in policy recognizes the unique challenges faced by LGBT refugees, many of whom were forced to flee their native countries precisely because of their identities, and come from places where legal commitments were either impossible or unsafe to make.”

The relevant language from this year’s report can be found below: 

The following family members of the U.S.-based family members are qualified for P-3 access: spouse, unmarried children under 21, and/or parents. A U.S.-based family member may apply for a same-sex spouse if a legal marriage was conducted and documented. Cognizant that same-sex marriage is not legal in the vast majority of refugee-producing and refugee-hosting countries, the United States will allow a qualifying individual to file for P-3 access for a same-sex partner if he or she can provide evidence that he/she had a relationship with the partner for at least one year overseas prior to the submission of the AOR and considered that person to be his/her spouse or life partner, and that the relationship is ongoing, together with evidence that legal marriage was not an obtainable option due to social and/or legal prohibitions.

Under certain circumstances, a qualifying individual may file for P-3 access for an opposite sex partner if he or she can provide evidence that he/she had a relationship with the partner for at least one year overseas prior to the submission of the AOR and considered that person to be his/her spouse or life partner, and that the relationship is ongoing, together with evidence that legal marriage was not an obtainable option due to social and/or legal prohibitions.