Humanitarian medical visas

[Terabith]

Anyone know much about those?  My husband sorta fell into running a nonprofit for refugees and asylum seekers, and they have a family here currently on this with mom, dad, and one month old baby.  Mom is the one who is sick, and she's actively dying.  When she dies, do dad and baby have to return home?  

We're working on getting Dad and baby a hotel room for the time being.  

[Katy]

I have no idea, but I’ll comment to say he should probably consult an immigration attorney.

[MercyA]

Oh my goodness, how sad. 😞 No advice, but good for your husband for helping! 

[Terabith]

40 minutes ago, Katy said:

I have no idea, but I’ll comment to say he should probably consult an immigration attorney.

Yeah, we have a call into the one we work with. It just takes a long time for them to get back to us.  

[Lanny]

OP some questions:  (a) Are they in the USA now? (b) If so, are they where you live? (c) Do they have any type of Visa or other papers allowing them to enter the USA legally?

I suggest that you contact the Caseworker of your U.S. Congresswoman or Congressman and give them, briefly, all of the background information you can.

Possibly they can help you.  If they have some kind of status, it may be possible to get that status changed to another status.  I have a tiny bit of knowledge about this, but I know that many people who are in the USA legally now got their status changed and became legal.

I believe that a Medical Visa is for someone who is not in the USA and wants to travel there for Medical treatment. It sounds like the father and baby need some kind of status that will permit them to stay in the USA legally.

Good luck to them. I hope that she does not suffer.

[Pam in CT]

We are quite involved with an organization that, among other things, brings certain kids with CF to the US to get them fitted with the thumping vests/ trains a family member on how to use the thumping vests/ gets them launched on a treatment program of medications and diet / establishes a tele-support relationship with an attending physician, often not a pulmonary specialist but someone, back in their home country.

The kids come on humanitarian visas.  Typically the deal is one kid with one parent, for no more than 4 weeks, with multiple entries for 5 years.  They come in, they get set up with a treatment program and a way to monitor it, and return home... coming back here for shorter followup visits every ~18 months or so.

We use an immigration practice to help the families navigate the system. The odds of success is *much* higher when part of the family remains back home -- the concern always is that people will overstay in the US, and if one parent and a sibling or two or three remain home, the odds of that happening is much lower.

In your situation, the family is already *here* on a humanitarian visa?  The whole family?  and the patient for whom the visa was issued is at imminent risk of dying? IANAL, and you should definitely consult with one; but my understanding based on our CF patients is that the visas follow the *patient,* and that the father's and baby's eligibility would indeed lapse if the patient died.

When we've encountered hiccups -- usually when the poor kid is coming from a place that is controversial for some reason -- one of our Senators helps navigate with the State Department; you might try that route.

Also, if they happen to be Afghan -- folks who came in under the August-September evacuations actually did not come in as EITHER the "refugee" or "asylum" category, but a program particular to support to armed forces that hasn't been used since Vietnam/Cambodia nd there is a lot of churn currently about how their status will be regularized.  @Amira  likely has more timely information about where that is headed at this time.  So if they happen to be Afghan there may be more options, at least to get a way to enable the father and baby to stay.

In any event: competent counsel.

[Terabith]

1 hour ago, Pam in CT said:

We are quite involved with an organization that, among other things, brings certain kids with CF to the US to get them fitted with the thumping vests/ trains a family member on how to use the thumping vests/ gets them launched on a treatment program of medications and diet / establishes a tele-support relationship with an attending physician, often not a pulmonary specialist but someone, back in their home country.

The kids come on humanitarian visas.  Typically the deal is one kid with one parent, for no more than 4 weeks, with multiple entries for 5 years.  They come in, they get set up with a treatment program and a way to monitor it, and return home... coming back here for shorter followup visits every ~18 months or so.

We use an immigration practice to help the families navigate the system. The odds of success is *much* higher when part of the family remains back home -- the concern always is that people will overstay in the US, and if one parent and a sibling or two or three remain home, the odds of that happening is much lower.

In your situation, the family is already *here* on a humanitarian visa?  The whole family?  and the patient for whom the visa was issued is at imminent risk of dying? IANAL, and you should definitely consult with one; but my understanding based on our CF patients is that the visas follow the *patient,* and that the father's and baby's eligibility would indeed lapse if the patient died.

When we've encountered hiccups -- usually when the poor kid is coming from a place that is controversial for some reason -- one of our Senators helps navigate with the State Department; you might try that route.

Also, if they happen to be Afghan -- folks who came in under the August-September evacuations actually did not come in as EITHER the "refugee" or "asylum" category, but a program particular to support to armed forces that hasn't been used since Vietnam/Cambodia nd there is a lot of churn currently about how their status will be regularized.  @Amira  likely has more timely information about where that is headed at this time.  So if they happen to be Afghan there may be more options, at least to get a way to enable the father and baby to stay.

In any event: competent counsel.

Yes, they are already here....mom is patient; there is a baby, and Dad is here, I think ostensibly to care for baby.  I'm not actually sure where they're from.  Mom is actively dying, but could be today, could be three months from now.  I think we actually are not going to be super involved in this, because Catholic Charities is involved, and they have a pretty robust situation.  We do have an immigration lawyer that we use, but I think they're using Catholic Charity's.  My husband just wasn't sure what the protocol is.  We were originally trying to get them a hotel room, but Dad has said he prefers to stay at the homeless shelter, which is genuinely a very nice one with more resources/ diapers/ people who are willing to help out with baby, so I can't say I wouldn't make the same call.  

Just tragic, but it looks like we don't actually need to do much for this family, at least right now.  

[Amira]

Part of this will depend on how they entered the US.  The children Pam is talking about enter on non-immigrant humanitarian visas issued by the state department. Those are for people who have the time and ability to go through the visa process.  I’d guess that the people referenced in the OP entered on humanitarian parole which is overseen by DHS. That’s for people who either don’t have the time to go through the visa process or who were denied a non-immigrant visa.  

It is quite unlikely that they could find a way to stay in the US if they entered on humanitarian parole. By definition, it is temporary and not supposed to be used to immigrate.  Catholic Charities will have plenty of experience with this, but it’s likely that the best thing you can do is to support the dad while he’s in the US.  And hope that they can find a path to a regular admission if that is what they want.