Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) “At-Risk Juveniles”

Before applying, you need to go to the state juvenile court. Your immigration lawyer might be able to help you with the state court order. Or they might have ideas about who can help you get your state court order. If you don’t have money to hire a lawyer you might be able to get help from local nonprofit organizations. See section below, “Who can help me through the process?”

If you want to try to start this process yourself, there are forms and information on the courts website. This process is complicated! You have to make sure you do certain things like:  

• Legal service to your parents 
• Filling out and filing the court forms in the right way 
• Paying the court fee or applying for a fee waiver, and 
• Making sure you go to your court hearings 
   

It is best to work with a lawyer if you can.  
 

• guidance and help
• financial and emotional support 
• referrals to resources to help meet your needs
• referrals and resources to protect you from sex or labor trafficking or domestic or sexual violence
   

At its core the state juvenile court order must:

• Appoint you a guardian
• Find that you have been abused, neglected or abandoned as defined under Minnesota state law and that you can’t go back with your parents.
• Find that it’s not in your best interest to be sent back to your country
   

But, the statements in the Order should have specific details.  This is important to make sure the Order is legal. The Order needs to:

• meet the requirements of the law so that the appointment of your guardian is valid 
• have all the information needed in the “findings” section. This lets USCIS know that you are a Special Immigrant Juvenile.
   

It is a good idea to have an immigration lawyer look over both your petition and proposed order before they are finalized. 
 

Once you have the state juvenile court order, you can apply for SIJS with USCIS. You do this by filing Form I-360 at the location listed for your state. You need to include:

• a copy of the juvenile court order appointing a guardian and making the SIJS findings
• proof that you are under 21 years old at the time you file, like a copy of your birth certificate. 
  • If your birth certificate is not in English you have to include a translation, along with a certification of translation. 
     

If you are filing this application on your own, read all of the filing instructions on USCIS’ website very carefully! It is important that you include all the necessary proofs that USCIS needs to see along with your I-360 application.

There are very specific requirements to this process. You should meet with an immigration lawyer if you haven’t already!