[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 158 (Monday, August 17, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43957-43958]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-21948]


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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Immigration and Naturalization Service
[INS No. 1903-98]


Overseas Refugee Processing; Derivative Refugees

AGENCY: Immigration and Naturalization Service, Justice.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: This notice informs the public and organizations that assist 
overseas refugee applicants that the Immigration and Naturalization 
Service (Service) will grant derivative refugee status under section 
207(c)(2) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (the Act) only to a 
person who is the spouse or child of a refugee who qualifies for 
admission under section 207(c)(1) of the Act. This is a change from the 
current practice in some U.S. programs of admitting a qualifying 
refugee's other family members to the United States as derivative 
refugees. These other family members may still be processed as part of 
the same case as the principal refugee, but must now establish refugee 
eligibility in their own right under sections 101(a)(42) and 207(c)(1) 
of the Act. This action is necessary to avoid the granting of 
derivative refugee status to persons without a statutory basis. This 
notice also informs the public that those persons approved for 
admission to the United States as derivative refugees under section 
207(c)(2) may not be admitted to the United States unless they 
accompany the principal refugee to the United States or follow to join 
the principal refugee in the United States.

DATES: This notice is effective September 16, 1998.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Karen McCoy, Immigration Officer, Immigration and Naturalization 
Service; 425 I Street, NW, Washington, DC 20536, Attn: ULLICO Bldg., 
3rd Floor, Phone: (202) 305-2760.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Service has become aware that some of 
its current practices in processing refugee applications have resulted 
in the granting of derivative refugee status to persons without a 
statutory basis. The Service has also admitted to the United States 
persons who have been approved

[[Page 43958]]

for derivative refugee status but are not accompanying or following to 
join the principal applicant, as required under section 207(c)(2) of 
the Act.

Qualifying for Derivative Refugee Status

    Section 101(a)(42) of the Act defines a refugee as a person who is 
unable or unwilling to return to (or under circumstances specified by 
the President to remain in) his or her country of origin ``because of 
persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, 
religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or 
political opinion.'' The Act provides two means by which a person may 
be admitted to the United States with refugee status. Section 207(c)(1) 
of the Act allows the Attorney General, within certain numerical 
limitations set by the President, to admit to the United States as 
refugees, persons who apply for refugee status from abroad and who are 
determined to meet this definition. Persons who qualify as refugees 
under section 101(a)(42) of the Act are often referred to as 
principals, principal refugees, or principal applicants. Subject to the 
numerical limitations established pursuant to subsections 207(a) and 
(b) of the Act, section 207(c)(2) entitles eligible spouses and 
children, defined in section 101(b)(1) of the Act as unmarried children 
under the age of 21, of any refugee who qualifies for admission under 
section 207(c)(1) of the Act to be admitted with refugee status if 
accompanying or following to join the principal refugee. Spouses and 
children who accompany or follow to join a principal refugee under 
section 207(c)(2) are often referred to as derivatives or derivative 
refugees. These are the only means provided for in the Act by which a 
person may be admitted with refugee status.
    The plain language of section 207(c)(2) of the Act provides for 
only spouses and children to derive refugee status from a principal 
refugee. There is no basis in law to expand the category of persons who 
may derive refugee status. Accordingly, persons other than spouses and 
children, as defined in section 101(b)(1) of the Act, of a principal 
refugee are not eligible for derivative refugee status and must qualify 
as principal refugees under sections 101(a)(42) and 207(c)(1) of the 
Act in order to be admitted to the United States with refugee status.
    Because section 207(c)(2) of the Act requires that a derivative 
refugee accompany or follow to join the principal refugee, a person 
approved for derivative refugee status as the spouse or child of a 
principal refugee may not be admitted to the United States prior to the 
admission of the principal refugee.

Eligibility for Service Interview

    While the statute is clear on who can derive refugee status, the 
Service realizes there may be humanitarian reasons to include in a case 
unit other individuals who cannot derive refugee status, such as an 
elderly parent or an unmarried adult son or daughter. As these persons 
cannot statutorily derive refugee status from the principal applicant, 
they must qualify as refugees in their own right. However, such 
individuals may be given a refugee interview as long as they are 
household members and are part of the same economic unit as the 
interviewed principal refugee applicant. In such cases these 
individuals are not required to fall within a designated processing 
priority to gain access to the U.S. refugee program, as they may be 
accorded the same priority as the principal applicant.

Lautenberg Amendment

    When processing refugee cases under the special adjudication 
procedures based on section 599D of the Foreign Operations, Export 
Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 1990, Public Law 
101-167 dated November 11, 1989, Amendment 290 known as the Lautenberg 
Amendment, the Service officer must determine whether additional family 
members qualify for category membership under the Lautenberg Amendment. 
In an April 24, 1990 memorandum, the Attorney General specified that 
certain persons who are not themselves category members may be 
adjudicated as if they were category members. According to this 
memorandum, persons who are members of the same household and/or are 
economically dependent on a category applicant, are physically present 
with the category applicant at the time of the interview, and would be 
traveling with the category aplicant will be considered category 
applicants for purposes of adjudication of their refugee claims. 
Accordingly, applications by persons who fall within these criteria may 
be adjudicated under the reduced evidentiary burden of the Lautenberg 
Amendment.

    Dated: July 28, 1998.
Doris Meissner,
Commissioner, Immigration and Naturalization Service.
[FR Doc. 98-21948 Filed 8-14-98; 8:45 am]
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