Parole in Place (PIP) is here.

Now it's time (sigh!) to find those documents...

I've seen quite a few eyerolls lately while explaining to my clients that yes, they do have to prove that they've been in the country since on or before June 17, 2014, as part of their application for Parole in Place (PIP) under the new discretionary program that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration (USCIS) has rolled out.

How can they prove this? Here are a few suggestions.

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□    DACA approval notices

□    Rent or mortgage leases or receipts

□    Utility bills

□    Other bills and receipts

□    Driver’s licenses and ID cards

□    School records (of yourself and your children)

□    Birth certificates of your children

□    Doctor/Dentist visits

□    Medical Records

□    Religious records

□    Money order receipts

□    Dated bank transactions (bank statements)

□    Insurance policies (health, life, car, renter)

□    Employment records (employer letter, pay stubs, W-2s)

□    Taxes or tax transcripts

□    Membership records (Sam's Club, Netflix, Planet Fitness)

□    Dated awards and certificates

□    Postmarked envelopes with the date and your U.S. address

□    Detailed affidavits or declarations from family, friends, employers

□    Any document that clearly comes from the U.S. with your name and date

□    Social media posts (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok) showing your location.

This list is by no means the only way that applicants can prove their continuous presence in the United States from at least June 17, 2014. The best approach is to be creative. Go through old social media posts and print out photos with the dates. Ask your friends if they have dated photos in their phones with recognizable U.S. locations in the background. Look through old paperwork.

Most importantly, be thorough. Organize your documents by dates, and find at least one document per year for each of the 10 years. Or more if at all possible.

Remember that this is a discretionary program, which means that USCIS may issue a request for evidence (RFE) or even deny the application outright. USCIS tells us that:

The burden is on the requestor to demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence that they meet the eligibility criteria, and that parole is warranted as a matter of discretion for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.

This means that it's up to the applicant to submit enough proof to satisfy USCIS. If you are eligible for parole in place, you should make locating this documentation a top priority. This program comes from President Joe Biden's executive order, and it is unknown how long it will remain available.

For up-to-date, accurate details on PIP and to determine whether you are eligible, please schedule a legal consultation by sending an email to Armstrong Law Offices at info@armstronglawpllc.com.