U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services updated the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) program. Said change is effective immediately. The move is part of a greater effort to increase government oversight of the immigration vetting process and greater efforts to combat immigration fraud.
The VAWA program gives survivors of domestic abuse certain immigration benefits when they enter the U.S. Between the 2020 and 2024 fiscal year, the number of VAWA petitions increased by three hundred and sixty percent. Due to the dramatic increase in petition numbers, the USCIS needs to clarify the guidelines of the VAWA program. Along with pure numbers, the amount of immigration fraudulent applications has greatly increased too.
The USCIS policy alert does the following:
- Codifying long-standing practices and giving more detailed provisions of VAWA that apply to USCIS adjudications.
- Streamlining the expectations of submitted evidence to reduce the need for requests for evidence or notices of intent to deny.
- Reinforces the statutory mandate under Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) 204(a)(1)(J) that the determination of what evidence is credible in addition to what weight to give that evidence is within the sole discretion of USCIS.
- Revises the requirement that the self-petitioner resides with the abuser during the qualifying relationship.
- Require self-petitioners to establish they entered a good-faith marriage with the alleged abuser by providing primary evidence of the marital relationship.
- Amends the policy on the termination of a step-relationship when either the biological or legal parent or the child dies.
- Requires the self-petitioner to provide evidence that their relationship with the surviving abusive parent or child continues after filing.
The updated policy guidelines apply to all VAWA requests filed or pending on and after December 22, 2025.
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