More human-train survivors are seeking visas but face longer waits and risk departation

The t visa, an underuelized Lifeline for Immigrant Survivors of Human Trafficking, Is Experience a Sharp Rise in Applications, Despite Increasing Processing Times and Departation Risks.

Also Known as T Nonimmigrant Status, The Visa Allows People who have experienced Severe Forms of Human Trafficking to Remain in the Country for Up to Four Years If they are the same Investigation and Prosecution of their trafficker. Approved Applicants can work in the US, are eligible for certain state and federal benefits, and can apply for a green card after three years on the visa (Or EarLier If the criminal Closed).

Julie Dahlstrom, Founder and Director of the Human Trafficking Clinic at Boston University, Said Increased Awareness of the Visa and the courts’ Expeding definitions of trafficing may have comptry Increase, Along with Mounting Barriers to Other Pathways for Immigrant Relief.

Congress Created The T Visa in 2000 as Part of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, Intending to Bolster Law Enforcement Agencies’ Capabilities to PROSECUTE HUMANCUTE HUMANCUTEE Protections to survivors. The same law also established the u visa, which provides legal status for Victims who have suffred substantial abuse as a result of serial crimes incidence training, decomatic violence and sexual Assault. U Visa Applicants must also be willing to assist law enforcement in their investment of these crimes.

“Many [applicants] Are eligible for the u visa as well, but they’re taking now over 20 years for an individual to get access… so i think Also File T Visa Applications, “Dahlstrom Said. We’ll Continue to see that move. “

Uscis updated the t visa rules in August 2024 with a process called called Bona Fide Determination that Gave Survivors Earlier Access to Benefits whose their application is application is applied. It also granted them deferred action, which places individuals on a lower priority for removal proceedings.

Erika Gonzalez, Training and Technical Assistant Managing Attorney from the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking, ExPLAINED that Although Early Access to Benefits Had Existed in the Federal Stute It was Never implemented because applications were processing fast enough to not needed it.

“They have updated the [bona fide determination] Process to now have a formal process to engage with, and it does parallel with the sharp increases in filing, ”Gonzalez said.

As t visa applications rose, so too did approvals. Last year, the number of Approvals Broke 3,000 for the first time thought it still fell short of the 5,000 ca.

Processing Times for T Visas have also increased, Jumping from a Median of 5.9 months in 2014 to 19.9 months this fiscal year.

Denial Rates for T Visas, Meanwhile, Have Fluctated.

“We We WEDEING Increased Denial Rates under the Prior Trump Administration and then Improved Rates Under Biden,” Dahlstrom Said.

Denials can leave t visa applicants vulneable to departation. In 2018, Uscis began allowing removal proceedings if an application was rejected with a notice to appear (NTA).

According to a 2022 Report Co-Written By Dahlstromwhich obtained Uscis data through freedom of information act litigation, Uscis is issued a total of 236 ntas to dense t inja applicants from 2019 to 2021. PRESIDENT BIDENDENT BIDENDED This POLICY BEDENDED This POLICY 2021 Executive Order, but last February, Uscis published new guidance once more expanding the circumstans where the agency could issue ntas.

These policies, AlongSide Escalated Coordination Between Law Enforcement and other agencies, have heightened fear amon survivors applying for the tis, dahlstrom explained.

“We areeing in real time the results of include Requirements Around Law Enforcement Engagement, Easpecially when there’san there’s greatly cooperation with ice and greatness About Deportation,” Said. “These Programs are being Politicized and, in some ways, weaponized if you’re denied and you’re placed in proceedings.”

Since February’s policy update, at least One person has self-deeported After immigration and customs enforcement denied her story despite her pending t visa application.

So far in the fiscal year 2025, Uscis has approved 1,035 t-Visas and rejected 693, which surpasses the number rejected in Eve of the last four years.

“It’s too early to tell what we’re going to see, but if we continue to see these numbers, it’s both going to me Rise in Denials and Very Few Cases Adjudicated AMIDT AMIDS Really Troubleing, “Dahlstrom said. “These are statutorily protected programs, but what they can do is really slow them down, make them infective just in the way that they’re processing applications.”