Practice Advisory: Marriage-Based Family Reunification for LGBTQ Couples (July 2024)

This practice advisory provides legal background and practice tips for legal advocates representing LGBTQ couples with marriage-based family reunification to the United States. The advisory covers the legal requirements for valid and bona fide marriages, evidentiary requirements, and other challenges for LGBTQ couples. It incorporates significant developments of the last several years that impact LGBTQ couples, including the reintroduction and expansion of an informal marriage exception for refugees and asylees, the use of virtual proxy marriages, and changes to standards impacting some parents reuniting with children. We conclude with two practitioner tools: a chart listing common and alternative reunification pathways and annotated template declarations. We intend for advocates to use this advisory as a supplement to general marriage or family reunification guides such as IRAP’s Practice Guide on U.S. Immigration Law and Marriages Abroad or other family reunification guides.