How does U.S. refugee, parole, and special immigrant processing work behind the scenes? IRAP has spent a decade filing requests, and in many cases suing to enforce those requests, to obtain a collection of over 60,000 pages of U.S. government documents that will help the public understand the answer to that question. With the help of pro bono attorneys, IRAP organized the collection and made the archive searchable for researchers, legal practitioners, journalists, and anyone in the public who wants access to the original records. IRAP also uses these insights to inform our legal information for refugees and our legal practitioner resources.
What’s in IRAP’s collection of U.S. government documents?
IRAP’s U.S. government document collections contain, as of October 2024, over 60,000 pages of U.S. government policies about refugee, parole, and special immigrant visa processing. Because U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services often train refugee and asylum officers with the same “training modules,” many of the resources also relate to asylum law or address legal issues like admissibility or marriage qualifications that come up in many different immigration processes like adjustment of status.
When should I search IRAP’s document collections?
If IRAP’s legal information or legal practitioner resources don’t answer your question about refugee, parole or SIV processing, or if you need to cite to an original government source, then you can search IRAP’s U.S. government document collections. While IRAP sometimes publishes practice advisories about documents we receive through FOIA (for example, you can read our blogs about documents related to humanitarian parole for Afghans or the Central American Minors parole program), we have many thousands of documents that we are not able to go into detail on.
Important: Readers can use these documents for informational purposes, but you should be aware that policies may have changed. In some cases, IRAP has received and uploaded multiple versions of the same document showing changes, and we know that earlier versions are out-of-date. In any case, the government may have changed its policy since producing a document to IRAP. Use caution and do not rely on documents alone as proof of a current policy.
How can I search through the different collections?
IRAP has prepared a short guide on searching through the collections here and a short video demonstrating searches here.
Can you give me some examples of useful documents?
One of the most helpful types of documents for refugee and asylum cases before USCIS are USCIS’s Refugee, Asylum, and International Operations (RAIO) training modules that contain USCIS’s explanation and interpretation of refugee law for officers. While some of these modules are posted on USCIS’s website or other locations, others are unique, and IRAP’s document collection allows much more powerful text-searching across all training modules.
For those seeking to understand the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, the USRAP Processing Guides contain detailed instructions for the staff at resettlement support centers who process refugee applications. They cover a variety of issues including how refugee cases can be structured, such as when family members can be linked; frequently asked questions for nationality-specific refugee programs like those for Afghans, Iraqis, and Central Americans; what questions should be asked at pre-screening interviews; and how post-processing situations like new births or marriages are handled.
While those are two common document types, searching through the archive could help advocates or researchers learn from more specific policy or training documents available, from DNA testing guidance to various humanitarian parole trainings and polices, and even some policies covering very specific issues like how USCIS assesses the citizenship of Sudanese refugee applicants who fled prior to South Sudan’s independence.
Are you still adding new documents and how can I learn when you add new things?
Yes, we are regularly adding new documents as the government produces documents related to the many FOIA requests that IRAP has pending. Our page on DocumentCloud lists our newest documents added, but we also recommend signing up for our Legal Practitioner Updates emails so that you can learn more about relevant publications and resources.
If you would like to receive email alerts about IRAP’s legal practitioner resources, please sign up here.
