An initiative toHelp people looking for a financial sponsor under thehumanitarian parole program will open the possibility of managing your requests to potentialimmigrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti starting this Wednesday.
The charityWelcome.US will enable a digital registry of requests this March 15, at 11 a.m. (summer time in the eastern United States), for people of the nationalities benefited by theimmigration program, launched by theBiden administration on January 6th.
The plan is very similar to the one previously established by Welcome.US for Afghan and Ukrainian refugees, andIt is absolutely free for participants, both those who register as sponsors and the beneficiaries.
For theCubans who aspire to get an effective sponsor, the call can be a considerable option, although there are no guarantees that participation will result in an immediate solution of economic support.
Interested parties must access the platformWelcome Connect at the indicated time from their respective countries or a third country, but not from the United States. Only sponsors can register from US territory.
Participants should keep in mind that the process offers limited places and, once sold out, they will have to wait until next April 15 for another opportunity for economic benefit.
“To ensure that both sponsors and beneficiaries can establish successful connections, registration in Welcome Connect will be continuous, limited and scheduled,” the organization clarifies on its website. “On the 15th of each month, the registration page will be enabled for beneficiary registrations. Once the registration limit for a program is reached, it will be suspended again until the 15th of the following month.”
However, sponsors can sign up at any time through Welcome Connect. The organization urges all businessmen, private groups, civic organizations and, in general, people with sufficient financial resources, to join the initiative.
“These new humanitarian programs also require the support of a US sponsor so that these vulnerable populations can seek refuge in the United States,” states the call from Welcome.US, an entity founded in 2021.
Since then, more than130 thousand people have registered with Welcome.US as sponsors of refugees,which has allowedabout 58 thousand Afghans and Ukrainians receive basic economic support to adapt to the new life in the United States.
To make it clear: this process does not replace the humanitarian parole program, but rather tries to expand the ways so that more people can access to formalize their request to emigrate legally and safely.
These are some of the steps and recommendations for searching for a sponsor starting this Wednesday:
1. Find the Welcome.US page and then sign up for registration through the Welcome Connect platform.
2. By registering, you will be able to select up to three potential sponsors and begin chatting about your interests and options for emigrating.
3. If the sponsor and the participant are not “compatible”, either party can close the chat.
4. To make the request from Cuba it is required to establish a VPN connection. It is also recommended to have an email with GMAIL enabled.
5. If you cannot reach sponsorship spots, it is not necessary to register again in case you decide to try your luck the following month. Registration will help you for the next call.
6. If the applicant is successful in their contact, the sponsorship process must from that moment comply with all the steps established by theDepartment of Citizenship and Immigration (USCIS) for the humanitarian parole program. That is, the sponsor must go to the USCIS site and fill out theform I-134A.
7. Sponsors can be sought for family groups, but when filling out the registration form on the USCIS site, claims must be individual.
8. In the event of any uncomfortable situation in the chat, you have the option to end the communication and report it.
The alternative of trying your luck through Welcome.US has in its favor the reliability of the process, since the organization was established incollaboration with the Department of State and the endorsement of several American personalities as honorary presidents, including former presidentsBarack Obama, George W. Bush andBill Clinton.
Two months after the launch of the humanitarian parole program, some 14,000 citizens of the four countries favored by the initiative, includingabout 10 thousand Cubans have managed to reach the United States under economic sponsorship, but there are still numerous complaints from people who cannot get a sponsor.
For many interested parties, expediting their applications is a priority, taking into account that the program is besieged bya lawsuit in a Texas court with the request to cancel it. ATrial on the case is proposed to begin June 12, but the judge's confirmation is still pending.
Washington's initiative seeks orderly immigration and to control the irregular flow across the southern border, with the promise of granting up to 30,000 visas per month to Cuban, Nicaraguan, Venezuelan and Haitian applicants.
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