Seeking Special Immigrant Juvenile Findings Through California Family Courts

This manual begins with an introduction to the federal SIJS laws and regulations and California laws and family court actions related to SIJS. Chapter 2 then discusses how to assess a potential case in family court, including legal and client-specific considerations prior to filing an action. The next two chapters discuss the two most important types of family court actions for purposes of obtaining SIJ findings: Chapter 3 provides an overview of filing a parentage action, while Chapter 4 outlines the filing of a custody action.6 Chapter 5 talks about preparing for a Request for Order (“RFO”) hearing, and then getting final orders by taking a case to judgment. Chapter 6 describes in detail how to obtain SIJ findings, including what it will take both for a judge to issue the findings and for USCIS to accept those findings as sufficient for federal immigration purposes. Finally, Chapter 7 discusses when and how to file a writ or appeal. The manual ends with samples and checklists for practitioners to use throughout the course of a family court case for easy reference and to make sure that the case remains on track when seeking SIJ findings.