Three- and Ten-Year Bars
Policy Brief

What impacts do the three- and ten-year bars have on immigrants?

Because of immigration barriers like the three- and ten-year bars, many people who have been undocumented in the United States are not able to adjust their status without remaining outside the U.S. for many years.

The immigration bars bars affect millions of immigrants who could qualify for a green card by being sponsored by a family member who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, or by an employer. If those individuals originally entered the U.S. without authorization (as opposed to entering with a visa), however, they must first leave the U.S. and go through consular processing before returning in a legal status.

But leaving the U.S. triggers the bars, making reentry impossible until the bars run out or are waived.

For many immigrants—especially those who have built lives in the United States, are working, have bought homes, married, and have children who are U.S. citizens—the prospect of being separated from their families and their homes indefinitely is too great of a risk. As a result, many individuals simply remain undocumented rather than attempt to use these pathways.

That is partly why the undocumented population in the U.S. has grown so significantly since the bars were implemented, and why the majority of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. have lived here for ten years or more. The harsh penalties of the bars have effectively closed off the existing available pathways for individuals to correct their status.

How many people are affected by the three- and ten-year bars?

It is impossible to know how many immigrants are subject to the three- and ten-year bars, in part because the bars do not really come into play until after an individual has left the U.S. and attempts to reenter.

However, we can estimate a number based on who we know is most likely to be affected by a bar—that is, individuals who have been living in the U.S. without authorization and who likely have someone who could sponsor them easily for a green card, like a spouse who is a U.S. citizen.

FWD.us estimates that approximately 1.2 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. have a spouse who is a U.S. citizen who could sponsor them for a green card. On average, these individuals have lived in the U.S. for 15 years, are 39 years old; many have been married to their U.S. citizen spouse for at least a decade.¹ Potentially, tens of thousands more outside of the U.S. are separated from their U.S. citizen families.

The bars are especially harmful for DACA recipients, who came to the U.S. at a young age and grew up here, tens of thousands of whom are now married to U.S. citizens. They often have a potential sponsor through a spouse or employer, but may not know their full immigration history, and may not know they will be subject to a bar until they have already left the U.S. to change status and find themselves stuck in a country they barely remember. This can keep many DACA recipients from adjusting to a permanent status.