INS on PRC National in U.S. to Receive Travel Document

Dear Ms. Wong:

This is in reply to your inquiry dated September 13, concerning the eligibility of a PRC national presently in the United State to receive a refugee travel document.

The Executive Order to which you refer embraces all PRC nationals within its scope; it does not require each of its beneficiaries to meet the legal burden of proving refugee status. Therefore, aliens in the United States who are covered by the Order are not accorded the status of refugee or asylee unless they separately apply for and obtain recognition as such.

As you may know, PRC nationals covered by the Executive Order are eligible to apply for advance parole; but those parole authorizations cannot extend beyond January 1, 1994, the date on which the Order's benefits expire.

Service regulations at 8 CFR 223a permit aliens who are physically present in the United States and believe themselves to be refugees to make application for a refugee travel document; but the same regulations require every such applicant to meet the definition of refugee set forth in paragraph 101(a)(42) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Therefore, the case of any applicant for a refugee travel document who has not already applied for and been accorded refugee or asylee status will be treated as an application for asylum, entailing the burden of proof appropriate to that proceeding as prescribed by INS Operations Instruction 223a.13.

I hope that this information is helpful to you.

Edward H. Skerrett

27MM4C07