State Court SIJ Findings Order

What this is

The state-court order containing the SIJ-required findings about dependency, reunification, and best-interest determinations.

Case-specific: Whether this document matters depends on category, facts, or relationship to the case.

Who usually needs it

Special immigrant juveniles need it because SIJ eligibility begins with a qualifying state-court order before the immigration filing can rest on that framework.

When it usually appears

Usually before or alongside the SIJ petition stage, and later when the file must show the approved immigration theory was grounded in the right court findings.

What changes by process, path, or post

The court order is highly fact-specific. The main issue is whether it contains the required findings, not whether it resembles another family-court order generally.

Common format or evidence traps

• Using a state-court order that addresses custody or guardianship but omits SIJ-specific findings.
• Assuming an approved SIJ path eliminates the need to keep the court-order record clear in the file.

Related pages

• Pathway explorerUse pathway families if you still need the legal route.
• Petition stage guideUnderstand what petitions decide and what they do not.

Related glossary terms

Special immigrant

Examples from current exact-support flows

Coverage posture: Current public exact-support flows attach only one direct example to this document. Treat that example as narrow context, not as proof that the document only matters in that one scenario.

• Usually needed

  Provide the qualifying state juvenile-court predicate order containing all required SIJ findings: (1) that the child is dependent on the juvenile court or that custody or placement was made by the court under state law; (2) that reunification with one or both parents is not viable due to abuse, neglect, abandonment, or a similar basis under state law; and (3) that it is not in the child's best interest to return to the country of nationality or last habitual residence. All three findings must appear explicitly in the order. (Sources: uscis_i360_instructions, uscis_policy_f7_sij, uscis_policy_j3_sij_documentation, uscis_sij_faq)

  Shown when: scope.green_card_path: special-immigrant · scope.processing_context: adjustment-of-status · special_immigrant.subcategory: sij