U visas are for victims of crime and may provide permanent resident status.  A prosecutor or police letter is needed to support the application and only certain criteria will qualify the victim for this visa.  In the past, even if the U petition was granted, it did not protect one from deportation while awaiting a visa number. There is a long backlog of U applications.

Needed changes to the U visa are expected to be included in the Biden administration\'s proposed immigration bill (which I think may come out this week).  They want to raise the cap from 10,000 to 30,000 annually. There is also vague language about increasing protection for these applicants. Hopefully that will include work authorization for pending cases, recapturing visas from prior years, and improving processing time.