The INS has issued a notice indicating that it will take a tougher policy in allowing family members of refugees to enter the US. The new INS policy will allow refugees seeking entry to the US to only bring in spouses and minor unmarried children. The previous policy allowed a qualifying refugee's other family members (such as parents and adult children) to enter as derivative refugees. The other family members must now establish refugee eligibility in their own right. The INS states that it is implementing the policy because there is no statutory basis to allow other family members to enter as derivatives.

However, the INS recognizes that there may be humanitarian reasons to include in a case other individuals who cannot derive refugee status, such as an elderly parent or an unmarried son or daughter. While these people are not able to have derivative status and must qualify as refugees in their own right, they may be granted a refugee interview as long as they are household members and are part of the same economic unit as the interviewed principal refugee applicant. These people are not required to fall within a designated processing priority to gain access to a US refugee program and they are accorded the same priority as the principal applicant. This same special procedure is available in Lautenberg Amendment cases for certain Russians and East Asians covered in that program.