The route to legal residency for some undocumented immigrants is expected to get shorter this year. A new proposal by the Obama administration would streamline the green card process for undocumented spouses or children of American citizens. It is a welcome change for families in Massachusetts and elsewhere that have been ripped apart by the government's inability to overhaul the nation's broken and antiquated immigration laws.

The plan is a procedural change in immigration policy that does not need congressional approval, one of many end-around efforts by the president to push promises of immigration law reform.

Undocumented children or spouses of U.S. citizens traditionally have been forced to exit the country for lengthy periods to try to gain legal residency. With the new rule, the international separation time between family members could be reduced to a few weeks or days.

Current law sends an illegal spouse or child out of the country for a minimum of three years during the green card process. The estrangement from family frequently stretches well beyond three years, depending on the length of time the undocumented family member was in the United States.

The only path to a shorter waiting period was by securing a hardship waiver, which was obtained only after the undocumented immigrant left the country. The new proposal would allow immigrants to ask for a waiver before leaving the country.

Waiver approval hinges on showing immigration officials that an American spouse or parent would endure "extreme hardship," a process that sometimes takes up to half a year. The proposed change would shrink the waiver waiting time to a few weeks, even a few days.

More than 70 percent of the 23,000 waiver applications received by immigration officials last year were approved. When the new policy makes the family waiver wait easier and shorter, the number of applications for waivers could skyrocket.

Source: Washington Post, "AP source: Obama administration plans change for some immigrants applying for legal status," Jan. 6, 2012