The law allows persons temporarily inside of the United States to "adjust status" to permanent resident without departing but only if they were admitted or parolled into the United States. Until recently "admission" appeared to require a formal interaction between a US border official and the applicant usually resulting in the issuance of an admission document. Matter of Quilantan changed that by requiring only that the applicant's entry occurred with "procedural regularity" including a "wave through."

While the BIA introduced the "procedural regularity" standard in 1980 with Matter of Areguillin, in 1996 IIRIRA enacted statutory definitions for inspection and admission believed by many to cast doubt on Areguillin.  Countless aliens have entered the United States by car and on foot after having been "waved through" US ports of entry.  Quilantan gives these aliens a shot at adjusting status in an era without 245(i).

The Court noted in Quitanlan:

In other words, as long as an alien's entry into the United States as a nonimmigrant was procedurally proper (i.e., the alien underwent an inspection by an immigration officer, who subsequently admitted the alien), the alien could seek adjustment of status under section 245(a).

In Quilantan, Graciela Quilantan entered the United States in a car driven by her United States citizen friend.  At the port of entry along the Mexican-US border, the immigration inspector asked her friend whether he was an American citizen, but did not ask her anything.  Her friend responded that he was a citizen and the inspector waved the car through the port of entry and into the United States.

The court found that this was a "procedurally regular" entry that constituted an admission.

Quilantan provides real relief for aliens inside the United States without valid status who would otherwise be barred from adjustment of status because of their unlawful entry.  In cases where the alien is the beneficiary of an immediately relative petition filed by a US citizen spouse, parent or child over age 21, Quilantan means the difference between a quick path to permanent residence and facing a ten year exile before immigrating to the United States.

The three and ten year bars to reentry arise when (1) an alien has remained inside of the United States unlawfully for more than six months, or more than one year, and then (2) departs the United States.  The bar to adjustment of status for an alien who entered the United States without inspection forces him to depart before securing an immigrant visa and the departure subjects him to the reentry bar.

Quilantan may allow aliens who entered with inspection but without a lawful basis for admission to adjust status provided that they can prove an officer inspected and admitted them.  The difference in many cases may be ten years.