THAT'S WHAT THE MUSLIM BAN WAS SUPPOSED TO DO:

President Trump's travel ban prevented Mohammed Al-Awadhi's Yemeni wife from joining him in Arkansas, but he was certain she would qualify for a waiver: She has a serious heart condition, she's married to a law-abiding U.S. citizen and the rejection of her visa would tear apart their marriage and leave her in a nation ravaged by war and famine.

But Al-Awadhi has become increasingly skeptical that the Trump administration is applying its waiver standards to those who qualify. Five months after the travel ban went into effect, immigration advocates say the waivers -- permission for certain citizens from the prohibited countries to travel to the U.S. based on special circumstances -- have been nearly impossible to get. [...]

The government has provided little guidance on how to get a waiver, they say, and many visa applicants are still unaware the waiver option exists.

The State Department says that it automatically considers whether a visa applicant from a banned country is eligible for a waiver.

But the department also acknowledged that a "cleared" or "granted" waiver does not mean the applicant actually has received a visa. A State Department official said many waiver recipients have received actual visas, but declined to give specifics.

The travel ban stipulates that waivers can be granted to certain visa applicants deemed not to pose a national security threat, including people seeking to reunite with spouses, children or parents in the United States and those in need of urgent medical care, among others.

Attorneys say hundreds or thousands of people who meet those descriptions are being denied. And during the Supreme Court hearing last month, Justice Sonia Sotomayor questioned whether the waiver system is "window dressing" rather than an actual process.

"The waiver process is a sham," said Gadeir Abbas, a senior litigation attorney in Ohio for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group that has fielded hundreds of requests for help from people affected by the ban. Abbas said he knew of just three people who have received waivers.

Queries to more than 30 immigration attorneys and major immigrant legal and advocacy groups across the country turned up fewer than 25 known waiver recipients from the Muslim-majority ban countries.

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