A lawyer for a German couple who lost their bid for US asylum in order to home-school their seven children says deportation proceedings against the family have been deferred indefinitely.
The news comes only a day after the US Supreme Court declined to hear Uwe Romeike's asylum appeal.
Michael Donnelly, a lawyer with the Home School Legal Defense Association, said the group received a call from the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday morning.
"This is a great, great victory," he said. "We're all very grateful and pleased."
Romeike had claimed in court that his family faced persecution in Germany, where almost all children are required to attend state-approved schools. Those include some private Christian schools.
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The Romeikes moved from Bissingen an der Teck, in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, to Morristown, Tennessee, in 2008 after pulling their children out of school and facing an escalating series of confrontations with German officials that led to fines totaling 7000 euros ($A10,830). They said they feared that if they continued to home-school in Germany they could be sent to jail or lose custody of their children.
They initially were granted asylum by a Memphis immigration judge, but that decision was overturned on appeal.
