When Marriage Is Insufficient for Immigration
Under U.S. migration law,immigrants may acquire a permit (“U.S. permanent home”) by marrying a U.S. person. The U.S. person must,nevertheless under the typical course,petition U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (CIS,previously called “INS”) for a green card and an immigrant visa application for his/her immigrant spouse based on the marriage. This process when finished results in the immigrant’s attainment of U.S. long-term residency– i.e.,authorization to live and work in the U.S. on an irreversible basis. This procedure is not constantly beneficial to the immigrant– in numerous circumstances,it offers one of the most violent methods a sponsoring partner can work out control over the immigrant,by holding the immigrant’s tentative immigration status over her. With a masters degree or special skill,one might try to qualify in other methods:
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A commonality in nearly all abusive marriages involving an immigrant partner is the risk of deportation,typically in the form of the violent U.S. resident or legal permanent resident partner threatening to withdraw his/her sponsorship of the immigrant’s visa petition,not submit at all,or contact CIS and lie about her in an effort to have her deported.
Often,immigrants are provided the warning that they either tell nobody about the abuse and therefore,let it continue,or else face deportation. This threat of deportation,a form of severe psychological abuse,can be more terrifying to an immigrant than even the worst physical abuse imaginable. Lots of immigrants have kids and family members in the U.S. who rely on them and many fear going back to the country they escaped,for fear of societal reprisal,inescapable hardship,and/or persecution.
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA),passed into law in 1994 and modified in 2001,supplies hope for immigrant abuse survivors. Abused immigrants who are wed to a U.S. citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident or who divorced their abuser in the past two years might now petition by themselves for an immigrant visa and permit application,without the abuser’s understanding or consent. In this confidential procedure,CIS agents are lawfully bound to refrain from calling the abuser and informing him/her anything of the abused immigrant’s efforts to get a green card under VAWA. The process can typically be finished within a year for those wed to U.S. people.
This procedure also provides short-lived defense from deportation for immigrants not in deportation currently (called “delayed action status”) and renewed work authorization to legal long-term residents who normally face a longer waiting duration due to visa number backlogs.
Further,the immigrant partner does not need to appear prior to a judge (the process is paper driven) and s/he might leave her abuser at any time,without harm to her immigration status. Even an immigrant partner who is not wed to a lawful long-term homeowner or U.S. citizen but is rather wed to an undocumented immigrant or an immigrant holding a short-lived work or going to visa has alternatives under VAWA. Given that VAWA was amended in 2001,now no matter the immigrant or abuser’s status,the immigrant might obtain legal immigration status through the new “U” visa,which allows the immigrant to eventually get a green card if s/he has proven likely or helpful to be valuable to a police examination of a violent crime.
The above shows that abused immigrants typically do have alternatives. An abused immigrant does not need to continue to deal with the risk of physical,monetary or mental damage from an intimate partner due to the fact that of worry of being deported.