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All Just about DivorceAbused Spouses: How Divorce May Affect Your Green Card Chances
by:
Heather L. Poole, Esq.
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), passed into law in 1994 and amended in 2001, provides hope for migrator
abuse survivors. Under U.S. immigration law, immigrants may receive a green card ("U.S. permanent residence”) by marrying a U.S. subject
(USC). The USC must, however under the normal course, petition U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (CIS, at one time best-known as “INS”) for an migrator
visa and a green card application for his/her migrator
better half based on the marriage.
But this process is not always easy on the migrator
– in many a instances, it provides one of the most abusive route a sponsoring better half can exercise control over the immigrant, by holding the immigrant's tentative immigration status over her.
This is wherever
VAWA helps. Abused immigrants who are wedded to a U.S. subject
or Lawful Permanent Residents may now petition on their own for an migrator
visa and green card application, without the abuser's noesis or consent.
However, one of the continual
problems and questions that move up in these abused better half cases is what happens to the immigrant’s chances for a green card if the offender goes through on his threat and files for divorce?
Similarly, how is her green card chances affected if the migrator
files for divorce, herself?
Filing for relief under VAWA may still be possible even as if divorce proceedings have begun or even as if the divorce is final. A single
migrator
who was subject to extreme cruelty from his or her legal permanent resident or U.S. subject
better half may apply for an migrator
visa as an abused better half (eventually leading to a green card) if the petition is filed with CIS (INS) inside
2 years following any final divorce decree.
Thus, if the migrator
is already divorced, s/he can still file for VAWA protection, but only if the divorce is 2 years old or less at the time it is filed and can prove that the abuse was related to the reason for or was the reason for the divorce, itself.
The single
migrator
must still prove the basis elements of a VAWA self-petition including having a real marriage (i.e., not a marriage entered into for immigration purposes) as well as prove that s/he lived with the offender once
they were wedded at several point.
This provision allowing for divorce immigrants to file applies to all cases that were still being definite
by CIS or filed on or after Oct
28, 2000. There are exceptions to this date, however, so an migrator
in this situation should contact an immigration professional who on a regular basis
deals with VAWA (Violence Against Women cases) to determine if she is eligible to file for immigration protection under VAWA.
If an abused migrator
better half chooses to not file a VAWA-based migrator
visa petition and chooses to bank on her better half to sponsor her, if the better half fails to sponsor her or the case the better half filed is not authorised by the time the divorce is final, that case wish be denied and the migrator
wish have to start over with either a VAWA-based migrator
visa (if eligible) or several different potential migrator
visa or wish be stuck without the means to receive a green card.
If an migrator
believes that her better half is going to file for divorce or has already filed for a divorce and has a case based on her spouse's support
presently
being definite
by INS (CIS), there may be a way to save the green card (adjustment of status) application that is attached to her spouse's migrator
visa filing and file for VAWA migrator
visa to protect herself from her spouse’s threats, and retain her activity card and travel authorization instead of having to start all over once much with a new green card application.
Just about the author:
Professional Heather L. Poole practices family-based U.S. immigration law in Pasadena, California. She is a publicised immigration author and supervises abuse-based immigration cases at the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women. She is an active resource to the “Violence Against Women experts” list of the National Lawyers Guild, the National Network to End Violence Against Migrator
Women, and the National Domestic Violence Hotline. She can be reached at 626.432.4550 or heather@humanrightsattorney.com
For much information on the options accessible to abused immigrants, access www.humanrightsattorney.com
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