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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 migrant abuse survivors. Under U.S. immigration law, immigrants may receive a green card ("U.S. permanent residence”) by marrying a U.S. national (USC). The USC must, however under the normal course, petition U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (CIS, erst better-known as “INS”) for an migrant visa and a green card application for his/her migrant domestic partner based on the marriage.
But this process is not always easy on the migrant – in many an instances, it provides one of the most abusive route a sponsoring domestic partner 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. national or Lawful Permanent Residents may now petition on their own for an migrant visa and green card application, without the abuser's psychological feature
or consent.
However, one of the revenant problems and questions that move up in these abused domestic partner cases is what happens to the immigrant’s chances for a green card if the wrongdoer
goes through on his threat and files for divorce?
Similarly, how is her green card chances affected if the migrant 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 unmarried migrant who was subject to extreme cruelty from his or her legal permanent resident or U.S. national domestic partner may apply for an migrant visa as an abused domestic partner (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 migrant 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 unmarried migrant 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 wrongdoer
once
they were wedded at several point.
This provision allowing for divorce immigrants to file applies to all cases that were still being distinct by CIS or filed on or after Gregorian calendar month 28, 2000. There are exceptions to this date, however, so an migrant in this situation should contact an immigration professional person
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 migrant domestic partner chooses to not file a VAWA-based migrant visa petition and chooses to believe on her domestic partner to sponsor her, if the domestic partner fails to sponsor her or the case the domestic partner filed is not authorized
by the time the divorce is final, that case wish be denied and the migrant wish have to start over with either a VAWA-based migrant visa (if eligible) or several else potential migrant visa or wish be stuck without the means to receive a green card.
If an migrant believes that her domestic partner 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 distinct by INS (CIS), there may be a way to save the green card (adjustment of status) application that is attached to her spouse's migrant visa filing and file for VAWA migrant visa to protect herself from her spouse’s threats, and retain her activity card and travel authorization instead of having to start all over over again
with a new green card application.
Just about the author:
Professional person
Heather L. Poole practices family-based U.S. immigration law in Pasadena, California. She is a publicized
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 Migrant 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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