Dating 101

When Marriage Is Not Enough: Facing Deportation

Under U.S. immigration law, immigrants may obtain a green card ("U.S. permanent residence') by marrying a U.S. citizen. The U.S. citizen must, however under the normal course, petition U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (CIS, formerly known as 'INS') for an immigrant visa and a green card application for his/her immigrant spouse based on the marriage. This process once completed leads to the immigrant's attainment of U.S. permanent residency ' i.e., permission to work and live in the U.S. on a permanent basis. But this process is not always beneficial to the immigrant ' in many instances, it provides one of the most abusive ways a sponsoring spouse can exercise control over the immigrant, by holding the immigrant's tentative immigration status over her.

A commonality in almost all abusive marriages involving an immigrant spouse is the threat of deportation, often in the form of the abusive U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse threatening to withdraw his/her sponsorship of the immigrant's visa petition, not file at all, or contact CIS and lie about her in an attempt to have her deported.

Often, immigrants are given the ultimatum that they either tell no one about the abuse and thereby, let is 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. Many immigrants have children and family members in the U.S. who rely on them and many fear returning to the country they escaped, for fear of societal reprisal, inescapable poverty, and/or persecution.

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), passed into law in 1994 and amended in 2001, provides hope for immigrant abuse survivors. Abused immigrants who are married to a U.S. citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident or who divorced their abuser in the past two years may now petition on their own for an immigrant visa and green card application, without the abuser's knowledge or consent. In this confidential process, CIS agents are legally bound to refrain from contacting the abuser and telling him/her anything of the abused immigrant's attempts to obtain a green card under VAWA. The process can often be completed within a year for those married to U.S. citizens.

This process also provides temporary protection from deportation for immigrants not in deportation already (called "deferred action status") and renewed work authorization to lawful permanent residents who usually face a longer waiting period due to visa number backlogs.

Further, the immigrant spouse does not have to appear before a judge (the process is paper driven) and s/he may leave her abuser at any time, without harm to her immigration status.

Even an immigrant spouse who is not married to a lawful permanent resident or U.S. citizen but is instead married to an undocumented immigrant or an immigrant holding a temporary work or visiting visa has options under VAWA. Since VAWA was amended in 2001, now regardless of the immigrant or abuser's status, the immigrant may obtain legal immigration status through the new "U" visa, which allows the immigrant to eventually obtain a green card if s/he has proven helpful or likely to be helpful to a law enforcement investigation of a violent crime.

To be eligible for the "U" visa, the immigrant must have suffered substantial physical or mental abuse resulting from criminal activity that violated a U.S. or local state or municipal law. Examples of qualifying crimes include: rape, domestic violence, battery, forced servitude, and criminal threats. The immigrant must possess information concerning the crime and have a certificate or other affirmation signed by a designated law enforcement official that s/he has been helpful, is being helpful, or is likely to be helpful to an investigation or prosecution of the criminal activity.

CIS is now issuing interim relief in the form of work authorization and deferred action status for those who would squarely qualify for the "U" visa even though the "U" visa, itself, is not yet being issued because regulations have yet to be published.

(c)   2006 Real Hitch Dating
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