The U.S. resident must,however under the normal course,petition U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (CIS,previously known as “INS”) for a green card and an immigrant visa application for his/her immigrant spouse based on the marriage. This process is not always helpful to the immigrant– in many circumstances,it supplies one of the most violent ways a sponsoring spouse can exercise control over the immigrant,by holding the immigrant’s tentative immigration status over her. With an advanced degree or recognized skill,one might want to qualify in other ways:
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A commonality in almost all violent marital relationships involving an immigrant partner is the danger of deportation,frequently in the kind of the violent U.S. resident or lawful long-term local 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.
Typically,immigrants are provided the ultimatum that they either tell nobody about the abuse and thus,let it continue,otherwise face deportation. This risk of deportation,a type of extreme psychological abuse,can be more scary to an immigrant than even the worst physical abuse possible. Numerous immigrants have children and member of the family in the U.S. who depend on them and lots of fear going back to the country they escaped,for worry of societal reprisal,inevitable hardship,and/or persecution.
Abused immigrants who are married to a U.S. person or Lawful Permanent Resident or who divorced their abuser in the previous two years may now petition on their own for an immigrant visa and green card application,without the abuser’s knowledge or authorization. In this private procedure,CIS agents are legally bound to refrain from calling the abuser and informing him/her anything of the mistreated immigrant’s attempts to get a green card under VAWA.
This process likewise supplies short-lived security from deportation for immigrants not in deportation already (called “postponed action status”) and renewed work permission to legal long-term homeowners who generally deal with a longer waiting period due to visa number backlogs.
Even more,the immigrant spouse does not have to appear before 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 spouse who is not married to a legal long-term citizen or U.S. citizen however is rather wed to an undocumented immigrant or an immigrant visiting or holding a temporary work visa has options under VAWA. Because VAWA was modified in 2001,now despite the immigrant or abuser’s status,the immigrant might acquire legal immigration status through the new “U” visa,which enables the immigrant to eventually acquire a permit if s/he has shown likely or helpful to be practical to a police investigation of a violent criminal activity.
The above shows that abused immigrants frequently do have alternatives. An abused immigrant does not have to continue to live with the risk of physical,financial or mental damage from an intimate partner since of fear of being deported.