More than 2 million people get married in the United States every year.
The sad reality is that many of them do not begin a great love story. Instead, they end up living a nightmare. According to the NCADV, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, more than 10 million adults are victims of domestic violence in the United States. Because domestic violence is often a repeated pattern of behavior, victims usually report the abuse only after it has happened many times. This situation becomes even more serious for immigrants, because a spouse will often use immigration status, or the lack of it, as a way to control and intimidate the other person, making them stay in that situation out of fear of falling out of status or facing possible deportation.
The good news is that she or he does not have to endure that abuse in order to preserve immigration status or remain in the United States. If an immigrant is married to a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident, a Green Card holder, and is the victim of domestic violence, that person may apply for a Green Card without the participation of the spouse. In addition, the adjustment of status application does not depend on the applicant maintaining lawful status.
What does that mean? It means that if a person married a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident, a Green Card holder, and is the victim of domestic violence, that person may still apply for and be granted a Green Card while remaining in the United States, even if out of status. This protection does not depend on any prior marriage-based adjustment of status filing. In other words, even if no immigration application was ever filed before, the person may still apply through an approved domestic violence petition.
The VAWA process, Form I-360, may be requested by victims of domestic violence committed by U.S. citizens and Green Card holders while they are still married, but also up to two years after the death of the abusive U.S. citizen spouse, the loss of Green Card status by the abusive lawful permanent resident spouse because of domestic violence, or a divorce from the U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident when the divorce is connected to the domestic violence. It is important to note that other individuals may also be eligible for this process, such as parents and children of abusers, but the focus here is on spouses.
In immigration law, just as in life, domestic violence is not limited to physical assault. USCIS, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, defines domestic violence as “a pattern of behavior when one intimate partner or spouse threatens or abuses the other partner. Domestic violence may include physical violence, forced sexual relations, emotional manipulation, including isolation or intimidation, and economic and or immigration-related threats. While most incidents of domestic violence involve men abusing women or children, men may also be victims of domestic violence.”
The cycle of domestic violence is an extremely sensitive issue. Victims often feel responsible for the situation they are in and are afraid even to ask for help. Of all the fears that may keep an immigrant from leaving an abusive relationship with a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, fear of getting a Green Card does not have to be one of them.