A foreign national arrives in the United States as a tourist and overstays his visa by several years. He lives with family in the U.S. and works odd jobs to support himself. He meets and eventually marries a woman who is a U.S. citizen in Washington State. They have two children.

The foreign national wants to file for his green card and work legally but is concern that he will not be able to due to the overstay. He also wants to travel to his home country to see family that he has not seen for quite some time. The U.S citizen wife would also like to sponsor him for an immigrant visa but is afraid that her foreign national husband would have to leave the country to get his visa at the U.S. Consulate. They are both aware that the husband may be subject to a 10 year bar from receiving immigration benefits if he leaves the U.S.

I advise the couple that since the foreign national husband initially entered the U.S. legally and has no criminal history, it would be possible for him to file a green card application as the immediate family member of a U.S.citizen. He will also be able to request work authorization. Furthermore, the wife can file the immigrant petition and that all of these documents can be filed together. Also, I advise the couple that the immigration process will occur in the U.S. and that the husband would not have to go to a foreign country to receive his visa.

In addition to this, I advise the couple that even though overstaying a visa and working without authorization is not lawful, the immigration laws may excuse this so long as the foreign national entered legally and is the immediate relative of a citizen. However, since the husband overstayed his visa, I would recommend AGAINST foreign travel until he gets his green card. I remind the husband that even if he is not necessarily subject to any kind of reprimand while in the U.S., if he leaves and then tries to reenter the U.S. he will then be subject to the 10 year bar. If you would like assistance with getting your green card, please contact us

A young man from Ethiopia escaped with his brother shortly after a coupe in his home country toppled the sitting government. His father was a general who had served the deposed regime. After taking power, the new government began arresting members of the former governments and those perceived to still be loyal to it. The new government also arrested any one belonging to any group that it saw as a threat to it’s power. This included the tribe that the young man belonged to.

When the new government arrested the young man’s father for his involvement with the former regime, the police accused the father of also being a member of the suspected tribe and that he planned on acting against the new government. He was subjected to torture, starvation, and threats to his family. The police would also go to the young man’s home and search it with out warrant, stalk him and his family, and make threats on his and his family’s lives. The police ordered the family not to leave the area and told them that they were being watched. They also accused the young man and his family of being subversives.

On more than one occasion, the police would enter their house, conduct a search, and physically abuse the young man’s mother in front of him. During one incident, he and his brother were beaten by the police and his brother suffered severe head trauma. Fearing for their lives, the young man’s mother decided to get her two sons out of the country. She secured two tourist visas to the United States and put the boys on a plane bound for New York. The boys then made their way to Seattle. Fortunately, the new government was unaware of what the young man’s mother had done and did not realize that the boys had escaped until it was too late to stop them.

Once in the US, the young man and his brother began to establish roots and attended school despite only having tourist visas. The young man joined his high school track team where he distinguished himself as an exceptional athlete. His coach took interest in him and suggested that he apply for a college scholarship. The young man told his coach about his situation and the coach then realized that he had immigration issues. The coach then advised the young man to seek political asylum and assisted the young man in seeking legal assistance.

The US may grant asylum to a refugee who have escaped persecution in his or her country due to race, ethnicity, politics, religion, sexual orientation, or membership in a social group. He or she must also demonstrate credible and well founded fear of what will happen if he or she is returned to their home country and that no part of his or her country is safe. The refugee must not have sought refuge in a third country, must not have persecuted others or have committed non-political crimes, and must have sought asylum within one year of arriving in the US.

Here, the young man was able to show all of the above but had been in the country for more than a year before applying for asylum. This was the main obstacle I as the attorney had to surmount. Also, we had to establish the current country conditions were still hostile to him by showing State Department and Amnesty International reports. In order to show a credible fear, I had the young man write his own story and state why he was scared to return and how much he feared for his life. None the less, the immigration service opposed asylum because the young man did not request asylum within the required amount of time.

What I had to show to the court was that the young man did not file within the one year time limit because if extraordinary circumstances. Here, the young man came to the US when he was only 15 years old and did not know what his legal recourse was until he was 18. Furthermore, when he first arrived, he spoke very little English and the family members who were already in the US and who already had their green cards were unsophisticated and became green card holders through other means. They did not know about asylum. The young man only became aware of his situation when he spoke to his high school track coach about a college scholarship. Furthermore, I argued that once the young man realized his situation, he acted quickly and filed his application for asylum in a very reasonable time.

The court agreed with this argument and granted his asylum application. He later became a legal resident and is now a citizen. He still has not been able to return home to visit as he still fears persecution and has also lost contact with his family. He fears the worst. If you are seeking asylum in the United States or know some one who needs this kind of help, please contact us.

A family in which the father was an illegal alien and the wife is a US citizen had been facing deportation proceedings and their case had not been resolved for two years. They had two US citizen kids and the illegal alien husband was the main bread winner for the family.

The father had been in the country for 15 years and had a criminal record. Also, he had used false identities to secure work. However, I was able to show that he had made great strides in his life to improve himself and showed that he was a good father to his children and a go husband. More importantly, I showed that he was a good tax payer.

His status became an issue when a domestic dispute between the he and the wife resulted in a domestic violence charge and one for violating a protection order. This fact in addition to his previous criminal convictions made his case very challenging and the possibility of deportation was high.

What I had to show was that, despite his past, he had worked to become a good and productive member of society and that he was truly sorry for what he had done. Also, I had to show that the domestic violence charge was leveled against him even though he was not the instigator. I showed that the wife was doing something self destructive and that the husband was trying to stop her from hurting herself and her kids. In addition, I had to show that the police report indicated the wife as the instigator and that the police officer were required to make an arrest. He had no attorney at the time.

In addition, I had to explain the circumstance surrounding the protection order. This protection order was imposed on him by the prosecutor as part of the domestic violence charge. I had to show that the protection order was something the family did not want and that the protection order was violated because the family wanted him to return home. Even then, I had him tell the court that he was sorry for what he had done.

Furthermore, I had to show that deporting him would cause extreme hardship to his US citizen family particularly his children. For this, I had to show that he was the sole income earner of the family and that the wife could not support the children on her own. Both children are very young and the wife has a history of instability.

As a result of this, I was able to assist the family avoid deportation. The husband now has his green card and is busy taking care of his family. If you are facing deportation, please contact us if you would like our help.

A young woman from Russia came to the U.S. as a student when she was a teenager and eventually attended college. She met a man who is an American citizen after college; they started dating and eventually got married. Unbeknownst to her, her new husband was HIV positive and unfortunately she became infected. Furthermore, the husband had infected several other women before and during the marriage. He was arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual assault. The young woman divorced the man.

The young woman came to my office asked me if she could still get her green card despite what happened to her marriage and her being HIV positive. I let her know that her case was challenging but that she had options. Here, I told her she is a victim of abuse at the hands of U.S. citizen. As such, the law allows her to apply for a green card independent of her husband. It is called a self-petition which is something that came about through the Violence Against Women Act.

The challenge now was to over come her HIV status. The immigration laws make applying for her green card if she has HIV difficult but not impossible. What we must show is that the cost of her treatment would not eventually fall on the U.S. tax payer. In other words, we had to prove that she would not become a public charge. I was able to do this by showing that she had private insurance that was also supplemented by support from a non-profit organization that relied on donations and not taxes.

I filed her application for her green card and sent proof of how her treatment was being paid. Initially, I was able to have the immigration service grant her a work permit and a few months later she was summoned for an interview. I prepared her for the interview and I attended with her. I made sure it went well. She eventually got her green card and is still healthy.