Last week, our Law Offices received a call from a client who, married for six (6) years to her United States Citizen spouse and had two children (both born in the US) with said spouse, found herself living in an extremely abusive relationship.
After having attended the University of the West Indies, she fell in love with her spouse while she was visiting Barbados, they had a whirlwind romance and got married six (6) months later. Their initial plan was to settle down in Barbados (he was born in Barbados), have children and live happily ever after.
One year later, her husband realised that he was a United States Citizen by way of his parents and decided to file the necessary paperwork to effectuate this status. That same year, our client and her spouse went to North Carolina to visit his parents. She has not left the United States since then. That was approximately five (5) years ago.
Earlier this year, our client became the object of an abusive spouse. After promising to file documents on her behalf, he started threatening to call immigration authorities to deport her every time they had a misunderstanding. Recently, he slapped her in the face twice in front of their two (2) daughters. Our client decided that it was in her best interest to seek help from a Lawyer because she was reluctant to call the Police for fear of deportation.
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), enacted in 1994 and amended some several years later, addresses a widespread problem: the fact that some abused non-citizens stay in abusive relationships because a family member holds a vital key to their immigration status here in the United States. Congress created VAWA to permit individuals in this type of situation to obtain lawful status on their own without having to rely on abusive spouses.
One of the major concerns for our client was her inability to work due to her immigration status. Furthermore, because of her status, she was ineligible for some types of government aid like Temporary Assistance for Needy Family (TANF) and food stamps. She therefore felt she was unable to free herself and had to stay in her abusive relationship so her children and herself would have access to her husband's health insurance and basic things such as food, clothing and shelter.
After our initial consultation and evaluation, our client met all the requirements for us to submit a VAWA petition on her behalf. We wish her all the best and hope that once this ordeal is over she can move forward with her life.
Smith & Stephenson LLP resolves immigration concerns for individuals and businesses. We are a full-service Immigration Law Firm and represent clients in all areas of immigration law, including family based immigration and employment-based immigration. If you have immigration questions, we have answers. You can call our Law Offices 24/7 at (212) 400-7147. Our Immigration Law Firm is located in New York, New York. Our firm serves primarily clients from the Tri-state area, however, we offer telephone consultations and we can help clients all over the United States and throughout the world.
