How does the VAWA visa work?

VAWA visa is one of the humanitarian visas. It’s a visa that can be convenient for different reasons. It can provide the way to regularize migratory status without leaving the US despite not counting on the support of a spouse, having entered the country unlawfully, having certain types of unlawful entries and exits, and even having a previous deportation.

This visa gives the way to obtain a legal migratory status for life, and a direct route to the permanent residence of the United States as long as there is good moral character.

Ways to qualify for the VAWA visa

One way is through mistreatment or abuse from a US citizen or Legal Resident spouse to which is married, a US citizen or Legal resident spouse from who is separated but still married, or from a US citizen or legal resident ex-spouse from who is divorced in a period no longer than two years from the divorce date.

Something that can be hard to detect when starting a VAWA visa process is the family mistreatment or abuse, bearing in mind that there can be fear around applying for the VAWA visa due to not knowing how it works. Consider that the VAWA visa is a confidential process.

Those submitters who are in difficult situations in which they consider it potentially dangerous to submit a VAWA visa application, or feel they will harm the person on which the process is based; must contemplate that the VAWA visa is a completely confidential process, and will not prejudice the person the process is based on.

It is not necessary to fill a police report; it’s a process from which no one needs to know but the submitter, his/her immigration attorney, and the immigration officers reviewing the case.

The law punishes with a penalty fee of $5,000 USD those immigration officers who provide information about a process through the VAWA visa.

VAWA visa doesn’t prejudice marriages. It might be passing through a difficult situation in marriage, but is not pretended to divorce, either due to fear, children in common, or being waiting for the opportunity of reconciliation.

This humanitarian visa does not require a divorce from the spouse from whom the abuse is being suffered. It’s possible, without any inconvenience, to have more children with such spouse without this affecting the process.

Something that can cause difficulties in processes through the VAWA visa is to be clear about what can be considered family mistreatment or abuse, and how much of it is enough to note that it’s not marital problems that can be considered normal.

Those people who pass through difficult situations in a marriage can get to consider these situations as “normal problems”. Important to note that, when talking about family abuse and mistreatment, it’s not necessarily referring to what can be considered domestic violence in other countries.

In certain countries, talking about family abuse and/or mistreatment can refer to physical violence and/or extreme domestic violence. Even though that can be considered mistreatment or abuse under US law, in order to qualify for the VAWA visa and have a way to regularize migratory status without leaving the US, there is no need for physical damage and/or extreme domestic violence to be implied.

VAWA law can provide a way to regularize migratory status through emotional, psychological, verbal, and physical abuse, either sexual or not. These scenarios can provide the way to qualify under the VAWA visa.

For processes carried out under the VAWA visa, the whole spouse’s behavior is taken into account, so as the whole context, in order to get to the conclusion that it’s been mistreated or suffered family abuse under the US law.

These scenarios of abuse or mistreatment can begin with common problems, leading to the wrong idea that the sum of all might also be normal problems within a marriage.

For instance, it might happen that the problems begin with discrimination around a spouse having documents and the other not, and that every time there is an argument or disagreement, the spouse with documents threatens to not help his/her spouse to regularize his/her migratory status; or that a process is being carried out through an I-130 petition or family petition, and that every time there is an argument, the spouse threatens on calling Immigration Department to cancel such petition.

Other frequent scenarios include that the spouse with documents denies help to get documents to his/her couple due to unfounded jealousy, or that every time there is an argument, this one threatens to call immigration or the police to press false charges against the spouse without documents.

In these last scenarios, it can end up in prison due to domestic violence even when being innocent.

Insults, intimidations, and extreme jealousy are also elements that are seen frequently under VAWA visa cases.

Examples of scenarios that can apply for the VAWA visa

An immigrant has a job in construction where he gets to risk his life, and his spouse, ridden by jealousy, accuses him of being unfaithful during the time he is actually working. It might be that the immigrant works using a machine that implies risks, while his spouse is constantly calling him, stressing him by making him think about the possible implications of not being able to respond to his spouse’s calls.

An immigrant, who is a housewife, wants to work somewhere else than her own home but her spouse won’t let her, since he doesn’t want her to relate with other people.

The spouse of an immigrant keeps him/her located through GPS even when he/she leaves home just to get some groceries, and questions him/her why is taking so long to get back home. Wanting to exert control over his/her spouse can be another factor to contemplate in cases handled through the VAWA visa.

Another frequent scenario is that the spouse of the immigrant has cameras in their home and keeps his/her spouse watched. It’s another factor considered in cases handled through the VAWA visa.

Hits, slaps and physical violence in general are factors that are considered important for VAWA visa cases.

Likewise, the problems around intimacy as a couple. For instance, the immigrant has a heavy workload in terms of physical expenditure at work, gets home tired, and doesn’t want to sleep with his wife but to rest, to which his wife responds with accusations of unfaithfulness, offenses around homosexuality, and even falls into physical or emotional violence by slapping or shouting humiliations at her partner to the point of kicking him out of home.

All these scenarios, either in extreme form or not, can be important factors in VAWA visa cases.

In order to have possibilities of success in a VAWA visa case, the mistreatment can be proved with any credible evidence. That is, evidence is not necessarily required in order to have possibilities of success in a case. There can be possibilities of success even with only the testimony or declaration of the victim, as long as it’s totally true.

It can be of big help to count on evidence, however, if there isn’t, bear in mind that the law doesn’t require evidence to have possibilities of success in a VAWA case.