VAWA Lawyer
If you suffered abuse by a U.S. citizen or Legal Resident spouse, you may be able to regularize your migratory status through the VAWA Visa.
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The VAWA Visa (associated with the Violence Against Women Act) is a Humanitarian Visa that offers certain immigration benefits, including the ability to regularize immigration status without leaving the United States, even if entered illegally, has been previously deported from the United States, has entered the United States illegally more than once, or is inadmissible in some other way.
To qualify for the VAWA Visa, a key requirement is that abuse has been suffered from a U.S. citizen or legal resident spouse, a former U.S. citizen or legal resident spouse (you must file the application within two years of the date of your divorce), or a U.S. citizen child over 21 years old.
Some doubt their eligibility for a VAWA Visa because abuse is often misunderstood. Some are in relationships and do not realize they have suffered abuse because abuse is sometimes normalized in certain communities or is difficult to detect. Some also fear they will not prevail in their VAWA case because they lack certain forms of evidence of abuse, such as police reports or evidence of physical abuse.
It is important to note that specific forms of evidence are not necessary to prevail in a VAWA application, as the law states that any credible evidence of abuse, including just a detailed statement of abuse, can support an application for a VAWA Visa. Additionally, the process involving the VAWA Visa is confidential. By filing an application for a VAWA Visa, the spouse, ex-spouse, or child in question will not be informed of such application, nor will they be affected in any way.
Common examples of abuse that could allow for regularizing immigration status without leaving the United States if a U.S. citizen or legal resident spouse or U.S. citizen child incurs them include:
- Threatening to call immigration or never helping his/her spouse or parent regularize their immigration status.
- Threatening to call the police and file false charges against his/her spouse or parent.
- Insulting and offending his/her spouse or parent extremely.
- Yelling and intimidating his/her spouse or parent with looks, body language, and other actions.
- Making his/her spouse or parent afraid to even talk.
- Destroying his/her spouse or parent’s property, such as their cell phone or other properties like walls, doors, or closing their car.
- Demanding money and yelling, insulting, or threatening his/her spouse or parent if they do not give them the money.
- Controlling his/her spouse or parent by not letting them speak to family and/or friends or excessively calling them (e.g., ten times in a row if they don’t answer the phone).
- Insisting on having video calls because they don’t believe his/her spouse or parent is at work or where they say they are.
- Placing GPS devices on his/her spouse or parent’s phone, car, or home.
- Forcing his/her spouse or parent to put the phone on speaker when receiving or making a call.
- Controlling his/her spouse or parent’s money and not allowing them to spend it or spending their money without their permission.
