VAWA

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is a humanitarian visa that offers incredible immigration benefits, including being able to fix your papers without leaving the United States even if you entered illegally, have previously been deported from the United States, have entered the United States illegally more than once or are otherwise inadmissible.  In order to qualify for VAWA, a key requirement is that you suffered abuse from a U.S. Citizen or legal resident spouse, a U.S. Citizen or legal resident ex-spouse (you need to apply within two years of the date of your divorce) or a U.S. Citizen child over the age of 21.

Many people do not believe that they qualify for VAWA because abuse is often misunderstood or many people are in relationships and they don’t realize that they have suffered abuse because abuse is sometimes normalized in certain communities or sometimes difficult to detect.  In addition, many people are afraid that they will not be able to prevail on 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 these forms of evidence are not needed in order to prevail on a VAWA application as the law provides that any credible evidence of the abuse – including just your detailed declaration of the abuse – can sustain a VAWA claim. Additionally, VAWA is a confidential process.  By filing a VAWA claim, your spouse, ex-spouse or child will not find out that you filed for VAWA nor will you affect your spouse, ex-spouse or child in any way.

Below are common examples of abuse that might allow you to fix your papers without leaving the United States if your U.S. Citizen or legal resident spouse or U.S. Citizen child has ever done any of the following:

• They threaten to call immigration on you or tell you that they will never fix your papers
• They threaten to call the police and file false charges against you
• They call you names such as they tell you that you are ugly, fat, illegal, worthless or they say vulgar and hurtful names that you should never say to your parent or spouse
• They scream at you and intimidate you with their looks, their body language and other actions
• You are afraid to talk to them and feel like you are walking on pins and needles around them
• They destroy your property such as they damage your cell phone or they destroy other property, such as damaging the walls, damaging the doors, key your car and/or damage other priority
• They demand money from you and scream at you, insult you or threaten you if you do not give them the money
• They control you such as by not allowing you to talk to family and/or friends, they call you excessively (for example, they will call you ten times in a row if you don’t pick up your phone), they insist on having video calls with you because they don’t believe you are at work or wherever you say you are at, they place GPS devices on your phone and/or in your car or home, they make you put your phone on speaker when you get incoming calls or make outgoing calls and/or they otherwise control you
• They control your money and do not allow you to spend it or they spend your money without your permission