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Marrying to Prevent Deportation

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  • 10-25-2012, 04:28 AM
    SlowQuickSand
    Marrying to Prevent Deportation
    My girlfriend entered legally on a J-1 visa last year (3 months), & had it extended for another 3 months. After the extension expired she applied as a refuge and got denied after the interview, but was told she could stay for about a year until her next interview.

    She's been using the same Lawyer for about a year, but he got arrested & his office raided a few days ago (he purposely filled out her paperwork saying she was a Citizen from her neighboring country, instead of her own). She works 2 jobs in another state, but came to NY yesterday to see the Lawyer. She was given two options:

    1. Pay a Lawyer to fight deportation.
    2. See a Judge next week, & agree to leave for 10 years (but she could stay to until end of the year).

    I'm an American born Citizen. I would like to know if marrying her could make her legal (but I understand that there would be some forms to fill out also).

    She told me a lot of this bad news within the past 12 hours. I love her a lot, & the thought of not seeing her again breaks my heart & brings tears to my eyes.
  • 10-25-2012, 06:39 AM
    Disagreeable
    Re: Marrying to Prevent Deportation
    Marrying her ill only complicate your life unnecessarily, she will be leaving the country. Don't make the mistake of assuming she loves you. Based on your information, she is attempting to manipulate everyone around her in an attempt to stay. Her falsification of immigration documents will lead to a permanent ban.
  • 10-25-2012, 08:07 AM
    mmadsen55
    Re: Marrying to Prevent Deportation
    If you marry her for the specific intent to avoid her deportation, it is illegal and would not work.

    If you marry her because you are in love with her and want to spend the rest of your life with her as a married couple, then you have a shot. Keeping in mind that you will have to prove that you are not just getting married to avoid the deportation.

    This lawyer who gave her the two options, was it the same one who was arrested? Even so, I think a different lawyer should be consulted. You want to get more details on what is meant by "fight deportation" before you pay for it. On what grounds would he try to fight it? The Refugee again?. She needs to know the specific path the laywer is going to take to try and fight the deporation before we can really comment on it.

    As far as seeing the judge, this again is questionable? Based on the little information you gave, even if she was determine to be out of status since the J-1 Extension and left voluntarily, she would only be barred from re-entry for 3 years. However to me, it sounds like with the extension, the refugee hearing and another interview date (Assuming you have that in writing), she is in a pending state.
  • 10-25-2012, 09:10 AM
    SlowQuickSand
    Re: Marrying to Prevent Deportation
    I just got off the phone with her. After I brought this up, she started crying really bad, then hung up on me. I'm doing the same & can barely do my job (I'm at work), I feel like a chump even though I know I shouldn't. I can only imagine how she's holding up...

    I want to marry her because I love her. The thought of even looking at another woman sickens my stomach. We wanted to get married & have children before these legal problems in the past few days, but we wanted to have a nice wedding (not big, but a nice one). We didn't want to "marry for papers", as i know people sometimes do. Now we both regret it.

    She originally only wanted to stay for 6 months (3 months + 3 months), but we met on her first day here & have grown emotionally closer to the point what we now love each other.

    After work, I'm going to see if I can find a Lawyer that could help. But agreeing to leave the US seems like a bad move to me if we want to fight this (she's supposed to see the Judge this Tuesday). This is all very stressful for me, but I'll try to keep a thoughtful and logical mindset when I eventually talk to a Lawyer.

    I also believe she is in a pending state, she said that the Lawyer said she's in "processing status", which is probably the same thing.

    Thank you, mmadsen55.
    Any & all advice is much appreciated.
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