New York Licensed Immigration Attorney for Your VAWA Case
What is VAWA?
VAWA stands for Violence Against Women Act, which was enacted as a Federal Law in 1994 to protect non-citizen immigrants in the United States who are victims of domestic violence including extreme cruelty at the hand of a U.S. Citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident they have a qualifying relationship with.
VAWA permits qualified victims to self-petition for a green card themselves without needing the abuser to file for immigration benefits on their behalf.
What is a qualifying relationship?
As a non-citizen immigrant to qualify for VAWA you need to have a qualifying relationship with your abuser.
The following are qualifying relationships, meaning if your abuser fits into one of these categories you may qualify for VAWA:
- U.S. Citizen Spouse OR Former Spouse (time limits apply)
- U.S. Citizen Parent
- U.S. Citizen Son or Daughter
- Lawful Permanent Resident Spouse OR Former Spouse (time limits apply)
- Lawful Permanent Resident Parent
What is Domestic Violence in relation to VAWA?
There are many forms of abuse that a Victim might encounter, when considering VAWA it is typically a totality of circumstances that will determine if the abuse endured reaches the level required for VAWA physical abuse is not the only qualifier and extreme cruelty is valid.
Keep in mind there is no way to provide an exhaustive list of what may be included in the following. These are merely some examples of the types of Abuse that may qualify for VAWA:
- Physical – your abuser may physically hurt you in many ways some obvious and some less obvious. Battery/Assault/Containment/Restraint
- Sexual – your abuser may sexually abuse you, forcing you to have sex when you don’t want to, hurting you during sex, refuse to wear a condom, not stopping when you ask them to, denying you sex when you ask, and/or force you to have sex with others.
- Intimidation – your abuser makes you feel afraid by using looks, actions, gestures, smashing things, destroying your property, abusing pets, and/or displaying weapons.
- Coercion & Threats – Your abuser makes and/or carry outs threats to do something to hurt you or someone you care about, threatening to leave you/commit suicide/ report you to police/ICE. making you drop charges against them, and/or making you do illegal things.
- Economic Abuse – your abuser may prevent you from getting or keeping a job, making you ask for money, giving you an allowance, taking your money, and/or knowing letting you know or have access to family income.
- “Male” Privilege – your abuser may treat you like a servant, makes all your decisions, acts like the “master of the castle”, and/or is the sole person to define male and female roles.
- Using Children – your abuser may make you feel guilty about children, use your children to relay messages, using visitation to harass you, and/or threatening to take your children away.
- Emotional – your abuser may put you down, make you feel bad about yourself, make you think you are crazy, play mind games, humiliating you, and/or making you feel guilty.
- Isolation – your abuser may control what you do, who you see or talk to, what you read, where you go, limiting contact with outside world, and/or using jealousy to justify actions.
- Denying/Blaming/Minimizing – your abuser may make light of the abuse they are subjecting you to and not take your concerns seriously, saying the abuse never happened, shifting responsibility for abusive behavior onto you, and/or saying you are the cause of abuser’s abuse.
- Immigration – refusing to file papers to make you legal, telling you an attorney is working on your case when there is none, threatening to call ICE and have you deported, and/or refuse to provide documentation needed for you to gain legal status through your relationship to your abuser.
Does my sex or sexual preference matter when applying with VAWA?
Absolutely not! VAWA is applied to all victims regardless of sexual preference or sex. Men and Women can qualify, as well as Heterosexual, and/or LGBTQ+. VAWA provisions apply equally to men and women.
What must victims establish to qualify:
- Have or had a qualifying relationship with the qualifying abuser,
- Reside or resided with the abuser,
- Have good moral character, and
- Have been victims of battery or extreme cruelty at the hands of the qualifying abuser.
