Will You Lose Your Green Card If You Get A Divorce?
If you are permanent resident of the United States due to a marriage, and that relationship is beginning to crumble into pieces that can't be put back together, you are probably worried about the status of your green card. Filing for a divorce is scary enough as it is without having to worry about whether you will be deported or not. You won't necessarily lose your green card if you get a divorce, as there are laws in place to protect you, but you will probably have some additional paperwork. Read on to learn more about certain circumstances surrounding your green card and potential divorce.
Conditions on Your Permanent Residence, Which Is Based on Marriage
When it comes to permanent residence, there are conditions in place to make sure that you are not entering into a marriage simply to evade the law. So, if the marriage ends and the relationship was real, then there probably isn't a thing to worry about. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services do allow for you to remove the conditions that they placed on your green card. However, this will require an application to waive the joint filing requirement.
When You Have Been a Victim of Domestic Violence
Like above, you can also put in an application for the conditions on your permanent residence to be removed if you entered into a marital relationship with good faith and have become the victim of extreme hardship or domestic abuse by your spouse.
There are a couple of green cards ("U" visas for victims of violent crime and "T" visas for victims of sex trafficking and sexual assault) that are specifically tailored to immigrants who have been the victims of domestic abuse and no longer want to have to rely on their abusers to maintain their citizenship here in the United States. You can petition to receive one of these green cards, which can help you become eligible for permanent U.S. residency, work opportunities and protection by local, state and federal laws.
Non-citizen victims of domestic violence also have the chance to self-petition for lawful status of permanent residency under the Violence Against Women Act (VAMA), a law passed back in 1994 to help protect immigrant women against abuse. This allows a self-petition to be filed confidentially and without the abusive spouse. However, it is important to note that there are certain requirements that must be met in order to qualify for the self-petition under VAMA.
If you are currently in the United States on a green card and you are wanting to file for divorce or are currently going through the dissolution of your marriage, you will want to contact an immigration attorney (like those at Kriezelman Burton & Associates). The same is true if you need government protection or a green card and are a victim of domestic violence and abuse.
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