Immigration

NEED TO ADJUST BASED ON SITUATION - THIS WAS WRITTEN TO THE SPOUSE OF A US CITIZEN WHO GOT A 10-YR GREEN CARD THROUGH A FAMILY PETITION (NOT VAWA) AND ASKED IF SHE CAN NOW APPLY FOR VAWA:

In general, once someone has a 10 year green card, there is no need/use to file for VAWA protections. (VAWA can be a way for someone to get a green card or to waive the condition on a conditional green card.) In terms of naturalizing, spouses of US citizens can apply for their citizenship within 3 years if they are still married to their spouse (or if otherwise qualify under VAWA to do so). According to current regulations, death of the US citizen spouse or divorce will make a person ineligible to take advantage of the 3 year rule. In these instances, a person will have to wait the normal 5 year period to naturalize. To obtain citizenship under this provision, a person has to have 5 years of continuous presence (keep in mind that absences of more than six months but less than one year may disrupt an applicant’s continuous residence) and the person has to be able to prove that s/he was physically living in the country for at least 30 months of the last 5 years. The US government immigration website explains this more here: http://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/citizenship-through-naturalization/c…

Since you asked about VAWA, I wanted to mention that the law states that a VAWA self-petitioner has only two years after the date of death of the abusive US citizen spouse to file the VAWA self-petition.