Immigration

I reached out to an immigration attorney at ASISTA (www.asistahelp.org) to ask if there was an exception to this law where a victim can apply for a self-petition after the 2-year period after her divorce passes and she said that there is not.  She said the only way that a victim may be able to use the abuse as a way to get status after that 2-year period my be if a victim is in removal proceedings (deportation) and s/he may be able to apply for VAWA Cancellation of removal if s/he qualifies. It can be possible that as part of the removal proceedings in Immigration Court, an attorney may try to cancel the deportation based on the abuser - however, hopefully the victim will never be in immigration court because that means that she is at risk of being deported.   If anyone is in immigration court, s/he should definitely have an attorney representing him/her on the VAWA application for cancellation of removal.  Please know, however, that we are not associated with ASISTA (the organization that passed on this information) and we cannot vouch for any of the information they provide - therefore, you may want to confirm this information for yourself with an immigration attorney. Here is a link for lawyers in STATE and some that are national organizations that you may want to contact to find one that specializes in VAWA: LINK and http://www.womenslaw.org/gethelp_national_type.php?type_id=1047

Also, here is more information about VAWA in case heat is useful:http://www.womenslaw.org/laws_state_type.php?id=10270&state_code=US