Immigration

[EDIT THIS SENTENCE AS NEEDED:When you asked if your sponsor can deport you, I believe you mean that your sponsor is threatening to withdraw his sponsorship, correct?]

As you may already know, generally, there are various interviews by Immigration with the spouse who is sponsoring the other person to get the green card and with the spouse who is applying for legal permanent residency. Although I cannot speak to your specific situation, perhaps it may be possible for the sponsoring spouse to withdraw support for her/his spouse’s green card petition either during one of these interviews or in writing at another time by sending a letter to the office that is processing the case. You can read more about withdrawing a petition on this page from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services website. I also found an article on what happens if a spouse withdraws support although please know that WomensLaw is not affiliated with this website and I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information it provides.

As that article above mentions, there can be an option for someone who was abused by their spouse to continue with their immigration application on their own without the spouse’s support. Depending on what stage the application is at, the abused person may be able to file a VAWA self-petition or a battered spouse waiver. You can read about both options on our VAWA immigration information page.

You may want to consider contacting a lawyer who specializes in immigration, who can hopefully offer you more specific information and advice based on your particular case. If you’d like to speak to a lawyer, you can search for ones in your area, including those who may be able to offer free or low-cost help on our website. You can also find more links to lawyers and other organizations that work specifically on immigration issues.