VAWA-Violence Against Women Act
Ironically this Act is available to men as well as women. Although
women usually are the victims, we have represented a few male spouses
who have benefited from this law. One of our clients was constantly
being threatened by his wife. If he didn’t do what she told him to do,
she said she would report him to the immigration or poison him. On one
occasion he overheard her talking on the phone with a friend that she
was planning to murder him and discussing the ways to do it. He reported
this to the police and as a result he obtained an order of protection.
He applied under the VAWA Act and USCIS approved his application, and
granted his permanent residence. In another of our cases, a wife not
only frequently punched and hit our client, but she frequently
physically assaulted their little children as well. He tried to
intervene to protect the children but then she turned her wrath against
him and assaulted him. He called the police and she was arrested, and
later the District Attorney indicted her for these assaults, and she was
sentenced to one year in jail. Our client received permanent residence
as well as custody of the children.
The application for VAWA starts with a self-petition. The applicant must
submit proof as police reports and affidavits from family or close
friends and if possible a psychoanalyst attesting to the extreme mental
or physical cruelty that the applicant suffered. To claim under this Act
the abused spouse must have been harmed by a U.S. Citizen or permanent
resident. A psychoanalytic report should indicate the physical or mental
harm that resulted such as extreme anxieties, nightmares, depression,
and sleeplessness. VAWA allows undocumented aliens to apply for this
relief even if they entered the United States without papers.
WHAT IF THE ABUSER IS NOT A SPOUSE AND/OR THE ABUSER IS NOT A U.S CITIZEN OR PERMANENT RESIDENT?
If the abusing spouse is neither a U.S Citizen nor a permanent
resident, and if the abuse occurred in the U.S., the abused spouse
cannot derive an immigration benefit. The Act was created to help abused
spouses of U.S. citizen or permanent resident to enable them to obtain
legal benefits here.
If an abused spouse suffered abuse abroad, whether from a spouse, life
partner, or significant other, and if the police and governmental
authorities in that country offer no help for this abuse, if the abused
spouse flees to the U.S., and requests political asylum, this
application may be granted. Likewise homosexuals, lesbians, or
transvestites who are abused in their country, and who flee here because
of this, may receive a grant of asylum because in their country the
police have failed and/or refused to protect them.