I’ll be starting college, hopefully, this fall and I really need financial aid. Until I get a green card I’m not eligible for financial aid, and everyone except me in my family has a green card (my mom married a US citizen but refused to help me with the process, so she and my sister are both green card holders while I only have a work permit).
I have lived in the US since I was 10 years old and I’m 18 years old now. Is there a way I can apply for a green card on the basis of me attending college? My mother & sister received their green cards through my mom’s marriage to a US citizen but because of my relationship with my family I cannot rely on my stepfather as a way to get a green card. The work permit (work authorization card) is the only legal document I have issued by the US government, my passport is expired and birth certificate is in Russian.
Any help with the matter is appreciated! Thank you.
Applications for green cards are expensive, maybe you could take a gap year, work and save money so you can start the paperwork to get your green card. Then go to college.
I presume you know that you don’t necessarily have to rely on your step-father to sponsor you. Your mother, as a green card holder, can file a petition for you, but I’m told that waiting for visa availability for green-card relatives can take several years (there’s a quota.) If your mother becomes a naturalized citizen, getting a green card for you will be much faster as quotas no longer apply.
Getting a green card without an employer or family petitioning for you, or without special immigration circumstances (e.g. refugee, asylum, etc.) isn’t as simple as paying a fee and submitting paperwork. I’m not sure it can be done successfully without an immigration attorney, or similar help.
You need your mother to get her US Citizenship ASAP and then immediately apply for your Green Card. I believe you are only eligible to get it quickly if you are unmarried and under 21. If you miss this window it will take 10+ years.
@mommdc - I’m considering taking a gap year, although I really don’t want to be a year behind all of my classmates. If I don’t figure out another solution, I might just have to do it.
@ScreenName48105 - Well thanks for the advice. Like I said earlier, I cannot rely on my family for any documentation so my mother would not file a petition. I would get an immigration lawyer if I had the money. Thanks anyway.
@CCDD14 - Like I said, I cant rely on my mother to do anything for me so that’s not an option, but thanks.
@CTTC - I have been accepted to a lot of different colleges, such as University of San Francisco, Umass Amherst and Simpson College. They all offered me scholarships ranging from $8,000 to $20,000 but even with the scholarships it might not be possible to attend any of them.
@4kidsdad - My stepfather (my mom’s husband) is an alcoholic and he has been verbally and physically abusive. Because of that I choose to not associate myself with that side of my family anymore. It’s a complicated situation.
Even if you don’t associate with your stepfather, your ONE quick way to get a green card is if your mother files a petition for you. I don’t even know if your sister does if that works. Your window is short since you hav to be under age 21 and unmarried. I can’t believe your mother would want you to be deported to another country. What reason would she have to wish such a thing? I realize you can’t rely on her, but if you fill out the papers for her, will she not sign them?
Ask each college that admitted you whether they’ll let you defer for a year while you wait for your green card; ask if it’s okay if, during your gap year you take 1 cc class per semester so that your skills stay sharp (some may refuse and consider that taking a cc class would jeopardize your deferral so you need to know asap). Then on May 1st, choose one among the colleges that admitted you and allow you to defer, deposit, and defer. Take a gap year, and make sure not to take extra classes compared what you’re allowed to take, work/volunteer.
You might want to ask a social worker, as s/he may be able to help you if you’re trying to stay away from an abusive household and have been living here legally for so long.
You need to get legal advice about this. You are 18. You don’t have a green card. You have some other kind of immigration status that could expire at any minute, and you could find yourself being deported.
Pick up the phone, and call all of your mom’s Russian immigrant pals. Surely she has some. At least one of them will know a good immigration lawyer. Since you have a work permit, you can keep working and make money to pay that lawyer. You need to fix your status much more than you need to be in college right now.
So sorry that your mom didn’t have the good sense to process your paperwork when she did her own.
@MYOS1634 - The situation is very complicated, but basically the guy that she married (my stepfather) is an alcoholic and he acts very differently around me than he does around her. She thinks that I’m ‘misbehaving’ and giving him a reason to hate me, while in reality he has been abusive his whole life (his ex-wife divorced him because she said that he abused her) and my mom refuses to admit it because he’s nice to her. She had a decision to make, it’ll either be me or him and she clearly chose him. Now admittedly I’ve made some mistakes in my life, but nothing that is significant enough for her to treat me like she does.
Even if I attempted it, which I think probably wouldn’t work because she would refuse to sign the petition, where would I be able to get the paperwork for the petition? Taking a gap year is definitely in the back of my mind, but right now I’m doing everything I can to try to avoid it. I’ll make the final decision once I hear back from a few colleges regarding merit scholarships (although I know I’m cutting it close since it’s almost May 1st). Simpson College is offering me a $22,000/year scholarship based on my grades & test scores so attending Simpson might be an option, but it’s still over $10k/year without financial aid. If I had a green card and was eligible for financial aid then, with the scholarship, I’d be able to go there for free essentially (the financial aid office gave me a dependency override, so they only take my income, not my parents, when awarding me financial aid). Btw, thank you so much for the advice and taking the time to really think of ways to help my situation.
@happymomof1 - Yeah I don’t know how to describe my immigration status, all I know is that I have a work permit that is valid for another 6 months and after then I won’t have any US govn’t issued documents.Paying for a lawyer however isn’t really an option for me because I live on my own and have to pay for my apartment, food and whatnot since I’m completely financially independent from my family. I’ve lived on my own since I was 17, and I’m counting every dollar at this point. I work at a Polish bakery, so I’ll try to ask some of my immigrant co-workers for advice. Anyways, thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it.
@MYOS1634 - Well I will be 18 in two weeks, but since nothing can be done within two weeks in terms of receiving documentation I don’t think it makes a difference.
Perhaps APPLYING before you’re 18 can make a difference. See your social worker tomorrow - it does mean skipping class but it’s that urgent.
Would that apply to you? http://www.safepassageproject.org/what-is-sij-status/
DO ask your immigrant friends for a legal reference. If there’s a law college or a law clinic, check out where the free clinic/help is and go there tomorrow.
In any case you should put your pride into your back pocket and mend relationships with your mom.
You will have to figure out how to extend your working visa until she can apply for a Green Card for you.
In worst case you may need to get a Student Visa.
(Do not quote me on this but) before giving you Green Card Immigration Service may ask for an Affidavit that you can support yourself or that your sponsor family promises to support you. They have income guidelines for sponsors, so if your mom relies on her husband for financial support he may have to sign too. Keep this in mind.
^CCDD14: there’s no way to “reason” with an alcoholic, especially an abusive one.
Op needs to find another way than one that relies on his/her willingness to submit to abuse. S/he has already shown incredible backbone and resourcefulness for a teenager, by escaping the dangerous situation, finding a place to live, and working to support himself/herself. S/he needs to be helped by a social worker and needs that help NOW, while still a minor. In two weeks all kinds of possibilities close off. Things initiated now may make things safer for him/her.
If the OP is not yet 18, there may be some recourse as an abused child. This looks like the link for that: https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/battered-spouse-children-parents There is no time to waste. The OP needs to speak with the counselor and the social worker at his/her high school and ask for assistance with getting appropriate legal help.
@MYOS1634 - Thank you so much, I’ll definitely look into those. According the website it says I have to be under 21, not under 18, so I might still have some time to apply for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status.