With the new executive action on immigration announced by United States President Joe Biden in June 2024, approximately 500,000 mixed-status couples can apply for a special parole program that directly benefits the undocumented spouse. “Mixed status” is the term used to describe couples in which one of the spouses is a foreign-born individual without valid documents indicating legal permanence. Keep reading to learn what mixed-status situations typically entail.
Petitioning for Alien Relatives
When you marry an undocumented immigrant, there’s an immediate change of civil status. You become a person with marital obligations, and so does your undocumented spouse. What happens beyond this change depends on whether you’re a citizen, resident, visa worker, student, tourist, or even an undocumented immigrant yourself.
Let’s say a Vietnamese tourist visiting Puerto Rico falls in love with a local woman. Against his better judgment, he overstays his visa for romantic pursuit, which on the island usually means several months of active courtship before a marriage proposal is accepted. By the time he gets to kiss the bride at the altar, he would have become an undocumented immigrant, thus risking his admissibility status.
Now we have a mixed-status couple in which the wife is an American citizen and the husband has become an undocumented immigrant. The wife has the right to petition U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to grant her husband legal status, which these days begins with a passport stamp and work permit.
The couple will likely hit a roadblock because the husband overstayed his tourist visa, but hope may be found in the fact that he was legally admitted upon landing at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan. This is a good example of a mixed-status couple who should retain the services of an immigration law firm to handle the Form I-130 packet. Some couples are steered by USCIS toward a voluntary departure situation in which the husband would have to return to Vietnam, apply for an entry visa again, and wait for approval. This is a Kafkaesque position to be in, but it can be argued against based on the merit of the husband’s tourist visa and initial determination of admissibility.
However, if the Vietnamese tourist overstays his visa, he can file the Adjustment of Status for the green card in the U.S. with the help of immigration lawyers.
Getting on the ICE Radar
There are a few unfortunate situations that may arise after marrying an undocumented immigrant. Through your new married life, your spouse will become more visible to the various information systems used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to track down undocumented foreigners. This is usually because you share a residential address.
Some undocumented immigrants live and work in the U.S. for years without getting a Notice to Appear (NTA), but this changes after getting married. If a Form I-130 was filed before the NTA arrived, immigration lawyers in San Diego, CA, would find it easier to quash. Otherwise, more legal work would be required to prevent forced removal.
Finally, you may face insinuations from USCIS case adjudicators about your marriage being a sham concocted to protect your spouse from being taken to an ICE detention center. This can happen during green card interviews, and it’s an unpleasant situation not limited to mixed-status couples. Some female K-1 visa applicants have felt denigrated and labeled as “mail-order wives” at USCIS offices. The best way to prevent these situations is to have an immigration lawyer present at the interview. This will make adjudicators think twice about their lines of questioning.
For more information on issues such as citizenship, naturalization, and family-based immigration, San Diego residents should reach out to the experienced immigration attorneys at KS Visa Law. Call us today to schedule an appointment.
