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The Finnegan Factor is a series of articles addressing thenew cutting edge immigration law issues which confront today’s immigrants in America by a well known and respected Los Angeles Immigration Attorney.

Immigration laws are getting tighter and more restrictive so it is important to keep abreast of current Immigration Laws and Regulations. Immigration attorneys have been forced to find new and creative ways of achieving legal status for their clients. One of the few bright areas in Immigration Law is the recent legislation which helps victims. There are several immigration programs offered by the United States to assist those individuals who have been victimized by bad people while in the United States, or on their travel to the
United States.

If you have been the victim of crime in the United States, you might qualify for a “U” visa which would give legal immigration status to a victim who is assisting law enforcement or the District
Attorney’s office. There is a “T” visa for those individuals who have been the victim of human traffickers who treat their “clients” as human cargo instead of with the dignity of a human being. There is also a visa available for those women who were brought into the United States to perform in the sex trade industry. These are the three visas which are available to those who were the
victim of human traffickers or were the victim of a serious crime inside the United States. These visas are not that common, and require specific prerequisites to qualify. Consult your competent immigration attorney to determine if you may qualify for any of these visas.

The most common new visa is the Victim of Spousal Abuse visa which is filed with US CIS on form I-360. Many immigrants are confused about the visa and probably do not realize that they would qualify for a self-petition for immigrant visa based upon being a victim of spousal abuse. Some of the misunderstood information is that not only women qualify for the visa. Some men are ashamed to admit that they have been the victim of spousal abuse due to the stigma attached to the machismo of the male ego. Quite simply, men do not want to admit that a woman abused them. However, for those men who have brought their cases to US CIS, some have been rewarded with permanent residency. The point is that the woman who is a US citizen may wield more power in the relationship due to the immigration status which is held over the male’s head and used as a weapon to inflict abuses upon the immigrant. Finally, the United States government has recognized that this conduct needs to cease and that these victims need their immigration status protected, male or female.

Another common myth with the I-360 is that the victim needs to have suffered a terrible physical beating in order to qualify for the I-360. The myth goes that without a police report depicting a violent encounter between the spouses then there is no way to prove the alien qualifies for the I-360 is simply not the case. Many victims are filing their I-360 cases without a police report but along with affidavits of
witnesses; psychological reports; and photographic evidence. It is also true that immigrants can qualify for a spousal abuse visa based upon “extreme mental cruelty” which does not involve any physical
contact by the spouse but rather only emotional abuses. Some immigrants are told by novice attorneys that they do not qualify because “you do not have a police report.” These aliens need to seek legal counsel well versed in these new immigration laws.

What is required? Simply that the alien was married (or is still married) to a spouse who is (or was) a lawful permanent resident or a United States citizen and that spouse inflicted physical harm or extreme mental cruelty upon the alien spouse. There have been recent cases that state that an immigrant would qualify for an I-360 visa even if the abuse occurred before the couple was married and outside the
United States. This is a new area of law which is under review by the courts. Individuals also qualify for an I-130 visa whether an I-485 has been filed or not, and also whether the spouse has petitioned for the alien through an I-130 or not. Everyone qualifies as long as the couple was legally married, and the immigrant suffered some form of spousal abuse regardless of which petitions have been filed or not.

Reynold E. Finnegan has been an immigration attorney for 14 years. He is an active member of the State Bar of California as well as the American Immigration Lawyers Association. His office is located at 3660
Wilshire Blvd. , Suite 710, Los Angeles, CA 90010.

For consultations, please call at (213)480-0292 or fax your inquiry to (213) 480-0805. You may also e-mail him at reyfinn@pacbell.net. An in-house Filipino staff is available to speak with you.