French Skier/Nurse Adjusting From VWP Now Facing Deportation

[Boiler 43,434]

There is no significant difference in getting a waiver in France than anywhere else.

Silly to leave.

Tried to find the full story but nothing out there, if she was a top skier she left very little presence on the wwww.

[Teddy B 17,251]

To all those who think it's no big deal to rush and file before the alien spouse' visa expires.

This puts the deportable question to rest, no?

You will not get deported if you overstay. ICE will let you file for AOS late because of marriage to a USC. All wrong from this article.

This needs to be pinned at the top of the AOS forums.

I think it's pretty much a given that getting arrested while out of status significantly raises your chances of deportation. No arrest, no story.

[zuluweta 250]

Was she out of status when arrested or AOS in process? It's unclear to me.

Also, charges were dismissed. Why is she deportable given that she has a path to citizenship (spouse of USC)?

[Boiler 43,434]

I think she was out of status. Not clear what has been filed.

[Teddy B 17,251]

Was she out of status when arrested or AOS in process? It's unclear to me.

Also, charges were dismissed. Why is she deportable given that she has a path to citizenship (spouse of USC)?

It says she was out of status by 22 days in the story when the ordeal began.

Then their ordeal began: Belouniss had overstayed her visa by 22 days. Though the 6th Judicial District Attorneys Office dismissed all charges against Belouniss the next day, law enforcement held her in La Plata County jail for two days until authorities transferred her to Colorado Springs, where she spent more than a week in a prison populated by felons, before she landed in the ICE detention facility in Aurora.

[Darnell 8,478]

geez - back at post #1 -

somethings missing from the story,

a procedural thing that , since missing, speaks volumes.

Was she out of status when arrested or AOS in process? It's unclear to me.

Also, charges were dismissed. Why is she deportable given that she has a path to citizenship (spouse of USC)?

i think it's because she was arrested and charged.

plus overstay on ESTA.

If it was only the overstay on ESTA, IMO she would have been ok filing the AOS on day 22 past ESTA expiration.

[zuluweta 250]

It's still very confusing and I agree with others who've surmised there's more to this story, specially why DHS is invoking non-reviewability of their decision.

[Teddy B 17,251]

It's still very confusing and I agree with others who've surmised there's more to this story, specially why DHS is invoking non-reviewability of their decision.

Just a guess, but something tells me that either the wife or the husband or both, did or said something really foolish to one of the LEO's who were called to the house originally in order for ICE to get involved.

Edited March 12, 2015 by Teddy B

[Pennycat 880]

It seems, from trying to infer dates that they did not *file* for AOS before the DV incident, they were doing the paperwork for AOS. The paragraph after the mention of the wedding says that a lawyer told them to AOS and they "started the paperwork", then it mentions the fight. I think they'd have said "submitted" instead of "started" and plus if they HAD filed, they wouldn't be in this mess, correct?

And reading between the lines, to me, almost makes it sound like they were waiting to save the money for it, or trying to get away without not needing to do it. To me it sounds like they were really ignorant of the process (can't blame them, most people are), thinking that marriage confers citizenship like some kind of magic, the fact they didn't immediately file, and the fact that she didn't know/still won't respect the terms of the VWP, and the fact that she was somehow working....to me I picture someone with that mindset looking at the $1040 for AOS and just shrugging it off, not realizing that the marriage isn't going to be enough to give any sort of legal status, and not recognizing the urgency that is being out of status in the US.

It's a double edged sword for people who can travel to/from other countries with such ease. We're so used to just being able to come and go as we please, when it comes to anything other than just travel, we don't realize that there are, or respect that there are, complex processes for living and working on any permanent basis elsewhere. It's odd but often some of the more complex problems seem to come from Canadians and Europeans, possibly for this very reason. Americans do this all the time elsewhere. My own aunt was nearly deported from Canada after moving there with her Canadian husband and their dual national kids without proper paperwork, and in the Latin America backpacker/perma-tourist scene there is *always* someone who knows someone who has just been, em, asked to leave after being caught working under the table/running a business without a lick of paperwork, on expired tourist visas. These stories are always told with incredulity in the absurdly uptight bureaucracies of these backward countries. Without any self-awareness or sense of irony.

Edited March 13, 2015 by CatherineA