My neighbor's husband is trying to throw her out of the house, and then put her on a plane against her will back to her home country.

[Tubbs 0]

I am posting this to attempt to help a friend, any advice will be appreciated. I do not know if this is being posted in the right spot, but any links to similar situations would be helpful.The State is Georgia. I will preface this by saying that this is my take on the whole situation, I do not know the ins and outs of immigration law, or laws surrounding a marital residence, and do not have all the facts as a third party. None of the facts I am presenting I witnessed first hand. I will, however, answer any questions I am able to.

Backstory: My spouse, we will call Ellie, recently became friends with one of our new neighbors after we moved to the area. We will call the neighbor Jane and her husband #######. Jane is an immigrant, who moved from Brazil to marry her husband here in Georgia, where she has resided for the last 9 months after getting married. Before moving to Georgia, Jane had a good job in her home country in a company with a branch in Georgia, where she was planning to work after her work Visa came through. Ellie and Jane became fast friends and approximately one month ago Jane began to inform us of her relationship troubles. It started with some tension about money and affection: Jane has family in Brazil, and her mom asked if she could have $70 to help make ends meet. Jane had saved money and wanted to send her own saved money, however, upon being married, they consolidated finances. When Jane asked if they could send the money, her husband told her she could not send they money as they did not want to begin a precedent of being financial support for her family. Jane was upset over this which sparked an argument. She felt it was an injustice that she could not offer a minimal support to her mom. Jane discovered ####### had been messaging his mother telling her that the reason Jane had married him was to support her family in Brazil. They had been fighting, and Jane looked through #######'s phone, and found videos of him secretly filming her attempting to catch Jane acting irrational, and messages from #######'s mother who said to "Put her on a plane, she won't have a choice". Here is where Ellie received a flood of information, it sounded like this had been an ongoing issue she was just looking to share with someone. The tension escalated and things became physically abusive. He has choked her, grabbed her arm to the point where she bruises, been extremely forceful in basic actions and made her situation unlivable. Because Jane is an immigrant, she is completely dependant on #######. She has no vehicle, extremely limited funds, and believes ####### stole her old phone which had all the passwords to her old accounts. He supposedly stole the phone to take her record of all the messages he sent her while she was in Brazil, to make sure there was not any evidence he said he would be supporting her. He does not allow her to leave the apartment complex when she asks to go do things like get groceries with him, saying she wastes too much time and wants to buy frivolous things, not sticking to their list. So mini TLDR, she has no funds, means of transport, and relies completely upon ####### until her work Visa is approved.

Important side note, Ellie met Jane because Jane has a new puppy who loves to play with our dog. She walks this dog repeatedly, and while we thought we loved our dog, she takes it to the next level as this is her only means of constant support in the country.

Jane through all of this has wanted to be hard-headed and make things work in the relationship. Based on some advice Jane got from an attorney, we advised that she should make a police report about the physical violence to keep a record of the abuse so this would not be out of nowhere when this all blows up, which we expected. Jane refused, believing once she brought this to the police, she would be basically giving up on any possibility of making the relationship work.

Which brings us to tonight. We received a call saying Jane had just gotten out of jail. Last night, Jane saw messages on #######'s phone possibly indicating he had been cheating on Jane. Jane confronted him with this, and upon hearing this ####### ran out of the apartment in his socks with his phone for some time before coming back to Jane crying. ####### called the cops, saying Jane was behaving like a child and trying to get access to his phone. The cops came, and apparently Jane and ####### were yelling and did not calm down upon the officer's arrival, so the officer arrested her and took her to jail (this is what we were told). Upon being released from jail, Jane came home, and was confronted by ####### who said he spoke with the apartment complex and she was evicted and could not be on the premises any longer. He told her she needed to pack her things, he would be by in the morning tomorrow to pick her up and take her to a hotel by the airport tomorrow, and she had a ticket to leave the country on the 28th. We were called, came to see her, and she was crying. She still wishes she could make the relationship work, however, I believe is finally coming to terms that that may not happen. One of the biggest issues at the moment for her is the dog. The pup is listed as his emotional support animal, but she has become extremely attached and that it was his dog, even though he supposedly purchased the dog for her. This, we did not see any means of correcting, however we were worried about possible legal repercussions if she tries to take the dog. Also, if she goes along with packing her things to go to a hotel, we were not sure if that could appear to be the desertion of her premises, even though it is under his name. As it stands, our advice is to call an officer tonight to see what her rights are in this situation, to come stay with us for the night if she feels unsafe, but are worried if she takes all her things it could look like desertion. Before leaving, her purse was opened, and the majority of Jane's small cash fund disappeared, as well as her driver's license, and passport.

We are mostly looking for advice for the best way for her to proceed. As we said, right now, were are telling her to call the police, and explain that he is going to try to force her out of their apartment in the morning. Any advice would be appreciated.

TLDR guy marries immigrant, decides he wants out, and is looking for ways to force her out of the country to run away from his marriage.

[Lucky2Lucky 2,526]

Third party info is so hard to help out it would be best for Jane to create her own account. She is clearly a victim of domestic violence and regardless if you are an immigrant you have rights. Husband is already making a case for himself if Jane was the one arrested and not him. You do not specify how Jane got here as you made it sound like she was already working for the Georgia branch of her company yet said she was waiting for a work visa. Additionally you can’t evict someone on the same day- the landlord would have to go through eviction proceedings. There’s so much of this that doesn’t add up it would be best to speak with the actual immigrant.

if you want to help her encourage her to go to the police (bring her to the police station yourself) because no one should be subjected to an abusive relationship. If he does it to her he will continue and do it to someone else one day.

An emotional support animal and a service dog are 2 different things. If he has an emotional support dog he clearly has mental health issues as a mental health provider is the only one to “certify” an emotional support animal. I mean if this is the case then taking the dog would be pretty shi**y thing to do but idk if it would be criminal.

Edited November 27, 2019 by Luckycuds

[Lucky2Lucky 2,526]

Also if #### REALLY wants out of the situation it’s real easy to file for a divorce. Easier than keeping someone locked up as a slave. He doesn’t have much to lose; she would be the one to “lose”. ((I write this in quotes as saying she would be alone in America, visa status uncertain etc...but in reality she would be the one “winning” because she got out of an abusive situation alive)

[Duke & Marie 1,389]

Janes husband can not evict her, they both have entitlement to reside waiting the family home under family law. He’d need orders to assist with this.. but may not be the safest option for her

 

 

odd also that she’s the one arrested if the victim.. but yeah I can see how possibly set up.. both going through each other’s phones and recording etc is not a good thing by either party..

 

if he’s been violent to her she is a victim of dv and needs to action this via the police, especially if she wants to remain within the country, if they seperate, there are do waivers associated with immigration and violence 

 

best they seperate In my opinion violence generally gets worse as time goes on (personal experience speaking), forget about the dog, she can get a new puppy, it’s truely not worth the potential dramas associated with trying to get it.

 

tell her file DV with police.. his behaviour is extremely controlling, and if true violent then she should find difficulty in abstaining protection orders. 

 

Edited November 27, 2019 by Duke & Marie

[Duke & Marie 1,389]

Apologies for typos 😇 shocking day

[TBoneTX 45,497]

Thread is moved from General Immigration Discussion to the Effects of Major Changes forum, where similar topics are discussed.

[Going through 5,671]

Not certain if I saw this mentioned in your post....what is Jane's legal status right now?  In the middle of filing for AOS, 2-year green card holder, etc.?

 

If she has the conditional green card, she can continue with the ROC using a divorce waiver which will remove the spouse from the process completely.  

If she is in the middle of filing for AOS, there are other avenues she can explore with proof of abuse (physical, mental, etc.).

If she hasn't filed for anything yet, she may want to at least consider going back home where her family support system is.

[Villanelle 4,122]

Your post was hard to read due to limited use of paragraphs... I think I got it all though...

 

1. The dog. If the dog is registered as HIS emotional support animal then she needs to forget about it. Unless he is willing to give her the dog (which is unlikely) she needs to let it go. Do NOT try to take the dog! 

2. She probably is in the AOS process of getting a greencard based on her only being her for 9 months. Most likely the husband will stop the AOS process and thats fine. Jane can file for VAWA. She will be able to get a greencard on her own. There is a thread about this. You can try to find a local pro bono attny to help her with this or she can file it on her own. Or she has the option of leaving the US. 

3. there are various laws about kicking someone out of a marital home (you cant) but honestly none of that really applies here because the husband is abusive. She needs to leave the home for her own safety.  No one will recommend she stays even if its her legal right to stay...

4. She also needs to find a divorce attny. She may be able to get temp or permanent spousal support but she should plan on how to survive w/o it.