brwneyez803

Hi. I'm writing a paper on immigration for a master's level social work class. I was wondering if anyone could direct me to information that explains exactly step by step what the process is for obtaining legal status in the United States. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

Angela

Thanks for your comments/suggetions. Someone made a comment about how this site is for people who are trying to get here LEGALLY. By all means, I understand that. I'm not asking that my husband receive special treatment or that he should have bypassed the system to begin with or that he should get to bypass the system now. Trust me, he wishes that he would have done it the legal way as well. He is not proud of how he got here. That's why we are looking to do this the right way now. You can't change mistakes in the past, you can only learn from them. And that's what he's trying to do and I'm trying to help him with.

I'm not saying I support illegal immigration (although I suppose people could say I am, since I married an illegal immigrant). First, I want to say that I married him because I fell in love with him. I love him for who he is...mistakes and all. No one's past is perfect, no matter how big or small their past mistakes are. Second, I don't agree with illegal immigration. People should go through the legal means to get here. That's why there are laws in place, especially in this post-9/11 world. What I do support is people wanting to come here to have a better life. I see why people will do anything to come here--even break the law. The places some of these illegal immigrants are coming from are so bad, they are willing to break the law to get out of it and to work for something better. I don't support illegal immigration--all I'm saying is that I understand why it happens.

I'm came to this site because I was looking for information. I thought I would be able to hear from people who have illegal spouses as well. I guess I was wrong. I came to this site looking for support on how to begin this process, not for mine and my husband's current sitution--I was providing background as to what has gone on. Thanks to everyone for the advice on where to begin--my husband and I really appreciate it. If I have offended anyone by making it seem like I'm trying to get "special treatment" or help him bypass the system, I'm sorry. That was never my intent. We will be going through the same process as everyone else on here, and hopefully it will work out that he gets to become legal here. That's our dream.

I want to wish everyone the very best in being able to bring their fiances, spouses, children, family members, etc here. This is a long, hard process and I know that it's the dream of everyone on here as well to be able to legally bring their loved ones here.

Hi. My name is Angela and I'm new to this site.

I was wondering if anyone could answer some questions for me. I was born and raised in this country. My husband came here (United States) illegally from Mexico in 2000. Since being here, he has always had a job of some sort...landscaping, irrigation, restaurant work, things like that. More recently he has worked in car dealerships and the hospital as a bilingual medical interpreter. His English is excellent, and he has always been very well respected in every job he has had here.

We've been married over a year and a half now. We got married in July '05. We both knew that getting married wouldn't make him an instant citizen like people often believe. In September of '05 we met with an immigration lawyer to talk about getting him legalized in this country. The lawyer was helpful, but the whole process sounded confusing and he didn't seem real optimistic about my husband's chances towards legalization in this country. Due to the financial issues involved, we didn't even start the paperwork because we didn't have enough money at the time. Now we are wanting to get back into the process again. I get scared everytime he applies for a new job because I'm afraid that his status will be discovered. A few weeks ago, the car company he was working for got shut down and everyone was laid off. He started putting in applications for employment everywhere, and honestly it was a nerve-wracking experience, because there was always constant worries about his status. He took a part job temporarily at a different car dealership, and they discovered his illegal status. Fortunately, the manager really liked him and offered to pay him cash instead of by check and said he would not disclose anything about my husband's status in this country. My husband wound up taking a full time job at the hospital (what he wanted originally anyway), but he also left the dealership partly out of fear.

I guess I really have several questions and I wanted to hear from anyone who has experience with this situation. Where do we start this process? I've tried researching this on the internet and I get really confused trying to understand all the different forms that have to be filled out and what the different forms mean. And just in personal opinion, what are his chances of getting legalized here? Also, are there any bills or anything going through the government now that are in favor of legalizing illegal immigrants? I know at one point last year there was talk of a possible bill from the President that would help legalize immigrants already living here for a certain number of years. Is there anything like that happening again?

I know I've thrown a lot of information and questions in here, but I would really appreciate any information that anyone could suggest. Like I said, he and I both live in fear because of his status. It's one of my worst fears that one day I'm going to get a call that my husband has been deported. Also, he really misses his family. He hasn't seen them since the day he left Mexico and it tears him up to not have seen them for so long, yet he is determined to live in this country. I've never even met my husband's side of the family because they were not able to come for our wedding and we obviously can't go there. I really want my husband to be able to live freely in this country without fear and to be able to go to Mexico to see his family without fear of not being able to get back in this country.

Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it.