Immigration & Divorce

Through marriage, a spouse is able to obtain several immigration benefits. Divorce breaks the legal relationship between spouses and usually results in one spouse losing his or her status or application for permanent residence. This can often be an issue where an alien has obtained a conditional permanent resident card but gets divorced before he or she becomes a permanent resident based a marriage to a US citizen. This is also a serious issue where there is abuse in the marital relationship.

The following people may have immigration problems as a result of a divorce:

• A person who got her residency by marrying a US citizen, and who is still in the conditional, two year residency period, or who got her permanent residency through the marriage less than a year ago.
  
• A person who is in the US on a nonimmigrant visa, such as a student visa, or a professional worker's visa, whose spouse is the principal visa holder. These persons may have visas that have a letter-number designation, where the number is 2 or 4 (such as F-2, H-4 etc.).
  
• A person who immigrated as the spouse of a person granted asylum, if she is still in asylee status and has not yet received her permanent resident status.
  
• A person who married the principal immigrant a short time before the couple immigrated, and is divorcing not long after they immigrated.
  
• A spouse or child of an abusive US citizen or permanent resident who has not yet gotten residency through the marriage that created the relationship, if the person is not already a permanent resident through some other way.

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