been in the US for years tryna do the lottery

[cocotte]

Hi,
I was born in France and I have been living in the US for 5 years. (legally or illegally i'm not even sure...)
My case is special because i've been married to a US citizen for about 4 years and (long story short) my case at the immigration has been denied because we suposebly didnt show up at the couple interview. (its a long story).

anyway i stayed in the US anyway because i dont agree with what happened with the immigration service and my life is here now. so I didnt try to adjust my status either cause i dont really care bout this paperwork shit and i got a good job. i'm not even sure if they are aware that I'm still in the country or not.

but now the problem is that i wanna go back to france to visit my family so i wanna adjust myself.

i think the lottery could be a good thing. (im hopin obama will amnesty us lol)

so i see this "Section 245 of the INA, selected individuals who are physically present in the United States may apply to the USCIS for adjustment"

SOOOO my question are
1: when applyin to the lottery should I give them my address here in the US (which im reluctant to do as im very paranoide) or just an address in france.

2. should i put my us citizen spouse on the application?

3: if i win, will i have to go back to france to process the green card thing?

thanksss

 

[dematra]

Lottery? First and foremost you need to make sure USCIS did not initiate removal proceedings on you. Because if they did then the lottery would be the least of your worries - amnesty or no amnesty.

 

[cocotte]

Lottery? First and foremost you need to make sure USCIS did not initiate removal proceedings on you. Because if they did then the lottery would be the least of your worries - amnesty or no amnesty.

what is the removal proceeding?
and how would i find out about that?
i dont think they did anything since ive been using my social security number without any issues... (and they got my number...)

 

[darkhorse]

We got time and it's a interesting story -- and more than willing to listen. Why don't you tell us the LONG STORY. Always liked stories!!! LOL

 

[darkhorse]

None of us here are pro's, so the best thing would be to consult a immigration lawyer. No seriously, people on these forums are not experts. Consult a lawyer, that just might save you.

 

[F1winner]

what is the removal proceeding?
and how would i find out about that?
i dont think they did anything since ive been using my social security number without any issues... (and they got my number...)

Under which circustances will aperson with an illegal presence adjust status other than marrying a citizen or claiming asylum? Just curious.

 

[cocotte]

Under which circustances will aperson with an illegal presence adjust status other than marrying a citizen or claiming asylum? Just curious.

im not even sure that we can consider myself as "illegal" since im married to a US citizen for over 4 years. just didn't finish the process with the USCIS

 

[cocotte]

None of us here are pro's, so the best thing would be to consult a immigration lawyer. No seriously, people on these forums are not experts. Consult a lawyer, that just might save you.

thanks for letting me know. just wanted to save those extra $$$ lawyer fees.

 

[darkhorse]

Man it's like i have learnt that lesson the hard way. Many times when you seem to be saving money for now, it ends up costing you much more in the future. Your case seems to be complicated -- so it's only prudent that you consult a GOOD lawyer.

And aren't you gonna tell us your story?

 

[alemitmee]

Firstly cocotte I am surprised that no one else has picked up in this post, the alarm bells are now ringing my head very loudly.

Hi,
I was born in France and I have been living in the US for 5 years. (legally or illegally i'm not even sure...)

You should really sort out your status. If you got pulled over for a minor traffic offense, or if for some other reason someone runs your ID it may highlight holes in your status and you may at that point have to prove you are legally present in the US, believe me it has happened to more Irish people than I care to remember.

Just being married to a USC alone does not give you automatic rights to be here.
Being married to a USC definitely gives you the path to obtain a green card, but weather or not you get it is another story.

You really need to figure out if you are here legally. From what you have posted so far it sounds to me like you are most definitely out of status.

Remember the law is the law, and it wont matter it you have been here for 2 weeks or 20 years, if you are an illegal you are an illegal that is the way you will be judged if you are brought in front of an immigration judge.

I have come across cases of people being deported after being here 20/30 years!
What ever you do DO NOT ATTEPMT to leave the USA until you have figured out what your current status is. If you do you may not be able to get back in again, and you could face a 10 year ban or more depending on your details.

The fact that you have already been denied AOS really worries me. Even if you are apply for the lottery, you will be denied a visa if you cant prove that you were legally in the USA for how ever long you have been here.

Gaining LPR first and foremost is easiest when you are married to a USC. If you have not gotten it by not what makes you think you will get it through the lottery?

If you want to post full details of how you came here, on what visas, time lines and so on I could definitely give you an indication (in my personal opinion) if you are legally in the country. I STRONGLY suggest that you go and see an immigration lawyer.

You said that

“i stayed in the US anyway because i dont agree with what happened with the immigration service and my life is here now.”

This is a choice you made. If you are caught and you are out of status, this choice will no longer be yours to make. It will be up to someone else to decide your fate, and they don’t put you in business class when they are deporting you, if you get me.

 

[GotPR?]

im not even sure that we can consider myself as "illegal" since im married to a US citizen for over 4 years. just didn't finish the process with the USCIS

Being married to US citizen does not keep you from being illegal presence unless you have the proper paper and legal status.
As soon as your AOS got denied, you started accruing the illegal presence(unles youare still in valid non-immigrant status). If that happened more than a year ago, you won't be able to come back to the US next 10 years. You can't get GC through DV either in the US under such circumstances.
ONLY way out is filing AOS through a spouse again and getting GC.. There is no other way.

 

[canadaturk]

Lets say you entered the US on F-1 in 1989 legally. You then went out of status and filed an asylum petition in 2002. No decision was made on the petition and there was no immigration proceedings. The F-1 was stamped D/S. Then you exited the US in 2005. Lets then say you win the DV Lottery.From what I have read and been told the 10-yr bar only applies if a decision was made that you had overstayed. Is it possible to adjust status if you win the DV Lottery?
Any takers on this question.

 

[TNDV2008]

You should really sort out your status. If you got pulled over for a minor traffic offense, or if for some other reason someone runs your ID it may highlight holes in your status and you may at that point have to prove you are legally present in the US, believe me it has happened to more Irish people than I care to remember.

Especially if u r in Georgia (Cobb County), the police officer is required to ask for your immigration status ...and if you cannot prove it, you are deported within 60 days

Just being married to a USC alone does not give you automatic rights to be here. Being married to a USC definitely gives you the path to obtain a green card, but weather or not you get it is another story.

Being married to a US-BORN citizen makes things very easy...U just need to find a good lawyer and stop brushing things under the rag

 

[LucyMO]

Especially if u r in Georgia (Cobb County), the police officer is required to ask for your immigration status ...and if you cannot prove it, you are deported within 60 days

here is what I have found. As you see, the program allows the officer to ask about the status, but doesn't require him or her to do so.

Cobb county had to send its sheriff deputies to a special program taught by ICE, that now allows its officers to ask about the citizenship status of any person they detain. If they determine that the person is in the country illegally they have a direct line to ICE to deport them. The program has been very effective in Cobb which resulted in the illegals moving to Gwinnett county. Gwinnett is now sending it's officers to the same training and should soon be able to do the same thing.

and, please, Gwinnett county (where I moved out of this May) is overrun by illegal immigrants. Nobody is doing anything about it and nobody will.

 

[LucyMO]

Being married to a US-BORN citizen makes things very easy...U just need to find a good lawyer and stop brushing things under the rag

it doesn't matter in this case whether the US citizen is US born or naturalized.

 

[alemitmee]

Lets say you entered the US on F-1 in 1989 legally. You then went out of status and filed an asylum petition in 2002. No decision was made on the petition and there was no immigration proceedings. The F-1 was stamped D/S. Then you exited the US in 2005. Lets then say you win the DV Lottery.From what I have read and been told the 10-yr bar only applies if a decision was made that you had overstayed. Is it possible to adjust status if you win the DV Lottery?
Any takers on this question.

You say you left the US in 2005 but then you ask about AOS?? so what is it? are you here or not?

Anyway this is a tough one. I would just be guessing at an answer. You would have to ask an immigration lawyer to get an answer.
It would seem logical that although no decision was made on the asylum petition, this would not negate the fact that you were illegally present in the US. Just because there was no immigration proceedings does not mean that they were not warranted.
If you were to win the lottery then you have to provide details of all the places you have lived, and get police certificates from those places. You would have to mention that you were present in the USA from the end of your F1 till the date you left, 2005.
At this point may run into problems.
When you file an asylum petition does that keep you in status? does it for example suspend your status? if it does then as long as you flied your Asylum petition before your F1 ran out then you may have been in status all along. Given that there was never a decision taken on your Asylum petition before you left then maybe you never slipped out of status. I am just guessing though. I don't know anything about the US Asylum process.

I am guessing you have not won the lottery yet? As long as you are eligible (your country of birth I mean) then you should enter. If you are selected then you would be better off contacting a lawyer before you start the paper work process. You can get a free consultation with most of them, and really its only advise you need so it may not cost all that much.