Hi.
I came in the US in 2003 on J1 (internship, 15 months), my wife came on J1 (work and travel, 4 months) in the same year. I'm from Latvia and she is from Belarus.
We didn't know each other prior coming in the US. When her visa expired, she changed her status to a visitor. Then in april 2004 we got married. In may she applied for an asylum. She didn't get it from the interview and was sent to the immigration court. She was doing her asylum case in CA while I was living and working in MA.
Then she flew to MA and we were going to fly back to CA together for her mastering hearing. By some reason, she was 100% sure that the hearing was going to be on Sept. 9, but the actual date was sept. 8. We bought our tickets 3 weeks in advance, but found out about our mistake just on Sept. 7. So it was too late to change anything. Our attorney didn't do a thing to help us and didn't make any arrangements for the hearing. So, we were few hours late, but the judge has made a decision which was a deportation order.
Of course we hired another attorney to file a motion to reopen, which was based on dislexia that my wife discovered she has after everything happened. The only time she was notified about the hearing date was during her only meeting with an attorney, who told her the date verbally. The NTA from the immigration court we didn't receive either, because we had a problem with our mail box.
The judge denied our motion to reopen, so did the BIA. By that time my J1 expired and I was stying in the country having no status (I thought that I was in the same situation as my wife). In april 2005 I received an NTA from the INS office we went to for my wife's asylum intervew, they sent me to the immigration court. On a day before my hearing we received a decision regarding my wife's appeal from the BIA, which was negative. We had no money to pay lawyers for another appeal to the 9th circuit, so I decided not to spend the rest of our money on lawyers and went to the court myself and asked for volantary departure. Then we paid our lawyer to get the same volantary departure for my wife. I don't know if she is going to get one, but I know for sure that I'm not letting her go back to her country, because she is in danger over there.
I was going to take her to my country (Latvia), but then I found our that there is another problem. I am not a citizen of Latvia. I was born in Latvia, but after USSR broke up my family and I became just permanent residents of Latvia. Technically, I have no citizenship. So, now I can't take my wife to Latvia. The only thing we can do is obtaining a visitor visa for her. But the embassy won't issue any visa if she doesn't have a status here. So we kind of have to wait for her volantary departure (if she gets one). But even if she gets one and then we obtain a visitor visa for her to enter Latvia, nobody knows how long she will be allowed to stay over there with me.
We've been through a lot in this country and we hoped on something, but I guess miracles don't happen.
My question is:
-What kind of visas to the USA we can hope for in the future?
-What kind of visas can we get while we are still in the country (I mean reserve, I know that we will have to leave the US anyway)?
-What do we need to do in order to get any of them?
My wife is a model. She's been trying to get a job as a model in the US, but she didn't have a work permit. She has a few modelling agencies who would sign up a contract with her.
I have a bachelor's degree in business administration, but no experience.
Please, help us if you can.
I came in the US in 2003 on J1 (internship, 15 months), my wife came on J1 (work and travel, 4 months) in the same year. I'm from Latvia and she is from Belarus.
We didn't know each other prior coming in the US. When her visa expired, she changed her status to a visitor. Then in april 2004 we got married. In may she applied for an asylum. She didn't get it from the interview and was sent to the immigration court. She was doing her asylum case in CA while I was living and working in MA.
Then she flew to MA and we were going to fly back to CA together for her mastering hearing. By some reason, she was 100% sure that the hearing was going to be on Sept. 9, but the actual date was sept. 8. We bought our tickets 3 weeks in advance, but found out about our mistake just on Sept. 7. So it was too late to change anything. Our attorney didn't do a thing to help us and didn't make any arrangements for the hearing. So, we were few hours late, but the judge has made a decision which was a deportation order.
Of course we hired another attorney to file a motion to reopen, which was based on dislexia that my wife discovered she has after everything happened. The only time she was notified about the hearing date was during her only meeting with an attorney, who told her the date verbally. The NTA from the immigration court we didn't receive either, because we had a problem with our mail box.
The judge denied our motion to reopen, so did the BIA. By that time my J1 expired and I was stying in the country having no status (I thought that I was in the same situation as my wife). In april 2005 I received an NTA from the INS office we went to for my wife's asylum intervew, they sent me to the immigration court. On a day before my hearing we received a decision regarding my wife's appeal from the BIA, which was negative. We had no money to pay lawyers for another appeal to the 9th circuit, so I decided not to spend the rest of our money on lawyers and went to the court myself and asked for volantary departure. Then we paid our lawyer to get the same volantary departure for my wife. I don't know if she is going to get one, but I know for sure that I'm not letting her go back to her country, because she is in danger over there.
I was going to take her to my country (Latvia), but then I found our that there is another problem. I am not a citizen of Latvia. I was born in Latvia, but after USSR broke up my family and I became just permanent residents of Latvia. Technically, I have no citizenship. So, now I can't take my wife to Latvia. The only thing we can do is obtaining a visitor visa for her. But the embassy won't issue any visa if she doesn't have a status here. So we kind of have to wait for her volantary departure (if she gets one). But even if she gets one and then we obtain a visitor visa for her to enter Latvia, nobody knows how long she will be allowed to stay over there with me.
We've been through a lot in this country and we hoped on something, but I guess miracles don't happen.
My question is:
-What kind of visas to the USA we can hope for in the future?
-What kind of visas can we get while we are still in the country (I mean reserve, I know that we will have to leave the US anyway)?
-What do we need to do in order to get any of them?
My wife is a model. She's been trying to get a job as a model in the US, but she didn't have a work permit. She has a few modelling agencies who would sign up a contract with her.
I have a bachelor's degree in business administration, but no experience.
Please, help us if you can.