Not having legal status was not a barrier to working here for the last 7 years using only a tax id number, but that changed recently. This realization comes at a hard time for me. I am co-founding a company that is on the verge of getting funding, but we likely will not net the $250K that is precondition of the Startup Visa Act. I desperately want to stay in the country I grew up, but my capital is almost gone. Yet I can't go back either due to not having done the mandatory military service at my country of origin. It's a bizarre, Kafkaesque, nightmarish situation.
My lawyer has not been helpful, and has only recommended that I get married to an American citizen, which is not possible with my meager interpersonal resources.
I don't know why I'm posting here, but I'm pretty much hopeless so why the hell not. If anyone can offer some help, advice or a kind word it would mean a lot.
This could be my story, except my parents never managed to legalize, and I couldn't even get a tax id. Lawyers haven't been able to help. I am going to a "big shot" lawyer soon to see what he says, but at this point I'm not holding my breath. I was brought to the states at the age of 12; that was 13 years ago. I'm in limbo, as you.
Forget the Start Visa Act, that's fresh out the oven and even if it did, somehow, manage to make it through the stalemate in Congress, there is no way it would cover people like you and I, who have "broken the law" (we were brought here as children, for the few who will miss the point). Something that _could_ help us is the Dream Act.
In college I started http://dreamact.info It is the biggest community of would be Dream Act beneficiaries and undocumented students. I'm not too proud of what's there at this point -- I always want to do more -- but it's the best I could do with life always catching up. =( I've been in and out of the fray trying to pass this bill and perhaps have some things to share that go beyond the scope of this comment. If you are at all interested in the bill, or just want somebody to share with -- I know it gets very tough -- feel free to contact me at nick at dreamact.info
I hope this gives you hope. Hang in there.
Nothing makes sense.
I've seen one thing consistently, we, as a movement, are getting older, smarter, and closer to our goals. Not unlike starting a startup in high school, you are bound to fail, but after 10 years of failing you learn a thing or two. The timeline for the passage of the bill is not some constant or range. It is a linear function of how smart we work and how much energy we put into it. If I learned one thing, is that Congress has absolutely zero interest in passing the bill, either party. They all just want to get elected again. You work from there.
If by "too late for me," you are referring to the age limit in the bill, the Dream Act usually gets introduced without the limit and the 30 year old age limit is sometimes tacked on as a "compromise" in the process. Also, the number I keep seeing lately is 35, simply because its taking this long to pass the bill. I want the limit gone, it makes zero sense from any angle. It is only good for marketing the bill to hypocrites who'll never support it anyway, "look only kids will benefit." Fucking load of shit, we were kids when this mess started!! Just because you've been in legal limbo for 20 years, doesn't make you less American. Eh... You give a finger you get nothing, you give a hand, you get nothing, you give half your torso, and you still get nothing. That is the dynamic of party relations in the Senate right now. Democrats compromise, Republicans just keep saying "No" because that will get them elected. The age limit is a compromise not worth making and we'll make sure the Senators know about it. I see more and more people who are already over the proposed limits, they deserve this more than I.
Personally, I'm not ruling out "going back." Although, it's not really going back is it, its leaving everything and everyone you know behind to go to a place you barely remember, if at all. I have the same problem, not having done mandatory military service, I'd probably be arriving into a jail cell. That is unless I arrive after a certain age. The country of your origin may have a similar rule, look into it. Coincidentally, this is the strategy of our opposition, they call it "attrition." Make our lives so miserable that we leave on our own. Look at the AZ bill. Look at the Georgia bill that will be signed by the governor in a couple of days. We leave, they win. I don't know what they win exactly, you and I are clearly American and have something to contribute to society. But, I don't care about the principle of this thing much, I just want to breathe free for once (ironic isn't it.)
What helped me deal with this situation personally, is just not being afraid anymore. That sounds cliche, but something just snapped one night somewhere around the time where my friend was going to be deported (a few days later, Sen. Dick Durbin has personally acted to stop his deportation), and I just said you know what fuck it all. I know I'm worth something as a human being. I know I'm a competent "product" guy that loves what he does. If the worst thing that I have to be afraid of is getting shipped out clenching my American diploma, then fuck em. Ship me out and let me live my fucking life already. Or do what you have been doing and pretend that I don't exist. I'll be fine either way, so fuck you. You can see I was angry, not bitter, I think I have it easy compared to others and certainly the rest of the world, just angry. That night I made a pact with myself, fear will never be a factor again. It worked. Somehow accepting the possible consequences and not being afraid of them anymore has helped me get a grip on this situation emotionally. Over the years I've developed a really thick skin, nothing ever surprises me anymore. In addition, overcoming this fear -- I can't even say concretely what I was afraid of, it's just this perpetual state that you are in as an undocumented person -- has given me a ton of confidence. You want to bring me down? It will take you a lifetime; enjoy the ride.
So my advice is please do ALL you can to change your status, but if no avenues are available, do what you can to improve your quality of life. Come to some kind of an arrangement with your co-founders and keep going, keep doing what you love, live your life as fully as you possibly can, we are still incredibly fortunate. Just look at yourself as you, not as the system sees you.
As for the marriage suggestion, this may be downvoted to hell, but if that's your only option left it isn't impossible. It's a huge commitment on the part of you and the person you marry, as well as anyone associated with you both and that's usually what makes or breaks the deal. It takes so much to prove your marriage that it's incredibly difficult to fake it with someone you don't care about or know very well (and vice versa). Sometime last year I went to an interview to be an interpreter for a family friend applying for a green card, and the people trying to use marriage to get a green card were very obvious by the huge bags full of photo albums and more they were carrying around. One person I saw brought literally thousands of printed photos to flood their interviewer with, and another couple were sorting through a huge photo library on their laptop. It's no joke. (And obligatory "it's illegal" comment.)
Of course, it isn't your only option at this point. Since you say your parents are now citizens, they have options for sponsoring you especially if you are under 21. I don't know that the visa overstay and green card problem is necessarily true since you entered the country legally and there are probably ways to work around that 10 year thing, but IANAL. Like I said, a good lawyer makes a big difference. Shop around if you must. They will be better to inform you of your choices.
I'm American, born and raised with an immigrant wife(from Asia). When we went into DHS for our interview, we thought "Tons of pictures." == "evidence of love". We were wrong. The interviewer didn't want to see the pictures. She wanted to see our joint property, bank accounts, and utility bills.
The following are guesses on my part. I believe pictures are useless because you can produce a lot in several settings very quickly, and pictures can be doctored. Most importantly if pictures are trusted, they are only a testament to the past, not the present or future.
sounds like you need to either pay somebody to marry you, or sneak out of the country and go to a third-nation, live there for a while and apply for residence via your parents from there
could be possible that they don't know you were in the USA. SFO is one of the only airports where they don't check internationals on the way out.
I've actually called US Customs and Immigration before to discuss visas and status. As you're not identifying yourself in the call, you might be able to get a feel for whether or not you would have trouble leaving the country and then getting sponsored.
Can't you go to a third country?
But clearly this is something you should talk to a good lawyer about. If your current one isn't helpful, find a new one.
Edit: or a victim of a crime. There was an investigative news story about this topic, in a la or a sf news paper about a month or so. I am searching for it.
If not that, talk to a better lawyer about asking your local senator to help you in gaining legal status and see if that helps. Or maybe apply for immigration through asylum due to the military requirement in home country?
Sometimes, time will have to tell but remember you can succeed on your own just fine and remember to define yourself by your own work rather than the law - just be cautious of the law and live with your purpose that you have lived with. You truly are amazing mate.
I'm not based in the US. Out of interest, how can you live (and presumably work) there with a tax ID without being in the country legally -- is this never verified?
Given the hoops my brother and sister-and-law had to go through, I think faking a marriage is a really bad idea unless the fake-spouse is willing to put themselves and close friends/family into big trouble if the sham marriage gets exposed.
A) Did you even read the entire post? He states his lawyer has already recommended that and he has already ruled it out.
B) Do you realize this is a public forum and (assuming you are in the US) you can be potentially tracked down and theoretically charged for encouraging someone to break the law?
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To the OP: I have tried to do some googling. Law is not my strong point and I'm not finding what I want, but I am curious if there is a means to seek amnesty based on the fact that you were brought here as a child, so had no real choice in immigrating illegally. If I find something to point you to, I will post it. If not, please consider researching that angle as well.
Best of luck.
So I think they do sometimes make exceptions, on an individual basis. That is the angle I would look into.
Okay people that are approachable, I would say go local if there are VC/Angels in your geographical area.
It may be that one of the VC/Angels that you contact may be able to help you reach the $250k Startup Visa Act precondition.
Sorry that I do not have more in-depth answers.
I'd just keep talking with immigration layers, until someone gives me a way out.
Not to mention, seeing that the OP is already in hot water with being here illegally, recommending he defraud the government with a fake marriage can only serve to make things worse. Especially as when they see his prior status they are going to look very, very closely at the legitimacy of the marriage.
They do ask for evidence but it's generally nothing like the movies unless you get targeted for special enforcement or your name gets picked out of a hat.
