Need to help my friend

[Jill Wright]

I have a friend who came from mexico.She married an american man. The marriage has become abusive.She wants to get away from him.I want to help her.Is there some knid of visa i can get for her. Maybe a student visa or something else.Please respond.

[Allan Samson]

You cannot help her if she came from Mexico illegally in most cases. She can apply for asylum if there is a reasonable fear of persecution if she returns to Russia. In order to apply on the basis as the abused spouse she must have entered the country legally, which she probably did not do if she came from Mexico. If the law changes to make section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act valid again, she might benefit from that by paying a $1,000 penalty fee, but it depends what date the application or petition was filed. congress has recently passed legislation making some date in August 2001 the cut-off date. this would not help your friend. Good Luck, ALLAN SAMSON

[Olga]

If your friend came by ligal way to America she can try to obtain abusive spouse status. I did it.