Legal Question in Immigration Law in Texas

If you are a United States citizen, you can petition for your spouse. The process that will be required for your husband to obtain legal residency will depend on his manner of entry and his immigration and criminal history. If your husband is not eligible to apply for permanent residence from within the United States (because he did not make a legal entry), he may be immediately eligible for deferred action for childhood arrivals. The best thing you could do would be to have a consultation with an experienced immigration attorney, who could determine what process would be available for your husband to legalize his status and could advise you of the costs involved.

it depends on if your husband had a lawful entry or not, if you are a U.S. citizen, if your husband has a criminal record, etc. I would need more details first.

Thank you.

First, the response below is based on the assumption that you are a US Citizen and without knowing the specifics of your case, it is hypothetical based only on legal or illegal entry ...:

- First, the process will be a long one and can be expensive as to legal fees and filing fees, especially if your husband did not enter the US legally, and, he may not qualify to adjust his status at all in the US if he has a negative CBP record or certain types of criminal history (I'm not saying he has either). I would need to interview him in order to determine this.

- If he did not enter legally, and if he qualifies and has not yet applied, I would suggest that we apply for DACA status first. Next, with or without DACA, if he did not enter the US legally, we would need to file several petitions, forms and applications with USCIS and apply for a hardship Waiver. We may also have to appeal or file motions to reopen the case, based on USCIS's decision, which will hopefully be positive and we won't have to.

If approved, Consular processing will be required, but your husband will not have to wait in his foreign country for a long period of time and file for the Waiver there, like used to be the process. However, he will have to return to his country unless you are a member of our US Military.

- If you are in the Military, there may be a different PIP available to him.

- If your husband entered legally, which I will determine after our initial interview, then, the process becomes a little easier. Again, several applications, forms and petitions will still need to be filed with USCIS, but the illegal entry issue would go away (and I may have to brief the entry issue).

- I am an immigration appellate attorney who knows the law, as do the attorneys at my firm. If you would like to set-up a consultation to meet with us at our Dallas office, and begin the process, our firm's information should automatically post after my answer.

- Goldstein & Scopellite, PC has qualified immigration attorneys, immigration appellate lawyers and deportation defense attorneys available to represent you at either one of their law offices located in Dallas, Texas and Tucson, Arizona - Please visit their websites at www.LawyersDallas.com and www.Lawyers-Tucson.com for more information or to contact them. Thank you.

Hello - please call me at (212) 968-8600 or toll-free at (800) 750-1828. Kind regards, RDM