Due to the nature of this post (and me wanting to remain "anonymous" -- as in, keep this topic separate from my forum account under which I post much more frequently, I created a separate account for this question. Mods, I hope you are ok with this. If there is a more appropriate way of handling this that I'm not aware of, I apologize.)For a while I've been in a (same-sex) relationship with someone. This person did not come to this country through the "official channels", and is undocumented. He has been living here (and working here, to any extent possible) for over a decade. The relationship is becoming very serious, and I think we are probably going to get married. Fortunately, we live in what is considered to be a "sanctuary city", where the local officials and local law-enforcement pretty much turn a blind eye to people's immigration status, as long as they aren't committing any crimes (other than the crime of simply being here...)
Getting married does NOT automatically grant my partner citizenship, or any kind of immigration status. Since he did not come here with a visa, the federal law is such that, in order for him to become a citizen (for the purpose of being a family member of another US citizen), he would need to leave the country for 10 years. This will not happen. He is afraid of going back and being stuck of the central american country from which he came.
Have any other Mustachians been in a similar situation or have any suggestions? I know we are obviously going to be racking up some legal bills with an immigration attorney in the future, but if anyone can give me some realistic expectations, it would be helpful. Specifically, any ballpark figures of what the costs might be and the probabilities of success.
I have done a lot of searching and reading online, but it is hard to interpret a lot of what I've read.
My research indicates that there are several avenues that could be pursued:
- Hard-ship for me. Basically an attorney would argue that it would be a hard-ship for me to have to relocate to my partner's country, so for us to remain together, my partner should be granted citizenship. This is essentially an "exception" to the leave-usa-for-10-years-rule. These aren't too many of these granted.
- Asylum. An attorney would try to have asylum granted for my partner on the grounds that he is not safe in his home-country because of his sexuality. Typically we would need to prove that there was a direct and imminent threat to his safety, instead of just the overall gay-unfriendliness of the area. This would be difficult, I think.
- Medical. I think there are exceptions granted to people with some medical issues. My partner hurt his back at one of his previous jobs, and (I think) will probably need surgery to deal with the bad discs.
- Other factors to consider: His employment situation in this country is quite miserable, due to his immigration status. However, back in his home-country, he graduated near the top of his class, got a university degree, and had a professional job there before he came to this country. But now, he is forced to settle for near-minimum-wage unskilled jobs.
- My large Stache and my large Salary. I have a pretty decent 'stache of assets, highly-skilled high paying career,, and I wonder if that helps make the case for letting my future-spouse stay in this country. (e.g. as a "valuable high-tax-paying person", would it help that they would want to keep me here and happy? Opposed to investigating other countries to possibly emigrate to...
I am also wondering things like, are there legal risks to myself?
I'm not sure how to handle taxes, as he does not have a SSN and is paid "off the books". If we got married, do we file jointly? I would definitely report his income, but if it doesn't have a W-2 attached to it, will the IRS go after his employer? (which probably would end up with him losing his job eventually...)
What about past years (when I'm pretty sure he has never filed taxes)? He is paid so low, that even if he were to have filed, he wouldn't have owed much of anything anyway. Whatever that amount is, I would gladly pay in back-taxes and penalties if it would mean he could become a citizen.
Medical insurance. As an undocumented immigrant, he cannot participate in the ACA exchange. I hope I could add him as a spouse to my employer's medical plan when we are married. I wonder if there are any additional issues that would arise from this since he doesn't have a SSN. I'm not sure if I even want to be asking these questions to my employer anyway, but I definitely want to get him covered with health insurance (and probably have some doctors look into his back problems.)
I think I've gone on long enough on this. I just wish there were easy answers, but unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case. This community (MMM) is by far the most intelligent online community that I'm a part of, so I posted this here for advice, both financial and otherwise. Any helpful advice from you all is appreciated.
