When people immigrate to the U.S., they may have arrived legally, or they may have arrived illegally. Regardless of which way they landed on U.S. soil, they can stay if they follow some very specific procedures. If you were born here but your parents were not, your family can petition to stay and petition against deportation. Here is how an immigration attorney can help.

The Law Governing "Anchor Children"

If you were born here in the United States to one or both parents who were not legal citizens, you can petition the courts to allow your parents and siblings to stay. Although you would commonly be referred to as an "anchor baby" because you have legitimate citizenship (and therefore are "anchored" to this country), the law that most applies to you is jus soli. It is the guaranteed right of the fourteenth amendment that anyone born here in the states is, unconditionally, a citizen of this country. As a minor, you would not be permitted to stay here alone while one or both of your parents are deported back to the country they came from. If you are still under the age of eighteen, you can seek the help of immigration attorneys to petition for your parents to stay here.

Petitioning for Visas as Illegal Immigrants

Once you have successfully petitioned the courts to keep your parents here under the jus soli law, they will need visas to stay here legally. Your lawyer can help with this process by directing them to the correct embassy where they can apply for their visas. There are also some ways in which your parents may be protected against the laws of their country and still achieve visas, and these ways include defecting and requesting asylum. Defecting means you are surrendering all of your ties to your native country in favor of the U.S., while requesting asylum means that you one day hope to return to your native country, but only after war or other atrocities that would make your return unsafe have been eliminated. Once these petitions and pleas have been accepted and your family members all have visas, you will need to keep the visas from expiring or you will have to undergo the application process for citizenship.

Family Petitions after Visas Have Expired

If your family has not been able to renew their visas and would like to become U.S. citizens instead, you may need the immigration lawyer's help to petition a stay of deportation. If the stay is granted, you may have a certain number of days to get your visas, and then apply for green cards after that. Often the problems that prevent people from renewing their visas have to do with the embassies that represent their home countries, and the immigration attorney may be able to help you cut through the restrictions that block you from renewing your family's visas. A petition may need to be filed for each and every family member who wants to avoid deportation and stay here. Contact a legal team, such as Tesoroni & Leroy, for more information.