how can an undocumented student get help to fix his/her immigration status?

Question

yea i was wondering about that, because i know a guy who is in 11th grade and had been here in Texas for the longest, knows perfect English and is on the verge of becoming a senior in high school and graduating. Its not his fault he is here undocumented because it wasn't his will to come here in the first place seeing as to he was very little and had no opinion back then. is there somewhere to get help or something like that, i know nothing of this and would like ur say on this matter. it would be a pity to let such a hard working student to let go to waste.

well here's more detail, the sad truth is that him and his parents are all here illegaly which i think would make this case worse. but i know that the parents are filing for permanent residency and have been for lets say 7 yrs i think but nothing has happened and then when something does happen it will take even more longer for the parent to help everyone else fix the status, right???

let me add that he did pass here legally but i dont know wat happened but they stayed here and now they find themselves undocumented.

Answer 1

Is there any way one of his parents can take the citizenship test? I helped my dad prepare for the test, helped with the english, bought programs which helped, studied with him until late at night, quized him, did many things. He finally took it and passed, I'm a resident now and he's a citizen. If his parents can get the citizenship then they can help him. However that depends too, I couldn't have been able to done that with my mother because the stupid government considers her a felon. It's very hard to make it here, specially now since the laws are getting crazy and people disagree and change them, even I as a resident have a chance to be sent back. It would be better if you could show more detail of the situation. I hope everything goes well for him though, many people don't understand us and think we come here to be criminals when in reality we don't.
But like I said, if you could get more details, I could probably give you a better answer. =)

Okay well like I replied to you, I can send you a document with more detail on every way to come here and every way to get fixed up even if they are illegal but I think the general ones applying to your friend would be:

Family Second Preference. Section 2A: Spouses and unmarried children of a green card holder, so long as the children are younger than age 21. Section 2B: Unmarried children age 21 or older of a green card holder.
If his parents do get the citizenship, they can sponsor him as well. Getting it though does take a long time. I know from experience, I can give you personal examples in private messages though.

Special Cases
Individual members of the U.S. Congress have, on occasion, intervened for humanitarian reasons in extraordinary cases, helping someone get permanent residence even if the law would not allow it.

The law lets certain people who have lived illegally in the United States for more than ten years to request permanent residence, usually as a defense in immigration court proceedings. You must also show that your spouse or children -- who must be U.S. citizens -- would face "extraordinary and exceptionally unusual hardship" if you were forced to leave. Consult a lawyer if you think you qualify. They SHOULD NOT GO straight to USCIS -- it could cause them their own deportation.

For most things, it's not enough time for the U.S. though, most things he could do would be if he had been here longer than 10 years. Unfortunately, there isn't much he could do except keep doing good in school, and help his parents show they have done good to the U.S. and how they can benefit from them.

I can help you more towards the situation of the family, on things they can show to prove the family has done good in the U.S. and make their case better. For him to do something personally, there is little chance. It depends mostly on his parents.

I know it's rough but tell him to keep his head up on it.

Answer 2

the true is that for now the only choice he has is to wait until and amnesty is passed which i think will happen soon , either that or to wait for the dream act which may help him as long as he stays at school . there is some which may not want your friend here even when he has expend most of his life here and will very likely never comeback to the country he does not know and which he came from , however just as his friend u should continue your support to him since that group of people who do not want ur friend ( even when he is not here because he chose to ) only represents an small portion of America which loves to blame anyone but themselves for their failures ...

in states like Texas the immigrants and their work had become an important part of the economy and in fact just last year the state reported a surplus on unclaimed income-tax which was more than 7 billion dollars , <<<<<<<<<7 billions >>>>>>> which came from the undocumented and which most anti-immigrant groups ignore all together with the huge amount of money which they spend in America every year and which earn with their hard work ...

so as i said the only thing he can do for now is just wait patiently since everyone even those who do not want to accept it do know how important they are , its just a matter of time ... wait just wait ...


BECAREFUL WITH THE TEN YEAR RULE I WILL POST A LINK ABOUT IT SO U CAN SEE , IT IS DANGEROUS ...
( it is not the best answer on that question ... see below to find it )

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AvH23tkSAcNbXxewQ15RikPsy6IX?qid=20070128181426AAYeFT3&show=7#profile-info-vwjHy0LWaa

i will post it here so u can see :

well this is part truth and in part not .... first at all i had also heard about this before , however this law does has a lot of reservations making almost impossible for anyone to acquire their legal status through it .

its is not for anyone and the person applying for it has to have a very clean record and be approved by a judge of immigration and then by the board of immigration appeals which overturns the judge's decision almost every single time .

it is also limited to 4000 cases and has never reach that number so far , in fact from an article ( written in 2004 by Senator Feinstein ) it is stated than only 2,345 people benefited from it in 2003 being the highest number until then :

http://feinstein.senate.gov/04Releases/r-hutchinson-ltr-removal.htm

it is also very important to mention than this is ussually the last resource which undocumneted immigrants which are about to be deported use and that it is not recomended to anyone else because of the limitation mentioned above which are not the only ones . i personaly would NOT recomende it and would recomend her/him to wait until everyone is being legalized or she/he gets married to a citizen is she/he doesn't want to run this high risk of being deported which is what i believe would happen if she/he intended to legalize his/her status this way .

well here is another link which may be helpful for u with the tittle Central American Deportation Relief Act which i believe is may be what the senator is talking about :

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2533.IH:

i also would like to make clear that i found all this information through the internet and that i a not a lawyer so my advice should not be taken as if i was but from what i found i find highly unlikely for him/her to be able to get legal this way ... i hope this is helpful to both of u .

Answer 3

The problem is that in state tuition is a 'discount' which represents tuition funds. There simply aren't enough tuition funds for all American citizen children to go to college who want to. If your friend is here illegally and has gone through high school here, his education (which Mexico, for example does not provide its poor people) represents about $100,000 that have already been taken from education funds for Texas and US students, unless his parents were unusually wealthy and taxpaying illegal immigrants.

If there were enough money for all American kids to go to college and extra to go around it might be different. However, as things are, I think we need to take care of our own people first. In state tuition also is yet another magnet drawing people to come here illegally. And THAT is an expense this country can not afford.

Answer 4

Wait for the amnesty. And to gameover: You are 100% right!

Answer 5

He is not eligible for anything. He is illegal here and no way how he can adjust his status being here. Legal residence is not given to people who came here without inspection.

However, his illegal presence before age 18 is forgiven.
So, Before his 18 birthday, he can moveout from US, and not being penalized for being illegal. How can he move back legally - tough question, I dont know.

Pa0: His parents are illegal. What citisenship test are you talking about???

DAR: The question was how to fix his status, Not how much does it cost to educate an illegal. I am against them myself, BTW.