Why won’t anyone help with advice on my post ????

[MottoBear]

I’m kind of at a loss here and don’t know where to go... to make a very long story short, my bf (we are not married) in in the US on an asylum. He unlawfully crossed the border in August 2016. We have been together since March 2017.. so we have pretty much been together from the start. He is Indian from Punjab, I use to go to gas station down from my house every day. That is how we meet. After a few months he finally asked me to be with him, his English wasn’t so good but it was enough for us to get by. Age never really came up with us in the first 8 months or so. Well now we are here over two years later, communication is way better, he no longer works at the gas station, we have started our own business, live together, and his court date is arriving for his asylum in December 2020. We have spoke of marriage but he is afraid that our age gap will not look good. He is currently 29 and I am 47. I told him if we marry, talk to his lawyer about a I601a waiver we may have a chance. We are currently about 200k in mortgage debt, plus the owner operator trucking company we have started. His lawyer is advising him to marry a citizen which I feel should be me since we have created this life together. We share a name on loans, savings account, business and mortgage but we do not share a checking account nor do we share health insurance. I think we can qualify for the extreme hardship if he is deported but he’s afraid because I am white, much older and married twice before ( non immigrant marriages, he’s my first real relationship with a foreigner) that we will be denied and he will be deported. He refuses to let me speak to the lawyer about any of this. I feel that his asylum case is not strong enough and he will be denied and that this I601a waiver is our best chance. I don't think I can afford another lawyer to discuss my side of this or discuss my concerns and his lawyer will not speak to me without his permission. I would appreciate your opinion or accept any advise on who to speak to about this. Can you please help?

[newacct]

It seems like you already have an idea what your options are and people haven't responded probably because they don't have anything to add. We don't know how strong his asylum case is, but him immigrating through marriage has many hurdles.

If he wants to immigrate based on his spouse (in case his asylum is denied), he wouldn't be eligible for Adjustment of Status since he entered illegally, so he has to do Consular Processing abroad. Leaving the US might trigger a ban if he had accrued 180 days of "unlawful presence" during this stay before leaving (3 year ban for accruing 180 days of unlawful presence and then leaving, 10 year ban for accruing 1 year of unlawful presence and then leaving). He does not accrue unlawful presence while he has a bona fide asylum application pending, so depending on when he applied for asylum, it's possible that he wouldn't have enough unlawful presence to trigger a ban if he leaves. If he would trigger a ban upon leaving, then he would need a waiver if he wants to immigrate during the ban; in order to get an immigrant waiver for this ban he would need to show that you would suffer "extreme hardship" if he can;'t be in the US. If he is not in removal proceedings, he can apply for a provisional waiver before he leaves with I-601A; if he is in removal proceedings, he can't do that and can only apply for a regular waiver at the consulate with I-601.

If he is in removal proceedings, and he wants to leave, he should try to get Voluntary Departure because being removed triggers a 10-year ban. Also, if you marry him while he is in removal proceedings, a petition for a spouse would require a higher standard of evidence, "clear and convincing evidence", that your marriage is not fraudulent.