The neice of a friend of mine was sent to live in the USA when she was 8 years old on a tourist visa. She was sent to live with an aunt and uncle in L.A., because her widowed mother was very poor and felt she could no longer take care of her. The "American" relatives promised to make arrangements for the girl to attain Resident Alien status, but in fact they did nothing about it.

Nineteen years have gone by and the little girl is now a fully grown woman of 27. All these years she has been living in America illegally. She would now like to regularize her situation, but she is afraid to approach the US authorities directly because of the very high chance of being arrested and deported.

Does anyone know of any organization or group in America who might be able to help or advise her what to do in this situation or is it simply a question of finding a good Immigration lawyer and coming up with the money to pay him or her? (I should perhaps point out that the young lady concerned is a Thai citizen with a valid Thai Passport). Any helpful replies would be much appreciated.

It's a shame for her that the Immigration Reform and Amnesty proposal has been killed.

I would say that in such an unusual situation, consulting a lawyer would be the best way to go. Is she married? does she have children? gainfully employed. I'm sure all these things matter. Being sent to the USA when she was only 8yrs old will probably also change things. I hope she doesn't have a criminal record. A lawyer would be the way to go. Immigration officers are people, people with power over others, can bring out the worst of personalities.

She's been an adult for 9 years and only now wants to fix things?

That will probably not be viewed favorably by the US government.

Unfortunately unless she has married a US citizen or had a baby while living in US, I don’t think she has any basis for acquiring permanent resident status. Living there illegally for 19 years, even though 9 of them were as a minor, is not a good reason to get a green card.

Her best bet is to just stay underground as she has been and hope there will be an amnesty program some day.

TH