Ask HN: How can I (illegal immigrant/programmer) get legal status in US?

I am in the same boat.<p>This could be my story, except my parents never managed to legalize, and I couldn't even get a tax id. Lawyers haven't been able to help. I am going to a "big shot" lawyer soon to see what he says, but at this point I'm not holding my breath. I was brought to the states at the age of 12; that was 13 years ago. I'm in limbo, as you.<p>Forget the Start Visa Act, that's fresh out the oven and even if it did, somehow, manage to make it through the stalemate in Congress, there is no way it would cover people like you and I, who have "broken the law" (we were brought here as children, for the few who will miss the point). Something that _could_ help us is the Dream Act.<p>In college I started <a href="http://dreamact.info" rel="nofollow">http://dreamact.info</a> It is the biggest community of would be Dream Act beneficiaries and undocumented students. I'm not too proud of what's there at this point -- I always want to do more -- but it's the best I could do with life always catching up. =( I've been in and out of the fray trying to pass this bill and perhaps have some things to share that go beyond the scope of this comment. If you are at all interested in the bill, or just want somebody to share with -- I know it gets very tough -- feel free to contact me at nick at dreamact.info<p>I hope this gives you hope. Hang in there.

Get a good immigration lawyer, and go see more than one if possible. They can make all the difference. I can remember the end of the process it took both my parents to get green cards very many years ago when I was a kid. It was with a lawyer that dealt with the case like it was cakewalk where everyone else wouldn't even touch the case for being too complicated (I suspect it was something with prior legal non-arranged marriages and a visa overstay). After the last interview my parents and their lawyer were partying like there was no tomorrow.<p>As for the marriage suggestion, this may be downvoted to hell, but if that's your only option left it isn't impossible. It's a huge commitment on the part of you and the person you marry, as well as anyone associated with you both and that's usually what makes or breaks the deal. It takes so much to prove your marriage that it's incredibly difficult to fake it with someone you don't care about or know very well (and vice versa). Sometime last year I went to an interview to be an interpreter for a family friend applying for a green card, and the people trying to use marriage to get a green card were very obvious by the huge bags full of photo albums and more they were carrying around. One person I saw brought literally thousands of printed photos to flood their interviewer with, and another couple were sorting through a huge photo library on their laptop. It's no joke. (And obligatory "it's illegal" comment.)<p>Of course, it isn't your only option at this point. Since you say your parents are now citizens, they have options for sponsoring you especially if you are under 21. I don't know that the visa overstay and green card problem is necessarily true since you entered the country legally and there are probably ways to work around that 10 year thing, but IANAL. Like I said, a good lawyer makes a big difference. Shop around if you must. They will be better to inform you of your choices.

you didn't mention the most important aspect of this story: your country of origin. things are very different for those from, for eg. australia vs being from, for eg. columbia<p>sounds like you need to either pay somebody to marry you, or sneak out of the country and go to a third-nation, live there for a while and apply for residence via your parents from there<p>could be possible that they don't know you were in the USA. SFO is one of the only airports where they don't check internationals on the way out.

<i>I desperately want to stay in the country I grew up, but my capital is almost gone. Yet I can't go back either due to not having done the mandatory military service at my country of origin.</i><p>Can't you go to a third country?

I don't understand your situation. If you entered illegally, how can you overstay your visa? If you entered illegally, presumably you didn't <i>have</i> a visa.<p>But clearly this is something you should talk to a good lawyer about. If your current one isn't helpful, find a new one.

Have you ever witnessed or reported a crime? There is a provision in the US immigration law that lets illegal immigrants to get legalized if that's the case.<p>Edit: or a victim of a crime. There was an investigative news story about this topic, in a la or a sf news paper about a month or so. I am searching for it.

Marrying a citizen now will not help. You will still be out of status, and will not be allowed to adjust your status.

Once someone immediately related to you becomes a citizen, they can apply for your citizenship regardless of your immigration status. Do checkup on it in detail, I have a very strong hunch about it being correct.<p>If not that, talk to a better lawyer about asking your local senator to help you in gaining legal status and see if that helps. Or maybe apply for immigration through asylum due to the military requirement in home country?

I believe that there are a couple of ways to get in, but for those you need to be outside of the US first. What country are you originally from?<p>I'm not based in the US. Out of interest, how can you live (and presumably work) there with a tax ID without being in the country legally -- is this never verified?

Well, I know this is not really helping but this movie described a very similar situation to yours. May it ease your pain a little: <a href="http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/The_Proposal/70112727?trkid=438403#height2000" rel="nofollow">http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/The_Proposal/70112727?trkid=...</a>

<a href="http://www.mario-ramos.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.mario-ramos.com/</a> is a good immigration laywer, you may have more luck with him than with your current one.

You can do a "gray" Marriage=pay someone to marry you for a year or two untill you get your card and you can choose to divorce or continue with the person(like a contract).

Can you get to another country and reside there while working remotely? 37Signals is just one company that has proved remote workers is possible.

To those folks who keep saying "get married", a couple of questions, out of curiosity:<p>A) Did you even read the entire post? He states his lawyer has already recommended that and he has already ruled it out.<p>B) Do you realize this is a public forum and (assuming you are in the US) you can be potentially tracked down and theoretically charged for encouraging someone to break the law?<p>------<p>To the OP: I have tried to do some googling. Law is not my strong point and I'm not finding what I want, but I am curious if there is a means to seek amnesty based on the fact that you were brought here as a child, so had no real choice in immigrating illegally. If I find something to point you to, I will post it. If not, please consider researching that angle as well.<p>Best of luck.

stop programming.. go meet a woman. NOW!

Have you tried Kickstarter to help you to fund it?

You need to talk to some Angel/VCs as they face these set of issues of founders and may have answers the normal HN crowd may not..<p>Okay people that are approachable, I would say go local if there are VC/Angels in your geographical area.<p>It may be that one of the VC/Angels that you contact may be able to help you reach the $250k Startup Visa Act precondition.<p>Sorry that I do not have more in-depth answers.

I'm guessing your male. If you were female I'd help you out! Bureaucracy sux. Good luck.

If you're in a state that allows gay marriage and have a non-married co-founder with citizenship ...<p>I'd just keep talking with immigration layers, until someone gives me a way out.

Pay someone to marry you for the papers. Divorce afterwards.