Immigration

If you were forced to perform sex work or labor in the U.S., and you have a specific familial relationship to your trafficker who is or was a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident (LPR), you could qualify for both a T visa, which helps victims of human trafficking, and a VAWA self-petition, which often provides a direct path to a green card and citizenship. The qualifying relationships for a VAWA self petition are:

1. if you are or were recently married to your trafficker, who is a U.S. citizen or LPR;
2. your trafficker was your parent, who is a U.S. citizen or LPR; or
3. your trafficker was your adult U.S. citizen son or daughter. You don’t have to be the victim of a major sex or labor trafficking ring to be a human trafficking victim.

Here are some reasons why you may want to apply for a VAWA self-petition instead of a T visa:

• USCIS takes about three to five years to get a green card through a VAWA self-petition, but it can take anywhere from four-and-a-half to eight-and-a-half years to get a green card through a T visa.
• Unless you get “continued presence,” you cannot get a work permit through the T visa until your application is approved. If you file an application for lawful permanent residence with your VAWA self-petition, you can get a work permit while the self-petition is pending. However, not all VAWA self-petitioners can file a lawful permanent residency application at the same time as their self-petition.
• T visas require that you go along with any reasonable requests for assistance from law enforcement in investigating or prosecuting the crime, unless you were under 18 when you were trafficked or are too traumatized to help law enforcement. VAWA does not require that.
• T visas require you to not leave the U.S. while you wait for a decision. And, even after getting approved for a T visa, international travel can be very risky. VAWA does not necessarily involve the same risks with travel.
• To qualify for a T visa, you must be a victim of trafficking. For VAWA, you must prove “battery or extreme cruelty,” which is a much broader term that includes many more types of abuse.
• Unless you can get a letter from the Department of Justice to show that the investigation into your trafficking is closed, you must wait three years after your T visa is approved to file for lawful permanent residence. VAWA self-petitioners may be eligible to apply for lawful permanent residence immediately when their self-petition is approved.

On the other hand, here are some reasons why you may want to apply for a T visa instead of a VAWA self-petition:

• If you were abused by your U.S. citizen adult child, you cannot include any derivatives in your VAWA self-petition. If you were abused by your spouse or parent, you can only include your unmarried children under 21 in your VAWA self-petition. The T visa could allow you to include more family members as derivatives.
• Trafficking victims with approved T visas are eligible for the same public benefits as refugees. These benefits are typically more generous than what VAWA self-petitioners can receive. In addition, the federal government has a special assistance program for trafficking victims called the Trafficking Victims Assistance Program (TVAP), which can provide financial and case management support even before you file a T visa application.
• Even though a VAWA self-petition is often a faster route to a green card, it might be a slower route to a work permit. You would only get a work permit through VAWA after your VAWA self-petition was approved, which could take close to three years. If you apply for a T visa, it currently takes less than one and a half years to receive a work permit based on the T visa, and the timeframe will likely be even shorter if you receive a positive bona fide determination. 
• Depending on which grounds of inadmissibility apply in your case, it may be easier to get a waiver and, for this reason, succeed with a T visa than with a VAWA self-petition. Almost all grounds of inadmissibility can be waived with a T visa, but the VAWA waivers of inadmissibility are less generous. This means more people may be ineligible for VAWA than for T Visas.

Before you file any papers with USCIS, you should discuss your options with an immigration lawyer with experience in VAWA and T visas to determine what would be the best option in your case. To find help, please go the National Organizations - Immigration page or our Finding a Lawyer page. If your lawyer needs assistance, s/he can call ASISTA for help.