Many VAWA applicants worry that they cannot file because they do not have police reports, restraining orders, hospital records, or a large collection of joint bank statements.
That does not necessarily mean you do not have a case.
VAWA allows USCIS to consider any credible evidence relevant to the self-petition. This is especially important because people living in abusive relationships often do not have the same documentation that USCIS might normally expect from a married couple. An abusive spouse may deliberately keep the victim off the lease, refuse to open joint accounts, control the family’s money, or prevent the victim from having access to important documents.
For a spouse-based VAWA case, three of the most important things that generally must be proven are:
- The marriage was entered into in good faith. You married because you intended to build a life together—not primarily to obtain an immigration benefit.
- Battery or extreme cruelty occurred during the marriage. Abuse does not have to mean physical violence. Depending on the facts, extreme cruelty can involve threats, intimidation, coercive control, isolation, sexual abuse, economic abuse, immigration-related threats, or other conduct that forms part of an abusive pattern.
- Good moral character. The self-petitioner generally must establish good moral character as required under the VAWA provisions.
There are additional legal requirements, including establishing the qualifying relationship and joint residence with the abusive spouse. Every case should therefore be evaluated individually.
What if you do not have the usual evidence?
Think beyond marriage certificates, leases, joint tax returns, police reports, and photographs. Some of the strongest evidence may already be sitting on your phone, in an old email account, or buried in years of electronic records.
Here are six less-obvious types of evidence that may help.
1. Amazon, DoorDash, Uber Eats, Instacart and Other Delivery Records
Delivery histories can sometimes help establish that two spouses actually shared a home.
For example, an applicant may have years of Amazon purchases delivered to the marital residence. Food-delivery applications may show repeated orders to the same home for two people. Grocery orders may show household purchases made while the couple lived together.
Individually, one delivery receipt may mean very little. But dozens of records covering months or years can help corroborate where the applicant was living and what everyday married life looked like.
2. Pet Records
A dog or cat can unexpectedly become evidence of a real marriage.
Veterinary records, adoption paperwork, pet insurance, grooming appointments, boarding reservations, photographs, text messages discussing the pet, or receipts for veterinary bills may show that the spouses jointly adopted and cared for an animal.
Messages such as discussions about who will take the dog to the veterinarian, who will buy food, or where the pet will stay during a vacation can document the ordinary details of a shared life.
Pet-related evidence may also become relevant to abuse where an abusive spouse threatened, harmed, withheld, or used a pet to control the victim.
3. Location History, Travel Records and Digital Evidence
Your phone may contain years of evidence.
Potential evidence can include:
- Google or Apple location history;
- Uber or Lyft ride history;
- airline reservations;
- hotel reservations;
- toll records;
- parking receipts;
- vacation confirmations;
- calendar entries; and
- photographs containing dates and location information.
These records may help reconstruct the history of the relationship even when traditional documents are unavailable.
For example, repeated trips to the same residence, vacations taken together, trips to visit the spouse’s relatives, or transportation to the spouse’s workplace can help corroborate the couple’s actual relationship.
4. Everyday Text Messages—Not Just Romantic Messages
Applicants sometimes search their phones only for messages saying I love you.
Those are not the only useful messages.
Ordinary conversations can sometimes be even more persuasive evidence of a shared married life:
- Did you buy milk?
- Can you pick me up from work?
- Your mother is coming Saturday.
- The landlord is coming tomorrow.
- Can you take the dog to the vet?
- What time will you be home?
- Did you pay the electric bill?
These mundane conversations may help demonstrate that two people were actually functioning as a household.
Text messages can also be extremely important evidence of abuse. Threats, insults, demands for money, monitoring someone’s whereabouts, threats concerning immigration status, demands for passwords, sexual coercion, or messages attempting to isolate someone from family and friends may help corroborate a detailed VAWA declaration.
USCIS considers evidence of battery or extreme cruelty under the totality of the circumstances, and credible evidence is not limited to police or court records.
5. Evidence From Work, School, Medical Bills, Doctors and Other Third Parties
People sometimes forget how many outside organizations recorded information about their marriage.
Look for documents showing that your spouse was listed as your:
- emergency contact;
- authorized person at a doctor’s office;
- health insurance dependent;
- beneficiary;
- school emergency contact;
- medical bills coming to the joint address;
- person authorized to pick up a child;
- contact on employment paperwork; or
- family member on membership or account records.
Even appointment records can matter. A doctor’s note stating that the spouse accompanied the applicant to an appointment, for example, may help corroborate the relationship.
Third-party records may also help document abuse. A supervisor may remember an employee repeatedly arriving at work crying or injured. A teacher may have observed dramatic changes in a parent’s behavior. A friend may have picked the victim up after being thrown out of the home. A therapist may have documented reports of abuse.
VAWA regulations specifically recognize that relevant abuse evidence may come from medical personnel, school officials, clergy, social workers and other individuals or organizations—not only law enforcement.
6. Evidence Showing the Aftermath of Abuse
Sometimes there is no photograph of the abuse itself, but there is substantial documentation showing what happened afterward.
Examples may include:
- receipts from suddenly staying at a hotel;
- payments for changing locks;
- storage-unit receipts after leaving the marital residence;
- screenshots showing dozens of missed calls from the spouse;
- emails asking friends for a place to stay;
- messages apologizing to an employer for missing work after an incident;
- bank records showing the spouse emptied an account;
- screenshots showing a phone being disconnected;
- replacement-phone receipts after a phone was destroyed;
- photographs of damaged property;
- counseling or therapy records; or
- messages to relatives describing what had just happened.
A VAWA case should tell a coherent story. Sometimes the evidence surrounding an abusive incident can be almost as important as evidence created during the incident itself.
YOU DO NOT NECESSARILY NEED A POLICE REPORT or COURT RECORDS TO FILE VAWA
One of the biggest misconceptions about VAWA is that a person must have called the police, obtained a restraining order, or gone to the hospital.
VAWA permits USCIS to consider any credible evidence relevant to the petition. USCIS determines the credibility and weight of that evidence based on the entire record.
This matters because many victims never call the police. Some are afraid of retaliation. Some are financially dependent on the abusive spouse. Some have children with the abuser. Others have been repeatedly threatened that contacting the authorities will result in deportation or separation from their children.
Do not automatically assume that you cannot file simply because your evidence does not look like someone else’s evidence.
A successful VAWA filing is often built by putting together dozens of pieces of evidence that, when considered together, document the marriage, the shared life, the abuse, and the applicant’s credibility.
TALK TO A VAWA IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY – SHEPELSKY LAW IS HERE TO ASSIST!
If you are married or were married to an abusive U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident and believe you may qualify for VAWA, do not assume that you have no case because you lack traditional documents.
At Shepelsky Law Group, we help clients identify the evidence hidden throughout their everyday lives and determine how it can be used to build a detailed VAWA self-petition.
Every case is different, and the evidence should be evaluated as a complete picture rather than document by document.
Call Shepelsky Law Group at 718-769-6352 to schedule a consultation and discuss whether you may qualify for a VAWA self-petition.