Sponsor for an Indian Visitor

In My Humble Opinion
1

I put this here because I think there may be more than one answer to this question. If it needs to move, feel free to do so.

I have an Indian co-worker. She is culturally Very Indian. She’s in her early 30s and comes from a very traditional family. She has been married for about 3 years (arranged).

She confided in me a few months back that her husband is a brutal, sadistic motherfucker who, in my opinion, needs to have an accident. A real serious one. There is sexual torture, financial and emotional abuse, moved her far away from her family, etc., etc. It got to the point where she asked me if all men got off on biting their women until they passed out. He kicked the shit out of her, pulled her around by her hair, and then takes her paycheck and disappears for a week to gamble it away. This went on every month. I asked her what her father thought of all of this, and as is common (so I hear), he was worried about dowry, worried about his future and who would take care of him, blah, blah, blah.

After months of hearing about this shit, I finally got her to let me go to our boss (who is a long-time co-worker and friend of mine here in the US, and a woman). I explained the situation and asked what we could do to help her. My boss has a counterpart in India who handles the non-task-related things like HR and such. She contacted him and asked what we could do to protect her, as we feared for her life.

The Indian Boss immediately made arrangements for my co-worker to move to another city, far away from That Lowlife Prick (and coincidentally, in her sister’s town). He also spoke to my co-worker’s father and supported her right and need to get away from him. She stole away in the middle of the night, went to her parent’s home, and after a few days of chilling out, went to her sister’s and began work at her new location. She left her cell with her dad and our whole team is supporting her in her new life.

Well now, That Lowlife Prick’s relatives are threatening her father and trying to find out where she is. THey’re really putting the pressure on. I know they will try to ruin her family with dowry extortion and we’re very concerned that if he had the chance, he would seriously harm or kill her.

So…to the question…

We want her to come to the US. When I first met her, she was so “Indian” that she had no idea of any American ways, other than what she reads in the news. She’s a dutiful female and could not ever picture herself anywhere but India. But since she told us of these new developments, my boss said she would pay for a ticket to bring her here for “training” for 3-6 months, which my Indian friend, surprisingly, is very excited about.

She cannot stay with me or my boss. We would like to find an Indian family to “sponsor” her so she will be comfortable while she’s here, the long term goal being that she would like it a lot and come here on a longer-term visa or something.

I know nothing about this except that she needs to actually get the visa and passport, which will take some time.

I need to know if there’s some place we can contact to see if we can find a sponsor for her. Is there such a thing? I already know she has no family here, so it will have to be a stranger. Has anyone had any kind of experience with this? Any and all ideas or observations will be helpful. Thanks.

2

Is she Hindu or Muslim? You might want to contact a local mosque or temple to see if anyone there can help her out. I know religious organizations often are willing to help sponsor people who for whatever reason are finding it untenable to live in their home countries. While she’s not a victim of famine or war, the abuse certainly sounds severe enough to warrant getting her out of the country.

3

She’s Hindu. We considered this, but I wasn’t sure if it was the right way to go. I will definitely give it a shot. I’m not sure what to expect. I’m hoping someone has first hand experience with this.

4

You might contact the Indian embassy closest to you for suggestions. Or any Indian embassy at all if none are local.

Other than that I really have nothing except good wishes for her future.

5

Perhaps you should go at it from the opposite angle–try contacting agencies that deal with battered and abused women and their needs. They’d probably have a lot of really useful information and resources. There may be Indian-specific help already there, or the agency might know of effective ways to work with Indian organizations to find a solution.

Are there a lot of Indians where you live?

Please keep us posted!

6

In my actual town, not a huge community. However, there is a Hindu temple right near my boss’s home. I think that will be a good shot. I’m not sure how much to share with them regarding her personal situation though. 1) what if they are unsympathetic, and 2) I would definitely need her permission before I would say anything. She is humiliated about the abuse and the separation/eventual divorce has put her on the permanent shit list in her homeland. In fact, she said the failure of her marriage will hurt her sisters’ chances of ever marrying. And that jeopardizes her family’s future, as well. It’s a clusterfuck.

7

If I remember correctly where you are, you should talk to the folks at Apna Ghar, for brainstorming if nothing else.

8

I was under the impression that there was an ‘Employer Sponsor’ type set up in the US similar to Canada - perhaps you could investigate this.

Also, where I am there is a very SMALL Indian population; however, there is a large enough one that there is an Indian specific women’s shelter for women in your co-workers position. One of my best friends is a southern Indian man who just married - he’s rather annoyed that he can’t bring his wife over immediatly because there have been so many cases of abondoned brides - the husband brings the wife to Canada, gets the dowry and then ditches her. This is apparently endemic in parts of northern India - I’m guessing if it’s an issue here it’s probably an issue in the US as well - perhaps you could investigate that as well.

Finally, even if she can’t stay with you Kalhoun I’m sure she’ll be very grateful to have someone like you looking out for her.

9

I believe that victims of domestic violence are a recognized category of asylee. She will need an immigration attorney after she arrives in the US (by any legal means) in order to get through the asylum process.

Many law schools offer free asylum assistance through their clinic programs.

10

I believe Eva Luna works in Immigration in some capacity, she might have some ideas.

11

Excellent! I will check this out. THank you!

12

Very interesting. Thank you. This is very complex and I want to be able to help her with the red tape, which I’m pretty sure cannot be avoided. This will help a lot.

13

I didn’t notice that Eva Luna had already chimed in. :smack: :smack: :smack:

14

OK, so tell them you have a coworker who needs to come over for several months and your company is looking for a family she can board with, as you think it will be easier for her than living on her own, in a hotel or with an all-american family.

Or, who knows, maybe living with an all-american family wouldn’t be a bad idea.

It’s more common for things like students and university researchers (groups that are traditionally strapped for money), but I’ve worked in companies which would sometimes ask “hey, we have someone who needs to be in XYZ place for a while, anybody know a nice boarding house?” and someone might give information or offer to play host.

15

I don’t want to overstate the case. Not all domestic violence “works” (the DHS resists the idea of gender based persecution as the SOLE basis for asylum) but it is a possibility when the violence stems from religious beliefs, failing to comply with social, political, or cultural norms, or when the government will not protect the victim.

So, its not a clear case but it is a possibility. Understand that asylum can be a bit of a crapshoot. There are judges who grant 95% of asylum petitions, and judges that grant 5% of asylum petitions. You can’t control who you get. At any rate this website may prove informative:
http://cgrs.uchastings.edu/

With a brief overview here:
http://cgrs.uchastings.edu/law/gender_guidelines.php#US

16

If you intend to go the asylum route, in Chicago there are several sources of free legal services, and a couple of the law schools (Kent and DePaul that I know of, and Northwestern used to, but I’m not sure whether they still do) have immigration clinics.

If you intend to have the company sponsor her longer-term on some kind of employment-based visa, either instead of or in addition to, the asylum route, let me know, and I may be able to point you in the right direction. For example, I don’t know what kind of job she does or how long she has been working for your company overseas, but if she works in a specialized or managerial position and has for at least one year, an L-1 intracompany transferree visa may be a possibility, but there are so many options that I don’t knwo where to start.

17

Thank you. Very helpful stuff. I think I have a good starting point. She told me her husband is starting legal proceedings. I’m sure there will be accusations of desertion. But she does have photographs of at least two incidents that will help bolster her case for leaving him. However, as much as the laws have changed there, my understanding is that the officials can be bought, and frequently push everything in favor of the husband and his family.