Kamille,
Thanks so much for this thread! I've always believed the photos in front of the white sheet were DIY passport photos. LE's been very, very quiet on AB's immigration status but my impression, based on all we've learned so far, is that no application for residency was made. Maybe thought about, possibly started, but never seen through IMO.
According to MF: AB, EB, and Zahra arrived in NC from Oz in December of 2008. IF he had a tourist visa issued it would have allowed him only 6 months and he would have had to show he intended to return to Australia as well as having sufficient funds for the length of his stay. Under the VWP he was only entitled to stay 90 days. IMO he was not issued a tourist visa - came in under VWP - and overstayed.
This would have been a mark against him in terms of a residency application but add to that the sheer volume of paperwork; the huge expense and AB would have to prove he had permission to remove Zahra from Oz...I just don't think it likely AB and EB went the legal route in terms of immigration. JMO
That's not correct IMO. If you arrive in the US on
any visa, whether tourist, or visa waiver, and and are given entry across the border, then your status in the US is legal. Once here, it's also legal to apply for a
change of status from tourist/ visitor to permanent resident. Depending on how backed up the State is in which you file with application, it can take up to 18 months or more to process the green card, and that's the priority fast track for spouses and their dependents, others can take much longer, up to 5 years. During all that time, the applicant is without a visa, but that doesn't mean they are in the US illegally, not at all. Illegal means you swam into the country, kwim?
As part of the approval for change of status, finances, tax returns, criminal records blah, blah are all reviewed, and at that point, they would be looking for a signature of consent from biomum that she gave her permission for the child Z to be removed permanently from the home jurisdiction. She would retain joint custody (if that had been originally granted), but it would be under the laws of the US from then on, not Australia.
Without Biomum's signature agreeing to the application (I don't believe it requires a court order unless rules have changed recently), then their application to bring Z into the US would be rejected, it's a non-starter. Then the only way to get Z in without Biomum's approval, would be to battle it out in the Australian Courts and prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it would be in the child's best interests to be living in the US with EB and AB, rather than staying in Australia with Bio-mum. That would never have happened because of her medical condition - apart from anything else.
By the way, while an application for change of status is being processed, they couldn't leave the country without special permission, called
parole. (I kid you not). Well, they could leave the US, but they wouldn't get back in again.
This post at the complaint site by EB was a great catch, since it adds more credence to the theory that they came over on a visa waiver or tourist visa, but never filed change status to permanent resident. The first time we discussed this topic, Biomum had not come forward, and we now know there is no way she consented to remove Z to the US and there's no way they could have proved they could provide a better life for her in the US than staying where she was with National Health Service freely available.
I think they only made a half hearted attempt to fix the visa problem because they were on a road going nowhere and they knew it, and the reason why they ended up with a scammer was because no reputable immigration attorney would touch them with a bargepole, and their application was doomed to fail, at least for Z.
Put another way, if they had followed the system, it would have provided the safeguard Z needed to prevent her from being removed from Australia, or would have resulted in her being returned to the Australian courts for due process there, thereby averting this tragedy.
I was on the fence about AB's involvement a week ago, but I now despise them both equally, for they are both equally culpable in this decision, which proactively put his own selfish interests ahead of his child's best interests, even to the extent of denying her proper immigration process. When he put her on that plane for NC, he knew he was doing wrong and didn't care. That was an evil act, by both of them, they should have left her behind:furious:.
Thanks for posting. :twocents: