Immigration Corner | My daughter wants to go to high school in America

Dear Mrs Dahlia Walker-Huntington,

I am a Jamaican married woman with a daughter from a previous relationship.

She would like to attend high school in America with the hope of living there, and I would like to grant her this wish.

What steps can I take to migrate to America since I have no one to file for us?

Jamaican citizen.

Dear Jamaican Citizen,

Since you do not have a family member to petition for you to migrate to America, you would need to explore an employment-based sponsorship or a business visa where you would actually be the sponsor. You should consult with an immigration attorney who can give you the many options available for persons who require an employer to petition for them for a green card. When that attorney meets with you, and depending on your education level, your work history, and/or your business experience, they would then be able to suggest options for you to consider.

In the meantime, you could also enrol your daughter in private high school in America and then apply for a student visa for her to legally attend high school in America. Upon completion of high school, she could enrol in university and apply for another student visa to enable her to attend. When she graduates from university, she would receive a work permit that would allow her to work for a year or more (depending on her degree) in the US. She would have the time to seek employment beyond her student-related work permit. This would require an employer to file for her for a three-year work permit. Her employer could decide to sponsor her for a green card. During this time in America, she might also meet a partner, and if she fell in love and got married, her partner would then be able to file for her US residency. Once she became a US citizen, she would be able to petition for her parents to migrate to America. All this scenario, of course, is based on US immigration laws as they currently exist.

I stress that to attend high school, she would need a student visa to attend a private high school. To attend public school in America one does not need to prove legal status in America. However, I caution against anyone sending their child to America to attend school on a visitor’s visa because although while under 18 years of age a person does not accrue unlawful presence, once they overstay, they are still unlawfully in the country. If they remain beyond age 18 in unlawful status, their lives become exceedingly complicated.

Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington, Esq. is a Jamaican-American attorney who practises immigration law in the United States; and family, criminal and international law in Florida. She is a diversity and inclusion consultant, mediator and former special magistrate and hearing officer in Broward County, Florida. info@walkerhuntington.com