Is it? He can play the immigration lottery. If nobody in his family will sponsor him, he can’t force them to. So lay out all the other options if this is nonsense.
@NoVADad99 - Please go back and read the thread. The OP does not need either family support or a spouse in order to become a naturalized citizen.
Gotta ask…this poster has been looking for loopholes since his mother remarried. I have to wonder what the deal really is here.
From post #10:
But you didn’t think to mention this when you posted your query about financial aid loopholes in August of last year - several months after you turned 17?
P.S. Just curious - if you’ve only lived in the U.S. since you were 10 years old, when exactly did your mother attend [url=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18527683#Comment_18527683]Harvard[/url]?
If Op is from Colorado, how does she plan on attending college in Iowa without room and board? the COA for Simpson is $45,902 not counting mandatory health insurance.
Even is Op has been given a dependency override is essentially a non-issue, because OP is not eligible for federal aid because she is not a U.S. Citizen/Permanent Resident and even if she did submit income assets from her mom/Stepdad, she still would not have been eligible for any federal aid at school that does not meet 100% demonstrated need and offers very little need based aid to international students. Even if student was given a true dependency override and were to get the additional $5815 in Pell and a $9500 loan would still not have enough $$ to attend this school.
Op really does not have any financially feasible options and it is in her best interest to take a year, come up with a plan and reapply to some affordable choices. OP will not be getting a green card in time to attend college this year.
I also think that some of you are really over-simplifying the battered child route to getting a green card as Op will need a ton of documentation to support this not simply stating step dad is an alcoholic who does not like her.
She will documentation from child protective services and the courts.
Instructions for Special Immigrant Juvenile:
https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-360instr.pdf
I-360 form
https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-360.pdf
if she is a Colorado resident and graduated from a Colorado high school, she can get instate tuition rates at a state school. There might be some state aid available, but there is not much. There are a lot of legal aid places for those seeking to get a green card/citizenship, but I’m sure they will be most familiar with Mexico and central American countries. There is a rather large Russian community and they have resources to help.
I agree she won’t be deported for doing nothing, but could be deported for doing something like working, voting, driving without a license, getting arrested. It is not fun to be undocumented. One has to stay way inside the line and follow all the rules.
@dodgersmom - Actually I already have documentation from my school that I’m an unaccompanied youth. My CFC (Community & Family Connections) liaison provides me with a bus pass every month along with a box of food from the county’s homeless services. I used this documentation while filling out the FAFSA to get a dependency override so that I don’t need any financial information from my parents. I see you have been looking at my previous posts. A lot has changed in the past few years, and I was living on my own partially at that point but I had been moving around between the houses of several of my friends so I couldn’t officially call myself an apartment owner. Now however I do own (rent) my own apartment and live entirely on my own. To answer your question when my mom was attending Harvard she was here on a student visa but me and my siblings still lived in Russia.
@NoVADad99 - Marrying a US citizen definitely isn’t my only option, but it has been something I did consider since it is the route that my mom chose to obtain a green card. Of course it’s only my last resort if nothing else works out.
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On another note I talked to my guidance counselor today and her response was that she knows nothing about immigration and the school does not have any connections with lawyers who can offer free assistance so she cannot help me in any way. 
Looks like I’m back on my own trying to navigate this insanely complicated process that is obtaining a green card. I’m debating between taking a gap year to work out the immigration issues or enrolling at a local community college to begin getting college credits and transfer to a 4-year college afterwards.
How are you filing a FAFSA if you don’t have a green card or legal status? This is the kind of mistake I warned about above. If you do something wrong, even if you didn’t know it was wrong, it can prevent you from ever getting the legal status you’ll need. Maybe your current documentation allowed you to file FAFSA this year, but if it is expiring, you may not be able to file it again.
There was a story in the news about a guy who didn’t know he wasn’t a citizen. His parent never told him, he’d lived mostly in Colorado, so just assumed he was legal (and maybe he had some documentation). Well, he registered to vote, and voted. Turns out he was not a citizen and by voting pretty much guaranteed he can never get citizenship. I don’t think they deported him, but his hopes of citizenship are over. Just a mistake. Not violent, but still a crime.
If you are not a permanent resident green card holder or citizen, you cannot complete a FAFSA.
How are you completing a FAFSA?
As I stated in my previous posts, this is a non-issue because you are not eligible for federal or state aid and while you may have submitted information, your fafsa did not go anywhere because you will not have a match up through SSA.
If you have a tax ID # which allows you to legally work in the U.S. and you used as your SSN, to apply for federal aid where your card states to be used for work only, then you did the wrong thing. Your FAFSA is not going to be processed.
The schools in question may have deemed you independent for their own aid, but it seems like they did not give you any (or enough) where you have a financially feasible option.
how are you going to pay for community college as you are not eligible for any federal or state aid.
However if the OP attempts to acquire a status under “Battered Child” process he/she may be eligible for Federal aid while the decision is pending. The doc below is about “Battered Spouse” but it seems it covers OPs situation too:
http://ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/GEN1007.html
“In some cases, a dependent child can be the self-petitioner and therefore the I-797 form would read, “Notice Type: Approval Notice, Section: Self-Petitioning Child of U.S.C. or L.P.R.” in a case where the U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident is abusing the child.”
“battered child” is the best route but OP needs to get moving quickly.
@redmadam: do you live near a law school or is there a law school you can go to? If so, look them up online and call. Make an appointment. Stress it’s urgent due to your birthday coming up and you’d need to go through the “battered child” process, have been recognized as a homeless minor/minor in danger, and are on your own, turning 18 in 2 weeks.
DO NOT try to get FAFSA because at this point you’d be in the wrong and you have to walk a very very narrow path so as to not jeopardize your status.
Keep in mind that an unaccompanied homeless youth and a minor in danger do not necessarily go hand in hand.
An unaccompanied youth can voluntarily leave the family home and even should the parent “put them out” it does not necessarily mean that they were in danger.
Abuse child endangerment cases are handled by children services. If children services removes a child they are either in foster care or a ward of the court; not an unaccompanied minor.
Most law school clinics take on a handful of cases at the beginning of the semester. Right now students are in finals and they don’t take on cases. Best bet would be a free legal clinic or to call the bar association and see if they can refer you to someone willing to help you pro bono. Those attorneys do exist.
Try Catholic Charities for legal help. You do not have to be Catholic to receive help from them.
https://www.catholiccharitiesdc.org/ILS
In a different thread that recommended looking at getting legal help from a law school clinic, I cautioned that those clinics are generally swamped with requests for help (primarily because it’s free), and cautioned the OP not to get his/her hopes up. While that advice still stands, I know that there are some law school clinics that operate over the summer, so the second sentence of the quote above is not necessarily accurate. In fact, given the time of year, those clinics may be in the process of screening cases for their summer session right now. So: it never hurts to check it out, at any time of the year, but still don’t get your hopes up.
And many clinics are topic specific. Both Colorado law school clinics are very specific. Both do not have walk in help for immigration cases, and in fact most of the clinics have the work referred, not walk in. Both schools indicate that they assign cases at the beginning of the year/semester.
CU has 6 topic specific clinics:
American Indian Law, Criminal Defense (by referral), Entrepreneurial law, Juvenile Law (only by court referral), and technology. None of those clinics would be able to help even if they did take direct requests from the public and most don’t. The only possible help would be Civil Practice Clinic, handles family law cases and only those referred to it by Colorado Legal Services, but also states:
I don’t think the OP is eligible for or requesting asylum.
DU also has some specific clinics: Civil Rights Clinic, the Environmental Clinic, and the Community Economic Development Clinic are year-long clinics, where the student works on one case for the year. The Criminal Defense and Civil Litigation Clinics are semester-long clinics, but is all in state court, not federal. There is no clinic that could help OP ( the DU Civil Rights Clinic is not ‘walk in’ help, it is prisoner’s rights work).
Legal aid or one of the immigration clinics would be better, or calling the bar association may be able to refer a immigration lawyer.
@sybbie719 - For Colorado community colleges, the average tuition is approximately $5,150 per year. That is something that I can afford with my job, at least until I figure out how to transfer to a 4 year college.
How much longer is your work permit going to be good for?
@mommdc - It expires in August.