Can I receive residency by the “10 year Law” ?
No, there is no 10-year law that can guarantee you permanent legal residence in the United States. The Law of Cancellation of Expulsion (Cancellation of Deportation), is known as the law of 10 years. However, this is a law of last resort, which is used when the person is detained by immigration authorities or is facing deportation proceedings in an Immigration Court. An immigration judge will have to determine whether the Expulsion Cancellation application is granted or not.
Who qualifies to apply?
Those who are detained by officials of ICE (Office of Immigration and Customs), or if they are in a process of expulsion before an Immigration Judge.
Be very careful: There are unscrupulous people who offer them a work permit under the 10-year law. However, receiving a work permit does not guarantee that you will be granted residence. To begin this process, what is carried out is an asylum application that is registered with the Immigration and Citizenship Service (CIS). In other words, these people would be handing it over to immigration authorities and providing all their information.
Having lived 10 continuous years in the country. In most cases this is the easiest requirement to verify but it is not enough for a judge to grant a positive decision. If you left the country you do not disqualify it as long as your departure has not been more than 90 days on one occasion or a total of 180 days if you left several times.
Must have a spouse, father, or child who are legal residents or citizens.
Prove that when you are deported, your relative would suffer in an “extreme and exceptional” manner. This is the most difficult requirement to prove and the reason why most of these cases are denied.
Have good moral behavior. There are only 4,000 visas available per year and they are not fully utilized. This should give you an idea of how difficult it is to satisfy requirement number 4 above.
Remember that an expulsion order (deportation) from the country puts you in a worse situation than the undocumented person, since if you do not leave the country as directed by the judge, the person is considered a fugitive from the law and will be detained to obey the judge’s order
