Okay so this might be under the wrong category but it’s about my love life so here we go..

I’m a U.S. citizen married to an undocumented immigrant. We’ve been married for 3 years now and together for 7. We have a toddler. We moved back to his home country for the hopes of living out of the shadows and not feeling like we have to watch our backs in the US anymore. In the US, my husband never received benefits (he can’t) but he paid his taxes and never committed crimes and never has called me even a bad word in our 7 years together. He’s a really great person who wants a better life. Unfortunately due to life circumstances, before he met me he left and reentered illegally a few times.

Here in his home country, we can barely afford food. Jobs here pay less than $2/USD an hour. I have 2 US online jobs that barely pay anything and take advantage of the fact that I don’t currently reside in the US. Luckily we have a house but still I am taking money from our savings every month. We both have US degrees and he has 20 years of customer service and manufacturing experience and he speaks fluent English and Spanish. I cannot find a remote job to save my life. I’ve applied to hundreds. He cannot find a job that pays more than $2/hour.

We’ve looked and spent thousands on lawyer consultation appointments to see what we can do. They all say we have to wait here for 10 years and that’s that. We are literally stuck here unless he goes back again and honestly the life in the US is so much better, even if we have to live in hiding again and he will never have the option of fixing his status.

I’m so lost, alone and I chose this life for myself. For those who think it’s easy to immigrate to the US legally, it’s really not. Most immigrants really just want better lives and the process is incredibly difficult and expensive. Here in my husband‘s home country, there is very little opportunity. I thought we had hope but we have very little. He will never become documented and it’s a reality we have to live with. We cannot live in his country for 10 years like this- starving with no opportunity to advance, especially not for our baby.

1st update: No unfortunately getting married to a U.S. citizen doesn’t make it easy to gain status as an undocumented immigrant 😔 we’ve tried and spent thousands of dollars looking into it. Unfortunately since he has crossed illegally several times, he has a 10 year bar against him and has to wait 10 years in his home country before applying for anything at all.

2nd update: we are definitely looking into other options other than the US! He and I just have guaranteed employment at good jobs in the US if we go back so we know we can do pretty well there, even though he’d still be undocumented.