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Could you qualify for a T-Visa?

January 15, 2025
Amanda Rizzo

The T-Visa is for survivors of human trafficking who have been compelled to provide labor or sex. Trafficking is more common than you may think, and most applicants have no idea they were even trafficked until they share their story with an immigration attorney.  

What is labor trafficking? 

Generally, labor trafficking occurs when a person is induced to work through force, fraud or coercion. This can occur in a variety of circumstances. Human trafficking can occur even if a person voluntarily accepts a job and even if the victim is being paid for some of their work. A victim may be living in their own home and traveling daily to their job and still be in a forced labor scenario. Even if the trafficking happened many years ago, the survivor may still be eligible to apply now. In fact, most of our clients do not apply for their T-Visa until many years later, since they did not realize they had been trafficked.  

Survivors often believe that the prior labor abuse was simply a condition they had to deal with in order to get started in America, particularly if they were undocumented. This myth prevents many surviving immigrants from sharing their story and obtaining the help that is available to them. Here are some examples that can occur in labor trafficking cases*: 

  • My boss makes me work harder than the other employees. They know that I don’t have a visa and they tell me they could report me to ICE anytime. I have to work longer hours, but I don’t get paid extra. Sometimes I don’t even get all my salary. I’m afraid if I quit or report my boss to the police, I will get deported. 
  • When I first started working for my boss as a live-in house cleaner and babysitter, she was nice and paid me what we had agreed on. She told me she needed to keep my passport, so that she can keep it safe. After some months passed, she started paying me less even though I was working the same amount. With the small amount she is paying me now, I can’t afford to go to the doctor or buy my medications. We live far from the nearest town, I can’t drive and there is no transportation available. I’ve complained to her about the working conditions but she says that if I leave her she will make sure I never get another job in United States again.  
  • I took a job working at a restaurant, owned by my uncle. My uncle would slap me if he didn’t like how I was prepping vegetables and would scream at me. I also saw him beat another worker once. The agreement for my job was that he would give me half my salary in cash and send the rest of it to my wife and children in my country. When I tried to stand up for myself, he threatened to stop the payments to my family.   
  • I met my employer in my hometown. She said she loved my work and said that she wanted me to come work with her in the United States. She said I could make ten times what I did in my hometown. She offered to lend me money for my trip and pay for my travel expenses. She said I could pay her back whenever. Once I got to the United States she required me to work 7 days a week for 12 hours a day in her hair salon. She never paid me directly. She said that she was deducting the amount she had paid for my trip and the cost of housing me and feeding me. She said I could not leave until I paid off my loan. One time, she even said that she knew people and that if I left, she would make sure I paid one way or another. 

What is sex trafficking? 

Sex trafficking may occur where a person is used for a sex act and something of value is given or received by any person in connection with the sex act. To meet the federal definition for adult victims, the sex act must be induced by force, fraud or coercion. Minor victims under the age of 18 do not need to prove force, fraud or coercion.  Thus, any paid sex activity involving a minor equates to human trafficking. 

Sex trafficking is not limited to the environments of sex work and prostitution. Sex trafficking can occur within a person’s home and can be perpetrated by a family member, spouse or other individual. Here are some examples that can occur in sex trafficking cases*: 

  • While living in my village in my home country, I met a man who was visiting from the United States. He took me on some dates and I believed he cared for me. He asked me to come to the United States with him where we could be happy together. However, once I began living with him everything changed. He only let me leave the house if he accompanied me. He would not allow me to get a job and I had to depend upon him completely for food and housing. He yelled at me, called me degrading names and demanded that I cook for him. He would make me have sex with him whenever he wanted, if I tried to protest he would either hit me or threaten to throw me out of the house so I would be homeless. 
  •  I paid a smuggler to help me get to the United States many years ago. She got a passport with a U.S. visa for me and traveled with me to the United States. After we went through passport control, she kept my passport. She took me to an apartment where I lived with her until I could find a job. Over the next weeks she forced me to have sexual relations with her by threatening to expose me to the police, reminding me that she had the proof of the fraudulent passport and visa. I managed to escape that situation but the memories still deeply disturb me. 
  • When I was 16, a male neighbor started to flirt with me whenever I saw him in the hallway of our building. He overheard me telling my friends that I wanted a new iPhone, but my parents couldn’t afford it. He told me that he would buy me the phone if I came over to his apartment sometime. When I went to his apartment, he touched me all over my body before he gave me the phone. I felt really uncomfortable, but I was too afraid to say anything to anybody.

Filing for a T-Visa is very challenging for the survivor, as it requires facing the trauma of the past and detailing it in the application. On the positive side, T-Visa applicants can apply for a waiver of past immigration violations, including previous deportation orders, false claims to U.S. citizenship and the permanent bar. T-Visa applicants may also include their family members in the application, including a spouse, parent, adult and minor children and grandchildren and unmarried minor siblings. If approved for a T-Visa, the survivor and their approved family members can apply for a green card in three years or less. 

If you would like to speak with an experienced immigration attorney regarding T-Visas , please contact the team at Minsky, McCormick & Hallagan, P.C. at (312) 427-6163 or schedule a consultation online 

*Examples are not taken from actual client cases. 

The material contained in this alert does not constitute direct legal advice and is for informational purposes only. An attorney-client relationship is not presumed or intended by receipt or review of this presentation. The information provided should never replace informed counsel when specific immigration-related guidance is needed.

© 2023 Minsky, McCormick & Hallagan, P.C. All rights reserved. Information may not be reproduced, displayed, modified, or distributed without the express prior written permission of Minsky, McCormick & Hallagan, P.C.

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