MAHWAH, N.J. – A northern New Jersey widow's fight to get her green card after the death of her husband could have a big impact on similar cases around the nation.
Mahwah resident Osserritta Robinson is an immigrant from Jamaica whose husband, a U.S. citizen, died in the 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash.
Immigration officials denied her green card application because the couple had been married eight months instead of the required two years.
An appeals court upheld the decision, but Robinson's attorney tells The Record of Bergen County that he's petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court.
An advocacy group, Surviving Spouses Against Deportation, says 170 widows and widowers face deportation because their citizen spouses died before two years of marriage.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox