[показать]Today, I've had a chance to get first-hand experience of American court system from not less than a witness stand. This afternoon, I was testifying in court case H. vs. M. on behalf of my employer. As you can probably guess, the hearing was a part of a prolonged custody battle between John and his wife that has been going on for more than three years. I was informed by John about a possibility of having to provide a testimony when I interviewed for the job more than two years ago. I certainly was not too excited about the possibility but told him that I'd do it because I really needed that job. For the past two years, however, I have been hoping that my testimony won't be necessary.

Of course, the major reason of my lack of desire to be a witness in the case was the fact that, in theory, my F-1 visa does not allow me to work in the US. Even though I'm 100% legally in the country, I was afraid that this little inconvenience might be brought to the attention of the Judge during the hearing. Every time we had a discussion with John about the possibility of my testimony in court, I told him about my concerns but was assured by him many times that my visa issues would never come up because they are not relevant to the case, and if they did, his attorney would object. I tried my best to make John let me out of our deal, but he continued to insist that I have nothing to worry and left me no choice but to acquiesce.

So, today, at around 12 pm, we arrived in the court - a large building in Queens, NY that looks inside just like all those courthouses in the movies. I expected to be on the witness stand for 3 to 4 hours. The easy part of the process began with John attorney's questions, most of which had to do with Chad's daily routine, my responsibilities, and John's parenting. I was just a little nervous, mostly because there were a lot of people in the courtroom waiting to talk to the judge's paralegals, and I did not expect to speak in front of the audience. Surprisingly enough, it was rather difficult to find the right words in order to correctly convey my message. As it turned out, I'm not much of a speaker under pressure; so, I guess, I won't be running for office any time soon :)). With this being said, this first part of the hearing went pretty well, and, according to John, I did a fine job on the stand.

Next came the turn of Chad mom's attorney.... Guess what his very first question was! Not surprisingly, "Have you come to the US with J-1 visa?" As soon as I heard him saying this, I knew that I was screwed. As I expected all this time, not having anything bad to say about me personally or my testimony, they've decided to come after me in terms of the legal aspects of my residence in the US:

-"Do you have I-94?"
- "Yes," my arms begin to shake.
-"Can you provide us with a copy of it?"
-"Yes," shaking spreads over my legs.
-"Do you have DS-2019?"
-"Yes," I can hardly control my voice.
-"Can you provide us with a copy of it?"
-"I can," I try really hard to project confidence while thinking about the fact that my DS-2019 covers only 2006-2008 (I have never mentioned to them that I have changed my status to F-1)
-"Have you ever extended you status?"
-"Yes, I have," thank's God he hasn't asked whether I have ever CHANGED this status, so I remain quiet about being on a student visa at the moment.
-"Are you still affiliated with the agency that brought you in the country?"
-"No", I pray to God he does not know that one cannot be an aupair without being in an agency
-"Were you supposed to complete some educational requirements while being an aupair?"
-"I was and I did," I reply not knowing where he is going with it.
-"Weren't you supposed to leave country after you completed them?"
-"No I wasn't."
-"But the law so and so that regulates J-1 visas states this and that..."
-"Your information is not correct - the objective of aupair program is not educational."
-"But the law states..."
-"You should have researched the topic better. Have you heard about Work and Travel? The participants come with J-1 but are not required to study in the US at all."

Some objections follow from John's lawyer. The Judge is talking to the guy who questions me trying to figure out whether any of these question are relevant to the case. To my great disappointment, he rules that I have to present the above mentioned documents to the court and asks the attorney to proceed with questions that actually have to do with the child and his life with his father. Of course, after being completely freaked out during the first 10 minutes, which was certainly the plan on the part of the attorney and his client, it took me some time to calm down. That I was extremely mad at John's wife for brining up all this stuff, however, has helped me to very persuasively refute all the arguments that the attorney was trying to put in my mouth - I was confident, eloquent, and persuasive. Having stepped down from the witness stand I, however, almost lost it - my eyes started to fill with tears and my brain with different terrible scenarios that all effectively put an end to all my plans for the next ten years.

I was in a condition of panic for the next 10 min or so but, having discussed the matter with John, decided that my situation is not that terrible. First of all, the hearings in this case are very spread out - next year, for example, there're going to be only 5 of them. This gives John's attorney an opportunity to win some time by "forgetting" to bring my papers to his wife's attorney. If I'm lucky enough, her forgetfulness can last until I'm not working for John any longer. Secondly, there are good chances that this attorney is not going to be working for her much longer because, according to John, Anna-Marie owes him a lot of money that she does not have; so, they can forget about those papers all together. Next, if I do send the documents, my legal status in the country will be the only thing they can demonstrate. Of course, the questions of the legality of my employment might arise, but the attorney will not be able to find out about it because, as I was told, he is not allowed to request any more documents from me. In addition, I cannot be ordered to appear in the court again because I reside in NJ, and the case is being heard in NY Court.

If all of the above is true, the only thing I need to fear is that John's crazy wife will give immigration services a call and say that a certain lady in NJ is working without a proper authorization. If Anna-Marie does it, there is 99% chance that she will do it anonymously (this is exactly what she did when John was accused in sexually abusing the child). If USCIS becomes interested in me, they'll find out that I'm absolutely legally in the country and that John is my sponsor who has promised in writing to provide me with room, board, and a certain amount of money per week, which is what he does. There's no way for them to prove that I'm employed by John unless Anna-Marie is willing to testify against me in court, which is very unlikely. So, basically, while I do have a few reasons to be upset about not listening to my intuition and refusing to be John's witness, the chances of this ending badly are not very big. The thoughts about the whole thing will definitely not let me sleep well in the nearest future, but I hope that everything will be alright. Otherwise, I'll probably have to end my life right there :))