Location: Georgia, United States
My wife (US citizen, Canadian PR) and I (Canadian citizen) previously lived in Canada but got into tremendous debt because we both had trouble finding jobs, so we temporarily moved in with her parents in the US. My wife was able to get a job in the US to pay off the debt in Canada. My in-laws thought it would be good backup plan for me to get a green card in the meantime, and at the time I was deathly afraid of ICE so getting a green card seemed like a good idea.
We got in contact with an immigration lawyer. We stated that we didn't necessarily have plans for staying in the US and that we were just interested in getting the green card just in case we ended up staying here anyway. The lawyer said a green card would be good to have as a backup plan. We signed a contract, started the process, submitted forms, submitted evidence, etc., etc..
Time goes by and we hear absolutely nothing from the US government for a year. During this time, my wife finds a school program in Canada with a guaranteed job and it's in a field that she's been wanting to study in. We express our intent to move back to Canada to the lawyer and directly ask if there would be any repercussions for leaving without finishing the green card process, they say: "You may encounter some issues re-entering the US if you apply for a green card and withdraw it, but you can always explain your situation to the border officer". Ok, understandable, got it.
My wife applies for the program and gets in, we celebrate. We make plans to leave for Canada. My wife quits her job. We contact the lawyer to withdraw from the green card process. "Oh, your wife got into a school program in Canada? Oh that would look great on the withdrawal paperwork because that's a very good excuse to leave. Yes, we can do that for you. Oh, by the way, you've overstayed and you'll face a 10 year ban if you leave." HUH?!? Not once during the process did our lawyer inform us about the 10 year ban if I overstayed. Had we been informed of this, we wouldn't have attempted the green card and would've left for Canada before I overstayed.
The lawyer said that all we can do now is to stay in the US and continue the green card process or leave and get the 10 year ban.
We feel like we can't trust our lawyer anymore, since they withheld very important information from us and decided to slide it in at the very last moment. Do we have any other options or is it true that those are our only options? Is there anything we can do about our lawyer situation? Are we allowed to get another lawyer this far into the process?
Edit: to clarify, I came to the US and stayed under the Canadian/US special agreement that allows Canadian citizens to stay 6 months in the US without a visa. I started the green card process before the 6 months were up and only overstayed due to the green card process.