The Seventh Circuit overturned the District Court and ruled against USCIS in this case. The 7th Circuit handed down its decision on March 12, 2021 confirming that in the context of the Violence Against Women Act “stepchild” status survives divorce. Divorce between the natural parent and the abusive stepparent does not cut a stepchild victim off from VAWA immigration relief, including self-petitioning. NIWAP filed an Amicus Brief represented by K & L Gates LLP. The brief was submitted to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals at the request of the National Immigrant Justice Center. This was a case of a battered immigrant step-child whose self-petition was denied by USCIS. Both the appellant step-child and her mother were abused by the victim’s citizen step-father including sexual abuse of his step-daughter. The step-child’s mother died related to the abuse she had suffered. USCIS and the BIA claimed that the victim’s step-parent/step-child relationship ends with divorce or death unless the child has a continuing relationship with the abuser. NIWAP’s amicus brief describes how the Immigration and Nationality Act statutory text does not provide an end date for the step-child step-parent relationship and that imposing one is contrary to the legislative history and purpose of the Violence Against Women Act and VAWA self-petitioning. The 7th Circuit agreed.