Legal Question in Immigration Law in California

Re: I am a US Citizen my boyfriend is illegal

Besides you marrying him (if you're a US citizen), the chance for your boyfriend to become a permanent resident is not that good even if he's been here for 12 years. If he has US citizen kids and a lot of assets and community ties here, he can ask for cancellation of removal with an immigration judge, and even then, it's still not easy to get the judge to grant it. In any event, your boyfriend will only get the chance in front of a judge if the INS starts removal (deportation) proceedings against him -- that is, if he's "caught" by the INS. Most aliens don't want to take this chance and be put into proceedings.

The other way is if he's petitioned by an employer for a green card. This is known as going through the labor certification process. However, unless he has extraordinary skills and abilities in certain fields (and I do mean extraordinary), most jobs will take years to complete the process. In the meantime, his status will still be illegal, unfortunately. However, there's talk of new Congressional legislation and new changes with the Department of Labor that may streamline the process later this year or next year to make labor certification much faster. You should hope for the best.

The above assumes that your boyfriend doesn't have a parent, sibling, or child over 21 who's a US citizen and who has already submitted a family petition for him. From the tone of your question, I don't think he has any of these family relationships.

Liem Doan, Esq.