New Jersey resident, Osserritta Robinson, is hoping the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, agrees with a New Jersey federal court that the Department of Homeland Security must reconsider processing of her application for permanent residency even though her husband is dead.

The DHS had turned her application down, citing the fact that her husband died eight months into their marriage, before the two-year mark, according to the New York Times. The ruling meant that her marriage was annulled in the agency`s eyes and she no longer had the right to pursue the residency application.

Robinson, 31, according to the Times, is now hoping the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit rules in her favor. For now, she is forced to live in the country essentially as an undocumented immigrant, since her work authorization has not been renewed since it expired in 2005 and she cannot renew her driver’s license.

The government’s position, she said, “makes me sound as if I killed him,” she is quoted as saying.
But for now she is at least thankful for small mercies. 

“I’m just glad I haven’t received a deportation order,” Robinson told the New York Times. But she awaits the day when she can travel freely to her homeland and visit relatives there.