Jenny Acurio: Where to Start When the System Is Not in Your Language

Jenny Acurio's answer to someone who thinks leaving an abusive marriage will cost them their children and their status in the country is not a legal opinion. It is that they have not yet met anyone who could tell them their options.

Jenny Acurio is based in Connecticut and works with clients across the United States. Her career started in international business, import and export, in Ecuador. She moved to the US 19 years ago, went through the language barrier and the search for resources herself, and later had the chance to work with an immigration attorney whose passion for the work she carried on after he passed away. She opened her own office to do what she wishes someone had done for her: help people fill out forms correctly, translate documents, understand what an agency is asking for, and get to the right attorney when a case needs one. She works with a partner who covers professional translation in more than 40 languages.

Lisa opens on the fear itself, which Jenny describes as a fear of asking anyone at all: afraid of the attorney, afraid of the agency, afraid that raising the question makes things worse. Her approach is to sit with someone, write down the questions they should be asking, including what happens if the application is denied, and send them into the meeting knowing what to expect. Lisa connects it to the chapter in the BTGO book on hiring an attorney: the questions to ask, what the relationship should look like, and the warning signs.

The part to take seriously is about signing. Jenny will not let a client sign what they have not understood, and she is blunt that a retainer is a contract with contract law behind it, in a language you may not read. Lisa draws the same line through family court, where people sign parenting plans and settlements they never read and are held to them.

Jenny also points people to what is already available. USCIS publishes the requirements for VAWA, the immigration remedy for people who have suffered domestic violence, and it covers men as well as women. Her closing advice is short: educate yourself, and talk to somebody.

As always, this is strategic education, not legal or mental-health advice for your specific situation.

🎓 What you'll learn

• Why the information you need is usually public, and what actually blocks people from it
• How to prepare for a meeting with an attorney, including what to ask if a case is denied
• Why a retainer is a contract that binds you even in a language you do not read
• What VAWA is, and that it protects men as well as women
• Where professional translation fits into an immigration or custody matter
• What taking strategic oversight looks like when the system is not in your language

⏱️ Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:00 Married to an American, and afraid of losing everything
3:00 Taking strategic oversight when you do not know your options
5:00 Jenny's story, from Ecuador to opening her own office
7:00 Translation in more than 40 languages
9:00 The questions to ask an attorney, and what to watch for
11:00 Signing what you do not understand
13:00 Educating yourself, and reading up on VAWA
15:00 Where Jenny works, and how to reach her

Keep going 💜
Book a free 30-minute discovery call and we'll help you map your next steps: https://beentheregotout.com/call
📘 Been There Got Out: Toxic Relationships, High-Conflict Divorce, and How to Stay Sane Under Insane Circumstances — https://www.amazon.com/dp/194627495X
📘 Been There Got Out: When Your Ex Turns the Kids Against You (our parental-alienation book) — https://www.amazon.com/dp/1967674183
🔗 Jenny Acurio, Acurio Services: https://acurioservices.net/

About Been There Got Out
Chris Barry and Lisa Johnson are high-conflict divorce, custody, and co-parenting strategists, and the founders of Been There Got Out. They know these cases from the inside: both have successfully represented themselves in family court. Few attorneys have a playbook for a case like this — Chris and Lisa write yours with you, so you and your kids can get through it as unscathed as possible.