Joe Giudice is hoping to return home to the United States.
About a year and a half after he was deported to his native Italy after serving nearly three years in federal prison for fraud and spending another seven months in an ICE detention center, the former Real Housewives of New Jersey star and Teresa Giudice's ex is fighting to come back to the States.
On Saturday, Nov. 19, the Bravo alum told E! News that his manager, Dominique Enchinton, of Dominton Talent House, connected him with attorney Jessica Cadavid so they could start the process of trying to get him to the U.S.
He confirmed that his lawyer "is filing a waiver of inadmissibility." According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website, the waiver will "allow certain inadmissible foreign nationals to enter the United States temporarily as nonimmigrants."
"I feel I deserve one because I did my time for a mistake that I deeply regret," the 49-year-old star said in a statement to E! News. "It cost me my life, my family. It was a bad judgment on my end, which I deeply regret."
He continued, "If I could do it all over again, I would never make that mistake knowing what I know now and all I've learned. I have worked hard day in and day out to prove myself."
The former Bravolebrity explained that "sometimes good people make bad mistakes," but that doesn't mean they have to pay for it with a "lifetime of judgment and torture."
Joe said he believes it "could take up to a year" to get answers about returning to the U.S. But as he expressed, "I pray for a miracle that it's sooner."
The star, who shares four daughters with ex-wife, Teresa—Gia, 20, Gabriella, 17, Milania, 15, and Audriana, 12—revealed that he's in constant communication with his family.
"I talk to my kids all the time via phone or FaceTime," he explained. "Gia was just here not too long ago. "My kids visit together as much as they can, but, of course, it's not the same as if I were in Jersey with them and could see them every day."
He added, "Regarding my legal fight, my girls know that I won't stop and will do everything in my power until I can be with them again."
As for his relationship with his ex-wife, who recently got engaged to businessman Luis Ruelas? Joe said, "Teresa and I are in a good place and I wish her nothing but happiness from the bottom of my heart."
Joe and Teresa called it quits in December 2019 after 20 years of marriage, and finalized their divorce a year later in September 2020. Joe previously told E! News he and the RHONJ star would always have a special bond, and would continue to remain cordial to co-parent their children.
"I've known Teresa since she was born," he told E! News last October. "My father drove her father to the hospital and she was born. Their family was from my town over here, where I was born, and her parents knew my parents when they were in the old country here so we go back a long way. I can't get mad at her. She's the mother of my four daughters and she's taking care of them right now because obviously I can't."
"What am I going to do, have the kids move here to a country that they don't even know the language?" he continued. "That would be a disaster. That'll be even worse. So the only thing we can do is try to make things the best we can. It's a shame what they had to go through, those kids. Thank God they're tough kids but it's still a damn shame. At the end of the day, you know, we're doing our best."