SLAIN MAN'S WIDOW FACES DEPORTATION : WIDOW LEANING ON HER NEW FRIENDS.

Byline: Jeannette DeSantis Daily News Staff Writer

Korean-born Jasmin Salehi, the widow of an American citizen who was killed during a robbery at a Reseda restaurant, is gathering support from new friends as she struggles with immigration officials to remain in this country.

Although orphaned as a teen-ager, Salehi has surrounded herself with a makeshift American family since arriving in the United States last year.

Her new relatives support her as she grieves the death of her husband of 11 months, attends his accused murderer's court appearances and attempts to fight off a deportation hearing.

``I lost everything when I lost him,'' said Salehi, 32, who is awaiting the official order from Immigration and Naturalization Service to leave her new country. ``Now, losing him means losing my world. I never thought America would be like this.''

Salehi's husband, Cyrus Salehi, was shot and killed Feb. 3 after he complied with the demands of two robbers who held up the Reseda Denny's restaurant he partly owned, officials said.

The couple filed the paperwork for Jasmin Salehi to receive a green card in early 1995 soon after their March nuptials. But last month, Salehi was told she was ineligible for residence status because her husband was killed before they had been married two years - an INS time requirement for a spouse sponsorship.

On Sept. 13, the INS offered Salehi a temporary reprieve after the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office requested that Salehi be allowed to stay in the country and possibly testify in her husband's murder trial.

INS District Director Richard Rogers said it is standard procedure to allow witnesses in court cases to stay in the country until the case ends.

``But the (permanent residency) visa is still not readily available to her,'' Rogers said. ``She is still in that state of limbo.''

``This is a very difficult situation, but we cannot violate the law, we just have to enforce it,'' Rogers said.

INS requires green cards applicants to be sponsored by American citizens to get permanent residency status, which can be their spouse of two years, a child, an adult sibling or their own parents.

Since Salehi's trouble with the INS, her sister and her husband's cousin have been helping her.

The Van Nuys prosecutor handling Cyrus Salehi's murder case, Deputy District Attorney Shellie Samuels, has written a letter that persuaded the INS to let her stay here for the trial.

Salehi has found friendship with a couple whose own son was murdered several years ago.

``She is like a daughter to us,'' said Ralph Myers, who met Salehi at a crime victims support group. ``As survivors, we know what she is going through, but this is all really overwhelming, and we just try to help her.''

Myers and his wife, Francine, whom Salehi refers to as ``dad and mom,'' helped Salehi write letters to President Bill Clinton, Attorney General Janet Reno, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Congressman Anthony Beilenson, D-Woodland Hills, seeking assistance.

``If they weren't helping, I couldn't do anything,'' Salehi said. ``I feel like I have another family.''

Last month, Salehi went to the INS for an appointment scheduled a year earlier to complete her green card application. She took a suitcase full of wedding albums showing her and Cyrus Salehi, but before she could show the photos of her wedding, the INS worker told her that no husband meant no green card.

Salehi was told that within 45 days INS would order her to leave the country or face a deportation hearing.

Born Mai Hoa Joo in Seoul, South Korea, in 1964, Salehi's parents died within months of each other when she was 14. A college graduate, Salehi visited the United States several times before she immigrated here.

It was during one of those visits in 1993 that Salehi met her husband, who was working at a Denny's restaurant in Los Angeles.

They became friends and corresponded when Jasmin Salehi returned to South Korea.

Once married, Salehi received a work permit after she applied for a green card and began working at a clothing manufacturer in downtown Los Angeles, where she still puts in 10-hour days.

But her salary as a production manager is not enough to cover the mortgage payment on the small Van Nuys house the couple shared, even though she has inherited part ownership of the Denny's restaurant where her husband was killed.

``I feel like someone has cut off my arms and legs,'' she said. ``I cannot handle all of these things.''

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Photo: Widow Jasmin Salehi is fighting the INS to stay in t he United States.

Terri Thuente/Daily News