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info@getsonschatz.com
Practice Areas
Immigration Law Success Stories
June 29, 2010
An I-130 Petition of a U.S. Citizen sponsoring a spouse based upon a marriage that occurred while the spouse was in removal proceedings can only be approved if the Petitioner requests an exemption from the bar on approval of a marriage during proceedings and the spouse can establish by clear and convincing evidence that the marriage was entered in good faith, was not for immigration purposes, and was not connected with the payment of anything but a lawyer's fee. To apply for the exemption we submitted with the I-130 petition package a written explanation of the circumstances of the marriage and as much evidence as possible concerning the good-faith entry into the marriage. Our clients were interviewed at the USCIS Philadelphia District Office and were separated during the course of the interview. The Immigration Officer asked the husband questions and then asked the wife the same questions. Since our clients are in fact in a bona fide marriage they answered the questions accurately and successfully established the good faith nature of their marriage. The I-130 Petition was approved and we will notify the Immigration Judge of the approval at the next Master Calendar Hearing enabling our client to apply for relief from removal proceedings in the form of adjustment of status.
We successfully filed an I-130 Relative Petition for an unamarried child over 21 of a US Permanent Resident who is currently residing overseas. We are monitoring the priority date and when it is current will proceed with filing the appopriate visa fees and documentation with the National Visa Center. We have advised the Beneficiary of the Petition not to marry unless and until the US Permanent Resident parent would become a US Citizen as marrying while the parent is a US Permanent Resident would invalidate the approved I-130 Petition.
We prepared a letter for our client to take to the U.S.-Canadian Border to apply for TN status in the computer systems analyst classification. The employer sponsor was one of the largest hospitals in the State of New Jersey. The position involved implementing the financial modules of Lawson S3 software to enable computer technology to meet the financial processing needs of the employer and help them achieve maximum benefit from their investment in equipment, personnel, and business processes. Our client advised us that due to the comprehensive nature of the employer letter we prepared he was granted TN status in "approximately 10 minutes".
Our client, an Indian National, has an approved I-140 Petition based upon a certified Labor Certification Application in the EB-3 category. Due to the current visa backlogs, our lawyers filed an H-1B petition requesting an extension of status for a 3 year period. The extension petition was granted by USCIS.
Our immigration attorneys in Philadelphia filed a N-400 Application for Naturalization for an individual who had previously been ordered deported from the United States, re-entered the United States under false pretenses and had been granted permanent resident status via a Form I-601 Waiver based upon a showing of extreme hardship to his U.S. Citizen spouse. The prior immigration history was thoroughly disclosed an the N-400 Application was approved.
June 22, 2010
Our client applied for a green card based upon a marriage to a United States Citizen. He was previously divorced in the Dominican Republic and even though his Dominican Divorce Decree was valid, the Philadelphia Immigration Office issued a Notice of Intent to Deny the I-130 Petition requiring proof of the validity of his divorce decree because he had been in the United States at the time of the divorce. The Philadelphia Immigration Office also requested U.S. Embassy authentication of the Dominican Divorce Decree which was a legally inappropriate request under the terms of the 1961 Hague Convention. In response to the Notice of Intent to Deny, we submitted the record of the Dominican Divorce Court proceedings showing that all of the legal requirements for a divorce in the Dominican Republic were met and a letter from the Court stating that the divorce was valid under Dominican Law. We also pointed out the legal insufficiency of the request that the Dominican Divorce Decree be authenticated by the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo. Following our response to the Notice of Intent to Deny the I-130 Petition was approved and our client was granted United States Permanent Resident status.
June 21, 2010
A client who was detained due to a prior order of deportation in the 1990s retained us to file an application for a stay of deportation or removal as he was soon to be deported from the United States. This client is married to a U.S. citizen and has a U.S. citizen son, but was not eligible to apply for a green card prior to his immigration court hearing because his wife was not a citizen at the time. For that reason, there was no visa "immediately available" and while we did not represent him in Immigration Court, it appears that his Immigration Judge would not agree to adjourn the case to wait for his wife to be naturalized. Last Monday, we learned from our client's deportation officer that he was scheduled to be put on a flight out of the U.S. last Thursday. We filed a request with the lawyers for the Government that they join a motion to reopen our client's deportation proceedings, and immediately filed an application for a stay with evidence of our client's relationship and positive discretionary factors. Our request for a stay was approved and our client was taken off of the flight last Thursday. We are now awaiting a response from the lawyers for the Government regarding our motion to reopen his deportation proceedings.
June 15, 2010
Our firm prepared a letter for our client to apply for TN status at the U.S.-Canadian border for the classification of Dentist. In addition to preparing the letter we advised our client of the documents necessary to bring to the interview at the border. Following the interview our client was granted TN status as a Dentist for a period of 3 years.
Our client received a conditional green card based on her bona fide marriage to a U.S. Citizen. Within the 2 year conditional resident status period our client's husband passed away. Our client filed an I-751 Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence on the basis that she was widowed. Our client was scheduled for an interview at the USCIS Philadelphia District Office. We presented the Immigration Services Officer who conducted the interview with substantial evidence that our client's marriage was bona fide at its inception. Following a detailed interview, our client's I-751 petition was approved and she was given a new green card with a 10 year expiration date.
Philadelphia Immigration Lawyer Marco Pignone successfully represented a Nigerian Citizen in removal proceedings before the Philadelphia Executive Office for Immigration Review in a claim for asylum. Our client had come to the United States with her family as a child. Her mother, along with other family members, had been forced to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) in Nigeria. Our client had never undergone the procedure but feared that she would be forced by her tribe (the IBO tribe) to undergo FGM if she was forced to return to Nigeria. Our client had been included as a derivative in her mother's asylum application in the early 1990s and we used this fact to successfuly establish an exception to the 1 year filing deadline for asylum on the basis that her prior attorney had failed to advise her of the need to file her own independent asylum application when she turned 21 because at that point she could no longer be included as a derivative in her mother's application. We also successfuly argued to the Immigration Judge that our client could not safely relocate anywhere in Nigeria to avoid persecution. Following detailed testimony from multiple witnesses including a Chief and Enze of the IBO tribe, and a review of substantial evidence, the Immigration Judge granted our client asylum and the Department of Homeland Security did not appeal the Judge's grant.
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