Waiver Case Reopened and Granted at U.S. Consulate

Any immigrant with a deportation order from an Immigration Court could be arrested and deported even if married to a U.S. citizen.  Under certain circumstances, an Immigration Court may reopen such a case, but motions to reopen are often denied.  Further, certain people with deportation orders can apply directly to the Immigration Service for a green card, but their applications could be denied due to their deportation order, or due to use of a fraudulent passport, or a fraudulent asylum application.  If their application is denied, they could be arrested and deported.  Situations like this are very dangerous, and many immigrants get bad advice from non-attorneys and bad attorneys who promise them they can get green cards, and who often make mistakes that get their clients arrested and deported.  We have seen many such cases over the last decade. Certain spouses of U.S. citizens who have been deported can return to the U.S.   Unfortunately, the process is very long and complicated.  If someone has been deported, they are not allowed to reenter the U.S. for ten years unless they apply for a waiver, which is basically an application for forgiveness, and if that waiver is approved by the Immigration Service.  We recently had a waiver approved for a man who was deported a few years ago, and we are now waiting for his final interview in Guangzhou so that can return to the United States to take care of his wife and children who have been separated from him since his deportation.  Certain people have other problems in their cases that may make it even more difficult to return to the U.S., such as fraud charges, and findings by an Immigration Judge that they lied to the Court in their asylum application.  Still, the situation is not always hopeless as many people believe if you have a good attorney that knows the process, and does a good job of preparing the application for a waiver. The husband and family of a woman who was deported in 2006 came to us three weeks ago and handed us a decision denying her waiver which she needed to return to the U.S.  Their previous lawyer, from a well known law firm, had not been careful in preparing the waiver.  The waiver application was based on hardship to the U.S. citizen husband due to his mother having cancer.  His mother had surgery for breast cancer in 2007 and the doctor had told her that the cancer was gone.  By the time the waiver application was submitted, she had started to feel sick again, but had not been diagnosed by a doctor, so there was no proof that the cancer had returned. Our client’s previous lawyer should have explained to the family that they needed to get medical evidence that the cancer had returned before filing the waiver, but instead, he simply filed the case with the old medical evidence from 2007.  Also, the lawyer helped our client’s husband write a statement, but the statement did not explain how our client had helped to take care his father in 2005 when he was sick and died of cancer.  This was an important factor because it showed how our client would continue to help the family through difficult times and care for her husband’s mother while she was undergoing cancer treatment.  After our client’s previous lawyer filed the waiver application, his mother’s illness became worse and her physical condition became much weaker.  She lost weight and eventually, her doctors found cancer in her liver.  When a waiver case is still pending, a lawyer should always submit new evidence if it makes the case better.   Our client’s lawyer did not do anything after filing the waiver even though the case could have been much stronger if he had submitted new evidence including medical records and reports regarding medical treatment in our client’s country which is far worse than the U.S. We immediately obtained a current report from the doctor treating the cancer, and lab reports proving that the cancer had spread to the liver.  We also submitted evidence from college medical journals explaining the specific type of cancer and the chances that someone with this type of cancer would survive.  We prepared a lengthy statement for our client’s husband explaining how important it was for our client to be in the United States to help care for his mother and to help him through his depression as well as his financial problems.  We provided evidence that he had filed for bankruptcy by getting a letter from his bankruptcy lawyer.  On Thursday, we submitted this and other evidence to the U.S. consulate in Vienna, Austria, requesting that the waiver be reopened.  By Monday, we received an email from the consulate informing us that the waiver had been granted.  Our client was told that she would be scheduled for another interview in about two weeks and we expect her to be back to the U.S. within one month.  Many people in her situation would have given up after the first denial, but with immigration, you never know what the final result will be.  With some hard work and attention to detail, the odds can be in your favor.

I-130 Petitions For Children Approved Following DNA Test

A client came to us who had filed I-130 Petitions on behalf of his children who were born out-of-wedlock.  Our client received a Request for Evidence from USCIS asking for evidence to prove he was the father of the children and for proof that he had supported the children who were minors.  Our firm arranged for DNA testing of our client and his children in Nigeria and assisted our client to obtain evidence that he had supported his children.  Following a response to the Request for Evidence submitted by our Philadelphia Immigration Lawyers the I-130 Petitions on behalf of the Children were approved.

I-130 Petition Approved Following Consular Denial of I-129F

Prior to retaining our law firm, our client had field an I-129F Petition for Alien Fiancee without the assistance of an attorney.  When our client's fiancee went to her interview at the U.S. Embassy to apply for a fiancee visa, her visa application was denied on the basis that she failed to establish she had a relationship with our client and intended to marry him.  Following the denial, our client came to our law firm for assistance.  We recommended that our client travel to his fiancee's home country, marry her, and then return to the United States and file an I-130 Petition for Alien Relative on her behalf.  Our client followed our advice and after his marriage we filed an I-130 Petition on behalf of his spouse, providing substantial documentation of the marriage and explaining that the denial of the fiancee visa by the U.S. Embassy had been in error.  The I-130 Petition was approved by USCIS and we are now processing the documentation with the National Visa Center for the scheduling of an immigrant visa application on behalf of our client's spouse.

Getson & Schatz, P.C. wins case before Board of Immigration Appeals

We filed an I-130 Petition with USCIS in order for a United States Citizen to petition her husband for permanent resident status.  Following an interview at the USCIS Philadelphia District Office, USCIS issued a notice of intent to deny indicating that the foreign national husband had misrepresented that he was married on the visitor visa application he completed at the U.S. Embassy overseas.  USCIS found that as a result of this misrepresentation his current marriage was bigamous and they intended to deny the I-130 Petition.  Our client indicated that he did not personally complete and sign his visitor visa application and that he made no misrepresentation and never told a consular officer he was married.  We obtained a handwriting expert to prove the application was not completed by our client and he did not sign it.  Despite the overwhelming evidence from the handwriting expert that our client made no misrepresentation on his visitor visa application USCIS denied the I-130 Petition.  We filed an appeal of the denial of the I-130 Petition with the Board of Immigration Appeals indicating that our client made no misrepresentation on his visitor visa application as indicated by the handwriting expert, that he was never married other than his current marriage to his U.S. Citizen spouse, that his current marriage was not bigamous, and that USCIS erred in denying the I-130 Petition.  The Board of Immigration Appeals agreed with our position, granted our appeal, and remanded the case to USCIS for a new determination on the I-130 Petition.

Green Cards Approved Following Transfer of I-485 Application from Employment Based Petition to Family Based Petition

In April 2001 we represented a client in the filing of an I-130 Petition by his brother on his behalf.  Our client, an Indian National, was in H-1B status at the time.  Our client remained in the United States in H-1B status and his employer filed a Labor Certification Application on his behalf which was approved.  An I-140 Petition was subsequently approved in category EB-3 based upon the approved Labor Certification Application and in the summer of 2007 when all priority dates were current our client and his wife filed I-485 applications to adjust status.  Earlier this year the priority date of the I-130 Petition filed by our client's brother became current while his EB-3 priority date remained backlogged.  We wrote USCIS to transfer his pending I-485 applications filed with the approved I-140 Petition to the approved I-130 Petition and to transfer the I-485 applications to his local USCIS office in Jacksonville, FL for the scheduling of an interview for him and his wife.  Within a month of our letter to USCIS our client received an interview notice from his local USCIS office.  Following the interview, which his brother attended with him, our client and his wife received their green cards.  Our client was very happy with our services due to the speed with which we were able to help him obtain his green card and due to the fact that we were able to transfer his I-485 applications without him having to file new I-485 applications and pay additional filing fees.

Getson & Schatz, P.C Helps Unite High School Sweethearts

Our clients had met each other in high school at the age of 16 when the foreign national, an Australian Citizen, had come to the U.S. as a J-1 exchange visitor to attend high school.  Our clients fell in love with each other in high school and maintained a long distance relationship with each other over the past 7 years talking on the phone, e-mailing, and seeing each other in Australia, Canada and the United States.  Our clients decided that they wanted to get married and spend their lives together in the United States and retained our firm to assist with the green card process.  We successfully helped the foreign national obtain U.S. Permanent Resident Status and are looking forward to meeting their future children.

Green Card Approved Based Upon Marriage of F-1 Student to U.S. Citizen

Our law firm represented an F-1 student in the process of applying for a green card based upon her marriage to a U.S. Citizen who she met while attending University.  We provided USCIS with documentation of the bona fides of their marriage including joint bank account statements, a joint lease, joint health insurance, e-mails sent to each other, cell phone records, joint renter's insurance, joint automobile insurance, notarized affidavits from friends/family regarding their relationship, receipts for the wedding rings they purchased for each other, a joint gym membership and photographs of their wedding and moments in their lives.  We prepared our clients for the interview and attended the interview with them.  Both the I-130 petition and I-485 application were approved.

Marriage Case Approved for Haitian National in TPS Status

Our Philadelphia Immigration Lawyers successfully represented a client from Haiti in both the processing of an Application for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and an Application for Adjustment of Status based upon a Marriage to a Untied States Citizen.   The TPS was processed earlier this year which provided our client work authorization and she recently obtained her green card which was sponsored by her U.S. Citizen Husband.

Green Card Application Approved Following Transfer from Employment Based Petition to Family Based Petition

Our client, a citizen of India, had a pending green card application in the EB-2 category that was subject to visa backlogs.  His brother had filed an I-130 Petition for Alien Relative back in 2001 which was approved and the priority date of the I-130 Petition became current.  Our lawyers wrote to the Immigration Service to transfer the I-485 Application that had been filed on the bases of the Employment Based Petition to the Family Based Petition since the priority date was current.  Within 30 days of our transfer request an interview on the Family Based Petition was scheduled at the local district office have jurisdiction over our client's place of residence and his green card application was approved.  He did not have to file a new green card application and pay additional fees.

Approval of Section 245(i) Green Card Applications

Prior to April 30, 2001 our firm filed a sibling I-130 Petition on behalf of a client who had overstayed a visitor visa in the 1990s and was physically present in the United States on December 21, 2000 enabling the client to be grandfathered under Section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.  In 2003 we filed a Labor Certification on behalf of the client which was approved.  We then filed an I-140 Petition to show that the Company that filed the Labor Certification had the ability to pay the proffered wage and that the client met the minimum requirements for the position as set forth in the Labor Certification.  The I-140 Petition was approved.  The I-130 Sibling Petition was also approved.  The priority date on the Labor Certification became current and we filed I-485 applications for our client and her spouse, indicating to the Immigration Service that our client was eligible to apply for adjustment of status under the Labor Certification because she was grandfathered under Section 245(i) by reason of having an approvable when filed I-130 Petition filed by her sibling on her behalf prior to April 30, 2001.  Under the law it is permissible to substitute the benefits of Section 245(i) from one petition or application to another.  After more than 10 years of waiting, our client received her green card based upon the approved Labor Certification Application.

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