Thanks To President Obama, Guatemalan Woman Will Soon Be A Permanent Resident Of The United States
Andrea, who is from Guatemala, and her U.S. citizen husband, on the recommendation of a friend, came to see me one day earlier this year. Because Andrea had entered the United States, fourteen years ago, by crossing the border (without a visa), Andrea and her husband wanted to know if she could ever obtain some kind of legal status in the USA. The couple has a young son. They live in the New York City area.
The three of us discussed the Unlawful Presence Waiver (Form I-601A) that had been created by the Obama administration. In 2013, the Obama administration began allowing the spouses and children of U.S. citizens to apply for a provisional waiver of unlawful presence from inside the U.S. Before 2013, these people had to leave the U.S. and apply for the waiver in their home country. This resulted in many months of separation and anxiety for families.
The waiver is necessary to forgive being in the U.S. without permission. That is why it is called the unlawful presence waiver. To qualify for a provisional waiver, an applicant has to prove that her U.S. citizen relative(s) will experience “extreme hardship” if the applicant is not granted permanent resident status. The applicant must obtain this waiver in order to become eligible to apply for an immigrant visa (which leads to permanent resident status). Additionally, the applicant must also be in the U.S. at the time she files for the provisional waiver.
I must point out that the USCIS has stated that it will not share information submitted on Form I-601A with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency tasked with apprehending violators of immigration law, unless it involves an individual with a criminal history or fraud violations, or one who poses a threat to national security or public safety.
Several months ago, the DHS announced that it was going to expand the provisional waiver process to those who have a spouse or a child of lawful permanent residents. The unlawful presence waiver program has helped thousands of people become Permanent Residents of the USA.
The waiver program was designed to benefit someone who is in Andrea’s circumstances: a person with a U.S. citizen spouse, and no negative factors in her record, other than her illegal entry into the USA. I told Andrea and her husband that, if everything went well, in about a year, Andrea, too, would become a Permanent Resident of the United States. The couple made their decision: Andrea was going to try to become a Permanent Resident by pursuing an Unlawful Presence Waiver.
First, Andrea’s husband filed a visa petition. After five months of waiting, the USCIS approved it. Then it was time for all of the hard work: preparing the Waiver application and all of its supporting documentation. The three of us put a lot of effort into this. When my clients had gathered together all of the needed documents and papers, and each one had sworn out an affidavit, I filed the completed waiver application package. With the filing of the waiver, we had to prove that Andrea’s husband would suffer extreme hardship (1) if he remained in the United States and she relocated to Guatemala, and (2) if they both relocated to Guatemala. (Andrea’s husband was not originally from Guatemala.)
Six weeks later, we received a Request for Evidence from the USCIS. The agency wanted more documentation concerning the husband’s business. He got that right away, and I sent that off to the USCIS. We received a great surprise when, the next month, the USCIS approved the Waiver application. We have since taken all of the required follow up steps. Andrea is waiting to be scheduled for an appointment at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala. If everything goes well at that
interview, she will return to the USA as a Permanent Resident.
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