Thanks To President Obama, Guatemalan Woman Will Soon Be A Permanent Resident Of The United States

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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About Irwin Berowitz

The Law Office of Irwin Berowitz specializes in providing legal services to immigrants. These services encompass a broad range of areas, from representation before the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services or the Immigration Court, to helping the immigrant obtain post-conviction relief. If you want to make sure that your case is properly handled from the very start, contact us immediately for a free in-person consultation so that you can tell us about your case privately and safely. At the time of the free consultation, we will let you know the likely outcome of your case, and what approach and strategy we would pursue to obtain a successful result for you. We will fight to give you peace of mind and to give your case the best possibility for success. To learn more about our practice, feel free to click on the links on this webpage or contact us by telephone or email. Remember, your first meeting with us in our office is free. All names on these posts have been changed to protect the identities of former clients. Any similarity to any one particular case or person(s) is purely coincidental.

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