CASE: Marriage-Based Adjustment of Status
CLIENT: Jamaican
LOCATION: Youngstown, OH
FILED: July 25, 2012
APPROVED: October 12, 2012

Our client came to the United States in July 2010 with a B-2 visitor’s visa from Jamaica. She was given six months but she remained in the United States and overstayed.

She met a US Citizen and fell in love. They got married in December 2011 and retained our office on May 10, 2012 for her green card application.

Our firm prepared and filed the I-130 Petition and I-485 Adjustment of Status Application on July 25, 2012, together with other necessary forms and supporting documents. Everything went smoothly and the receipt notices, fingerprint appointment, and work permits all came on time. Prior to the interview, we thoroughly prepared our clients at our office.

On October 12, 2012, our client was interviewed at the Cleveland CIS office. Attorney Sung Hee (“Glen”) Yu from our office accompanied them. On the same day, her green card application was approved.

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CASE: Motion to Terminate Removal Proceedings Based on an Approved I-130 Immediate Relative Spousal Petition
CLIENT: Ghanaian
LOCATION: Phoenix, AZ

Our client is a Ghanaian citizen who came to the U.S. on a B-2 Visitor Visa in 2004. Our client overstayed and worked illegally after, and was thus placed in removal proceedings. He missed Court, and he had a final order of removal in absentia at the Arlington Immigration Court, but his case was reopened after our office’s successful Motion to Reopen in April 2012.

Our client and his wife married in August 2007 in Arizona. They had two U.S. citizen children. Prior to filing the Motion to Reopen, our office filed an I-130 petition based on our client’s marriage to his U.S. citizen wife. The I-130 petition was filed on March 5, 2012.

Generally, if someone is a beneficiary of an I-130 petition while he or she is in removal proceedings, the USCIS schedules what’s called a Stokes interview, in which both husband and wife are interviewed separately for intensive questioning. This is to make sure the marriage is in good faith, and not entered into for the purpose of avoiding deportation.

The I-130 petition we filed though included various supporting documents which demonstrated the bona fide nature of our client’s marriage. We also emphasized the fact that they have been married for 5 years and have two U.S. citizen children. As a result, the USCIS approved the I-130 petition for our client without requesting an interview at the local office. The I-130 was actually approved the day before his scheduled Master Hearing in Phoenix, AZ.

After the I-130 was approved, our office filed a Motion to Terminate Removal Proceedings with the I-485 application and supporting documents to the Phoenix Immigration Court. The DHS counsel in Phoenix did not oppose the Motion to Terminate. Ultimately, the Immigration Judge granted the Motion to Terminate without prejudice on October 9, 2012. Our client is not in removal proceedings anymore. Now, he can file his I-485 adjustment of status application to the USCIS to obtain his green card.

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CASE: Bond Redetermination Hearing
APPLICANT: Chinese
LOCATION: Florence Immigration Court, AZ

Our office was contacted in late September regarding a Chinese citizen who was detained in Florence, Arizona. He tried to enter the United States without valid documents and was incarcerated by immigration officers.

Prior to retention, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement already set a very high bond. Our client wished to have that reduced so we filed a motion for bond redetermination with the Florence Immigration Court in Arizona.

Our office communicated with him and his U.S. resident relatives in Pennsylvania, and gathered as much information regarding his relief, equities, criminal record, family ties, and financial ability to post bond. We also gathered supporting documents from his relatives, from proof of their status and residence, to bank statements and tax returns.

On October 2, 2012, we represented our client for his Florence Arizona Immigration Court bond redetermination hearing. We explained that our client already passed his credible fear interview, was not a flight risk, had established his residence upon release, had established his financial ability to post bond, and that he had ample family ties in the United States who submitted proof of their residence and immigration status.

Our office explained that his lack of criminal records, designated address with contact information from his relative in the United States, ability to post bond, and eligibility for asylum relief clearly demonstrate that the bond should be reduced. At the end of the hearing, the Immigration Judge took our arguments into account and reduced the bond amount.

Our client has been released and is in the process of preparing his asylum application.

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CASE: PERM Labor Certification
EMPLOYER: Molded Component Manufacturer
BENEFICIARY: British Engineering Manager
LOCATION: Cleveland, Ohio
FILED: August 8, 2012
APPROVED: October 10, 2012
AUDITS: None

Our client is an engineering manager from the United Kingdom, who is currently working at a molded component manufacturing company in greater Cleveland area. The company/petitioner was willing to petition him for a green card, in the second-preference category (EB2).

Our client has a Bachelor’s degree and has more than 5 years of related work experience. He has maintained his status as an H-1B visa holder in the United States. After talking to our client, our firm advised that his potential employer can petition him as an Engineering Manager, specifically, Liquid Injection Molding (LIM) Process Engineering Manager.

Prior to filing the PERM labor certification application, our firm prepared the prevailing wage request, job order, advertisements, internal job posting, recruitment report, and all other steps which are important pre-PERM filing. On August 8, 2012, we filed the PERM Labor Certification application. Two months later, on October 10, 2012, the PERM labor certification was approved. There were no audits in this application.

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CASE: I-130 and Consular Processing (Immigrant Visa)
CLIENT: US Citizen Petitioner Daughter; Chinese Beneficiary Mother in China
LOCATION: Petitioner: Ohio; Beneficiary: China
I-130 FILED: April 8, 2011
I-130 APPROVED: July 14, 2011
IV APPROVED: September 24, 2012

Our client retained us to bring her parents over from China. She was born and raised in China, but was naturalized in the United States.

On April 8, 2011, our firm filed the I-130 Petitions to the CIS. There were no Requests for Evidence throughout the pendency of the petition. On July 14, 2011, the I-130 Petitions were approved. We then started the immigrant visa processing phase of trying to get her parents over to the United States.

Unfortunately, our client wanted to delay the process due to her father’s serious illness. Her father passed away, but our client still wanted to bring her mother to the United States.

On August 10, 2012, we filed the immigrant visa packets to the National Visa Center who in turn forwarded our client’s materials to the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China. An interview notice was set for our client’s mother at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, and we prepared her for her interview. On September 24, 2012, the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China approved and issued her immigrant visa.

With the approved immigrant visa, our client’s mother can come to the United States immediately, and she will get her green card within two weeks of entry.

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CASE: I-140 / I-907 (Premium Processing)
ISSUE: Had to get the I-140 Approved to Be Eligible for 3-Yr H-1B Extension
EMPLOYER: Electric Immersion Heater Manufacturer
BENEFICIARY: Indian Management Analyst
LOCATION: Cleveland, OH

Our client is a management analyst from India, who is currently working at an electric immersion heater manufacturing company in Cleveland Ohio. The company was willing to do an immigration petition him for a second-preference petition (I-140). He is on his sixth year of H-1B, and to extend it for another three years, he’s had to have an I-140 approval before his current H-1B expires.

Our client has an MBA degree and has worked for this company since April 2012. He has maintained his status as an H-1B visa holder in the United States.

After talking to our client, our firm advised that his potential employer can petition him as a Management Analyst. It is a Job Zone 4 position, which typically does not merit an EB2 finding by the Department of Labor, but we thought the position was complex enough to merit an argument. Based on our client’s educational, professional and working background as an engineer and management analyst, our office determined that it’s still worth a shot for the EB-2 classification.

As mentioned on our previous success story, we filed the PERM labor certification application for our client on June 29, 2012. Two months later, on August 30, 2012, the PERM labor certification was approved. Our client retained us again for the I-140 petition.

We then proceeded with the I-140 Petition filing.

We submitted the “ability to pay” letter for the I-140 petition application. We included the job offer letter, employment verification letters from our client’s previous employers, and other necessary supporting documents.

The I-140 Petition was filed on September 24, 2012 via premium processing. On October 1, 2012, in only seven days, the I-140 EB2 for our Indian client was approved.

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CASE: I-130 and Consular Processing (Immigrant Visa) – Marriage-Petition
CLIENT: US Citizen Petitioner; Ghanaian Beneficiary in China
LOCATION: Petitioner: Ohio; Beneficiary: Beijing, China

Our client is a U.S. citizen who married his Ghanaian boyfriend in China in 2011. Her husband is an international student in China. She contacted our office in late January 2012 and retained us to bring her husband to the States.

Our office prepared and filed the I-130 to the National Visa Center on February 3, 2012. After the I-130 was filed, everything went smoothly, there were no requests for evidence, and the receipt notices came on time. The I-130 Petition was approved by the USCIS on June 11, 2012.

After the I-130 approval, we filed the immigrant visa packets to the National Visa Center on July 26, 2012, who in turn forwarded our client’s materials to the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China. An interview notice was set for the client at the US Consulate in Guangzhou, and we prepared him for his interview. On September 28, 2012, the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China approved and issued his immigrant visa.

With the approved Immigrant visa, our client’s husband can come to the United States immediately, and he will get his green card within two weeks of entry.

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CASE: I-130 and Consular Processing for Petitioner’s two minor stepdaughters
LOCATION: Petitioner: New Jersey; Beneficiaries: Jamaica

Our client is a U.S. citizen who married a Jamaican in New Jersey. Through our firm, he filed an I-130 Petition for his wife and his wife eventually obtained her green card. His two minor stepdaughters though were residing in Jamaica.

After his wife got her green card, we filed the immigrant visa petitions for his stepdaughters. We also submitted the packet 3 and 4 immigrant visa packets for them on June 18, 2012.
Their immigrant visa interview was scheduled on August 3, 2012 at the U.S. Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica. The U.S. Embassy in Kingston eventually approved the immigrant visas for his stepdaughters on September 26, 2012.

Our client’s step-daughters can be here in the United States soon and will be reunited with their mother and step-father.

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CASE: Motion to Remand / I-130 Approval
CLIENT: Nepalese
LOCATION: Baltimore, MD

Our client came to the United States with a valid B-2 visa from Nepal in January 1998. He remained in the United States for a time longer than permitted. In November 2009, he was placed in deportation proceedings due to his overstay and a Notice to Appear was issued. His asylum application was denied by the Immigration Judge, but an appeal was timely filed.

While the BIA appeal was pending, our client’s daughter became a naturalized U.S. Citizen in January 2012. Our office immediately filed an I-130 petition for our client on February 6, 2012. After we received the I-130 receipt notice, we prepared and filed a Motion to Remand for Adjustment of Status Based on a Pending I-130 on behalf our client. You typically want the I-130 to be approved prior to filing the Motion to Remand, but by submitting the actual I-130 application itself and its supporting documents attached to the Motion, you can show that it is approvable.

In Matter of Coelho, 20 I&N Dec. 464, 473 (BIA 1992), the BIA found that a motion to remand must conform to the same standards as a motion to reopen, where the respondent presents new evidence which would likely change the result of the case. In a Motion to Reopen before the BIA, the Applicant must show that the evidence is material, unavailable at time of original hearing, and could not have been discovered or presented at the original hearing. 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c)(1). In this case, the adjustment of status relief was not available for our client at his previous hearing since his daughter has not become a naturalized U.S. citizen yet.

Our office filed a Motion to Remand for Adjustment of Status based on a pending I-130 to the BIA on February 24, 2012. We argued that our client will be eligible for adjustment of status once the I-130 is approved since he had a legal entry to the U.S., has no criminal records, and has no other grounds of inadmissibility. Eventually, on July 10, 2012, the BIA granted our motion, reopened our client’s case, and the record was remanded for further proceedings.

While we were waiting for adjudication of the I-130 petition, the USCIS issued a Request for Evidence (RFE) regarding the paternal relationship of our client. Apparently, the birth certificate submitted from Nepal was not enough. So we scheduled a DNA test for our client and this resulted to a 99.99% likelihood of paternity. On September 14, 2012, the USCIS approved the I-130 petition for our client. Now, he can apply for the adjustment of status before Immigration Judge or USCIS upon termination of his proceedings.

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CASE: Reentry Permit for LPRs (I-131)
CLIENT: South African
LOCATION: Cleveland, OH

Our client contacted us in the middle of June and sought legal assistance for him and his family’s re-entry permit applications. They are South African nationals and lawful permanent residents (LPR) since 2008. Our client needed to get a re-entry permit because they were planning to stay in the Philippines for next two years. Our client has a business in Ohio which does substantial business in the Philippines. He has a wife and three kids, and they will not likely be able to come back to the United States within six months. The kids go to school in the Philippines, and they were concerned because they got their reentry permits before. They were only going to be in States for 3 weeks. We met 2 days after they arrived.

Generally, being a Permanent Resident of the U.S., you can travel without restraint outside of the U.S. But if the trip duration is greater than one year, but less than two years, then a reentry permit is needed to enter the U.S. Even if the trip is between six months and one year, it is still advisable to get a reentry permit, to avoid the rebuttable presumption that residency is disrupted.

Our client was planning to be in the Philippines for the next twenty months, so the reentry permit is clearly needed when he comes back to the United States. He has been in the Philippines most of the time that he was a permanent resident, so he was concerned his case will be denied.

Our office filed Form I-131 with other supporting documents to the USCIS on June 13, 2012. Despite the I-131 being a seemingly simple form and application, we attached a substantial brief to the form, explaining his maintenance of residence in the United States through his address, bank statements, and business (registered in Ohio), and that it so happens that the business does a lot of work in the Philippines. A lot of supporting documents were also attached. We demonstrated that our client and his family members do not intend to abandon their permanent residency in the United States.

They had to go back to the Philippines as the children were about to go to school. You can apply and get a reentry permit even though you need to travel immediately as long as you get fingerprinted before your departure. So we advised them to leave only after they get fingerprinted. Even though there was a set fingerprint date on their notices, we were able to have them take prints before the set date.

On August 23, 2012 and on September 17, 2012, the USCIS issued re-entry permits for our client and his family members.

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