CASE: I-601A Provisional Hardship Waiver of Inadmissibility
APPLICANT / BENEFICIARY: Guatemalan
LOCATION: Canton, Ohio
Our client came to the United States from Guatemala in April 2004 without inspection and admission. He married his U.S. citizen wife in October 2017. They have two children together. His U.S. Citizen wife filed an I-130 petition for him on May 18, 2018, which was approved on January 28, 2019.
Our client cannot file for adjustment of status application due to his grounds of inadmissibility. He needs a waiver of inadmissibility to become a green card holder. Moreover, our client was placed into removal proceedings, but his removal proceeding was administratively closed in May 2013.
Our client’s I-601A application had a good chance since our client’s U.S. Citizen wife suffers from a great degree of medical hardship. In the I-601A brief and supporting documents, our office included extensive medical reports of his wife. We argued that if he was removed from the United States, extreme hardship to his wife would be clearly foreseeable and evident. His wife has ongoing medical hardships and she would not be able to take care of her own and her family’s needs, most importantly taking care of their children. It would also be challenging for her to get the same level of therapy and satisfactory access to medical services in Guatemala in case she joins our client there.
In our brief, we also argued that our client and his wife have maintained strong family ties in the United States, that his wife will have difficulty in finding the same level of employment in Guatemala, that our client has good employment in the United States, and that his U.S. citizen child and his wife will face extreme financial and emotional difficulties if he is removed.
On March 4, 2020, we filed the I-601A waiver application which included the brief in support, his wife’s medical examination records, and other documents that demonstrated hardship to his wife if he is removed from the United States.
Eventually, his I-601A waiver was approved on October 19, 2023. Now, he can file packets 3 and 4 here in the U.S. and will go to Guatemala to get his immigrant visa.