Case: I-485 Adjustment of Status
Issue: Visa Waiver Entry
Applicant/Beneficiary – Korean
Location: Eleva, Wisconsin
Our client entered the United States in August 2021 from South Korea under the visa waiver program. As a Visa Waiver Entrant, she was only authorized to remain in the United States for 90 days. She married a U.S. Citizen in June 2012 in South Korea. Since then, they have lived in South Korea. Her U.S. Citizen husband also filed the I-130 petition for her and it was approved by the USCIS in April 2020. They originally planned to do her immigrant visa processing in South Korea.
However, she had to come to the United States in August 2021 for family matters. While she was staying in the U.S., her husband got a new job in the U.S., so our client and her husband decided to stay in the U.S.
One main issue in her green card application through marriage was the fact that she came to the United States under the visa waiver program. As our office wrote in our previous success story with a similar issue, citizens of certain countries can enter the U.S. for 90 days without a visa with the condition that the visitor waives his or her right to contest removal (other than based on asylum). The “no-contest” provision of the Visa Waiver Program is fundamental; if someone could enter under the VWP and then contest removability; it would defeat the whole purpose of the Program which is to make it easy for certain nationals to come to the United States to visit and then leave without all the red-tape involved in visa issuance.
Our client contacted our office for consultation and retained our office on November 5, 2021for her adjustment of status application. Our office filed the I-485 Adjustment of Status Application on November 9, 202. We requested the CIS to exercise favorable discretion in granting an adjustment of status despite her visa waiver entry. All went well and the receipt notices, fingerprint appointment, and work permit came on time. Before the interview, we prepared our clients, and on April 12, 2023, our client was interviewed at the Minneapolis, MN USCIS Office. Despite the visa waiver entry and subsequent adjustment of status issue, the USCIS officer approved her green card application on April 13, 2023.