CASE: Adjustment of Status (I-485) / I-360 Approval
CLIENT: Kenyan
LOCATION: Ohio
Our Kenyan client came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in 2004. She overstayed and was placed in removal proceedings two years ago, and she retained our office.
When she came in 2004, her visa made her subject to the 2-year foreign residency requirement. As our previous success story explained, this client received an I-612 J-1 waiver approval from the USCIS in January 2012 with our assistance.
Our office then filed her I-360 petition as a spouse of an abusive U.S. Citizen. Our client experienced domestic violence and spousal abuse while she was married to her ex-husband. Thus, we prepared and filed her I-360 petition, which included 26 exhibits and a detailed brief to the USCIS Vermont Service Center on May 5, 2011.
This petition was also reviewed by the Immigration Judge during our client’s Master Calendar hearing and the IJ opined that our client’s I-360 petition is prima facie approvable. Nevertheless, our client’s I-360 petition was pending for a while.
Despite our client’s thoroughly prepared I-360 application, in August 2012, the USCIS Vermont Service Center issued a Request for Evidence (RFE). Specifically, the RFE letter requested our client to submit more medical documents to prove her ex-husband subjected her to extreme cruelty. Moreover, the RFE letter asked our client to submit more notarized affidavits from witnesses. Our client and our office thoroughly gathered the requested documents, and filed a response to RFE on November 7, 2012 with 13 exhibits.
Finally, on February 22, 2013, the USCIS Vermont Service Center approved our client’s I-360 petition. With the approved I-360 and I-612 J-1 waiver, our office filed a Request to Join in a Motion to Terminate proceedings to the USICE-DHS Cleveland Office with an attached I-485 application and its supporting documents on April 2, 2013.
On April 6, 2013, the assistant chief counsel of the DHS agreed with us and signed a joint motion to terminate.
On April 9, 2013, our client appeared at the Cleveland Immigration Court for her master calendar hearing. The Immigration Judge granted the Joint Motion to Terminate and eventually terminated our client’s case without prejudice on the same day.
After removal proceedings were terminated, the USCIS scheduled an I-485 adjustment of status interview for our client. Prior to the interview, we thoroughly prepared our client at our office as well. On July 12, 2013, our client was interviewed at the Cleveland USCIS office. Attorney Sune Hee Yu from our office accompanied her.
On July 18, 2013, her green card application was approved.
I am just curious, could you have filed the I-485 with the Imm. Court for the Immigration Judge to adjudicate it instead of the USCIS adjudicating it? Pros? Cons?
John,
Yes it’s possible to just go with the Immigration Judge.
Pros. If you know he’s a good judge and the DHS counsel assigned is nice, then should be smooth sailing.
Cons: If it’s a tough judge or tough DHS counsel. Another con is if the Judge’s docket is packed, that no other hearing slots are available for years (some get scheduled in 2019 even). So if you file instead with CIS, you may get your green card sooner.
So it depends on a lot of factors – Judge, DHS attorney, scheduling.
Best regards,
JP Sarmiento