CASE: I-130/I-485
NATIONALITY: Filipina
LOCATION: Hendersonville, NC
Our client is a citizen of the Philippines who came to the U.S. on a J-2 Visa in July 2019. She entered with her mother who came on a J-1 Visa for her employment in the United States. Both were subject to the two-year foreign residency requirement.
She turned 21 in January 2021. She wanted to file her I-485 adjustment of status application with her U.S. citizen spouse’s I-130 petition. However, because of her two-year foreign residency requirement, our client couldn’t adjust her status in the United States without fulfilling the requirement or the waiver.
Our firm was retained to do her J-2 waiver, and on September 15, 2021, the J-2 Waiver application was filed to the Department of State. We also asked the DOS to be an interested government agency and recommend this waiver since our client reached the age of 21 and was not dependent on a J-1 visa holder. On November 18, 2021, the DOS recommended to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) that our client be granted a waiver. On December 15, 2021, the USCIS issued an I-612 approval notice for our client’s waiver request.
Once her J-2 waiver was approved, our client retained our office again for her Adjustment of Status application. Our firm filed the I-130 Petition and Adjustment of Status Application on May 27, 2022. All went well and the receipt notices, fingerprint appointment, and work permits came on time. However, on August 10, 2023, the USCIS issued a Request for Evidence (RFE) and requested our client to submit her bona fide marital evidence with her U.S. citizen spouse. Our office filed our client’s response to RFE with numerous authentic marital evidence on October 10, 2023. On October 23, 2023, our client’s green card application was approved.