CASE: Marriage-Based Adjustment of Status
CLIENT: Kenyan
LOCATION: St. Louis, MO
Our client came to the United States in August 1999 with an F-1 Student visa from Kenya. He overstayed past his visa and remained in the US for the next ten plus years.
He eventually met and later married a U.S. Citizen in January 2010, someone he met at work. They lived together for a while but due to employment reasons, he had to move to Kansas City for a while. That was the main issue for his case when he consulted. He was afraid that their living arrangements would hurt their case.
We understood that living arrangements is a factor that CIS delves into, however, legitimate reasons backed up by other bona fide evidence could overcome this. We thought, considering they maintained joint finances, had occasional visits to each other considering the 4 hour drive, and based on the fact that he had to move due to work, that their case was plausible.
He retained our firm and we prepared and filed the I-130 Petition and I-485 Adjustment of Status Application on February 20, 2012. 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 through conference calls. We explained that they have to emphasize the reason why they had to live separately, which is because of work. We also explained and asked them to bring documentation of the fact that despite them living separately, that they visited each other on certain occasions. We asked them to remember specific details of each visit, and we were certain the officer would ask about this. More importantly, we asked them to bring concrete evidence of their visits, and commingling of finances despite living separately due to work.
On June 19, 2012, our client was interviewed at the St. Louis, MO USCIS office. As expected, it was not approved immediately and the officer issued a request for evidence. Our firm submitted a response to the request for evidence and another interview was scheduled on November 14, 2012 in St. Louis. Attorney JP Sarmiento from our office accompanied them at this interview. The focus was not when and how they met this time, but solely on the living arrangements, and occasional visits of our client.
On March 4, 2013, the I-130 petition and I-485 adjustment of status application were both approved.
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