CASE: Marriage to US Citizen Green Card
CLIENT: Indian
LOCATION: Cleveland, OH
Our client came to the United States from India. Currently, she is working for her employer under an H-1B visa. Later, she married her current husband, who was a green card holder at the time of filing, in September 2012.
Our client retained our office in the middle of September 2013 for her I-130 petition and I-485 adjustment of status application. Although the Petitioner was a green card holder, we could file the I-130 / I-485 simultaneously at that time because the priority date for the F2A category was current in August and September 2013.
Our office prepared and filed an I-130 petition and I-485 adjustment of status application, together with all necessary supporting documents, on September 26, 2013. Everything went smoothly and the receipt notices, fingerprint appointment, and work permits all came on time.
While her green card application was pending, our client’s husband took his naturalization test and interview in February 2014. Prior to the interview, we thoroughly prepared our clients at our office. On February 6, 2014, our client was interviewed at the Cleveland, Ohio USCIS office.
The interview went well, however, our client’s green card application could not be adjudicated because of the retrogression of priority dates.
On February 21, 2014, our client’s husband finally took his oath and became a naturalized U.S. citizen. After the ceremony, our client’s husband gave us a copy of his naturalization certificate which our office eventually submitted to the USCIS office on the same day.
By doing this, our client’s case was upgraded from the F2A category to Immediate Relative, which has available immigrant visa numbers all the time. Eventually, on February 27, 2014, the USCIS approved our client’s green card application.