CASE: I-130 / BIA Remand / Stokes Interview
CLIENT: Canadian
LOCATION: New York, NY
Our client came from Canada in 2002 as a visitor. He marrie his U.S. Citizen wife in October 2002. Our client has stayed in the United States since the inception of marriage and his authorized period of stay expired. Due to his overstay, our client was placed in removal proceedings in April 2010. He already had an I-130 approval but when he filed for adjustment of status on his own, they denied it and placed him in removal proceedings, and revoked the I-130.
He retained our office in 2010 for legal assistance for his removal proceedings representation and I-130 filing.
Unfortunately, on July 2, 2010, the USCIS New York office denied our client’s I-130 petition, after an almost three-hour Stokes interview. Before and at the interview, extensive evidence of bona fide marriage covering 8 years of marriage was submitted. The couple was able to answer a majority of the questions in the two and half hour interview, and the grounds and discrepancies relied upon by the USCIS in denying the I-130 compared to the majority and relevance of the correctly answered questions together with the extensive evidence was relatively minor.
In response to this denial decision, we timely filed a Notice of Appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals on July 29, 2010. The BIA appeal was pending for a long time. Eventually, on May 9, 2012, the BIA found that a remand is warranted for our client’s case. As a result, on September 29, 2012, our client and his U.S. Citizen wife appeared at the USCIS New York Field Office for another I-130 interview.
Even after the second interview, the I-130 remained pending without any issuance of any RFEs or Notice of Intent to Deny. In the meantime, we filed a Motion for Continuance based on the pending I-130 petition. The New York Immigration Court kept granting our Motions, and on October 28, 2013, the Immigration Judge administratively closed our client’s removal proceedings. Nevertheless, the I-130 petition remained pending.
In August 2014, the New York USCIS Field Office sent us another Stokes Interview request for our client and his wife. We prepared our clients extensively regarding their 12-year marital life. On August 20, 2014, our clients appeared at the New York USCIS Field Office for their second Stokes Interview. Attorney JP Sarmiento from our office also accompanied them as well. Finally, the USCIS approved our client’s I-130 petition. Now, our client can file for adjustment of status after the Immigration Court grants our Motion to Re-calendar and Terminate.