B-2 Extension for Logistics Manager’s Family Approved while Waiting for EB-1A

Year: July 2019
Applicant: Mr. Yang
Country/Region: China
Position: Logistics Supply Chain Manager
Application Category: B-2 Extension
Preparation time: one week
Duration of approval: within two months

BACKGROUND
– Mr. Yang’s EB-1A petition for distinguished immigrant has been approved and is pending in the queue with a clear immigration bias.
– Mr. Yang has property in California and most of his other assets are already in the United States, with minimal financial binding in China.
– Mr. Yang and his wife and children both applied for B-2 extensions, with no immediate family members remaining in China.
– Mr. Yang also applied for an O-1 Outstanding Worker Visa.
– Mr. Yang’s former immigration attorney failed to properly file the B-2 extension petition and received a lengthy and harsh Remand Notice (RFE).
• When Mr. Yang contacted us, there was only about a week left before the deadline for the replacement, and the time was urgent.

The B-2 visa is a tourist visa that allows the holder to travel to the U.S. and visit attractions such as Disneyland, the Grand Canyon, Sequoia National Park, and others. The holder is usually allowed to stay in the U.S. for six months. Sometimes the holder wishes to stay longer, but fortunately, the USCIS has a B-2 extension policy that allows the holder to stay in the U.S. for an additional 6 months after approval.

However, USCIS also has a responsibility to ensure that the B-2 visa is not abused by those with bad motives – the holder is not allowed to work, study, or immigrate, and can only stay in the United States for a short period of time. Tsang & Associates received a request for assistance from an online client, Mr. Yang, who was in the process of applying for a B-2 extension while not only having his I-140 approved for EB-1A Alien of Extraordinary Ability, but also in the process of applying for an O-1 Alien of Extraordinary Ability work visa.

Mr. Yang wanted to stay in the U.S. after entering the country on a B-2 visa to visit a number of sites. Mr. Yang is not only a leader in China’s logistics industry, but also a system architect who revolutionized the efficiency of logistics in China. Mr. Yang found a loophole in the U.S. logistics market that his software could easily fill. However, Mr. Yang’s EB-1A immigration petition, which was approved a year ago, has become a current impediment – it will be several years before he receives his green card because of scheduling issues, but who knows what will happen in the logistics market in those years?

When Mr. Yang consulted with his former immigration attorney on how to stay in the United States as soon as possible, the advice he received was to apply for an O-1 Outstanding Worker Visa. During the O-1 application process, Mr. Yang found out that his B-2 was about to expire and consulted with his former attorney again, who simply asked him to fill out a simple form and send it to USCIS. When Mr. Yang received his B-2 extension Request for Extraordinary Filing (RFE) from USCIS, he was overwhelmed and decided to change attorneys, and found and contacted Tsang & Associates online. Mr. Yang did not want to return to China because his wife suffers from a respiratory disease, and the poor air quality in China would make her condition worse, and staying in the U.S. was the easiest part of her cure, which was what Mr. Yang wanted most.

Mr. Yang approached our firm, Tsang & Associates, with a lengthy and harsh notice to file, an obvious immigration bias, and only one week left to respond.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
When we received the replacement notice and original application materials from the client, we found that the original attorney had not
taken the trouble to present Mr. Yang’S reasons for delaying his stay in the United States. And this was the key to the B-2 extension.

The original petition consisted of a one-size-fits-all form that lacked essential information for the immigration officer to consider for the B-2 extension. Having filed a bad petition is more problematic than not having filed one at all. With this in mind, and considering Mr. Yang’s approved immigration petition and related documents, the supporting documents for the B-2 extension petition were weakly persuasive.

However, we at Tsang & Associates are very experienced in filing B-2 extensions for complex cases. We are well aware that if a complex petition is referred to an immigration officer who handles simple B-2 cases, the petition is likely to be denied. The treatment of respiratory disease is more than simply relying on medications that are available in both countries; environmental changes and quality are also important, which provided credibility to Mr. Yang’s family’s need to stay in the United States. We wrote the attorney’s letter heavily on the point of Mr. Yang’s wife’s respiratory disease, without mentioning O-1 and EB-1A, points that would confuse the immigration officer.

“Mr. and Mrs. Young also have a child, and it is obvious that it would be unreasonable and unfair to put the child’s mother through an unnecessary and difficult and complicated recovery process. That would have put unnecessary stress on herself, her husband and the child. We focused on the essence of the case, and we are pleased with the outcome of this case – we helped Mr. Yang with his visa issues while helping his wife and children.” –Joseph Zang, Attorney at Law

We explained to Mr. Yang that the B-2 extension also applied to her wife so that she could recover in a healthy environment. In addition, Mr. Yang’s successful career in China provided support not only for his family’s extension to stay in the United States, but also for his binding in China, which was one of the important factors that the immigration officer considered in the B-2 case.

OUTCOME
Within a week of preparing the supplemental response, we worked around the clock to send the attorney’s letter, personal statement and organized supporting documents to USCIS, and Mr. Yang’s B-2 extension was granted within two months, a process that normally takes four to five months. From our most recent contact with Mr. Yang, we learned that he used the extension to discuss with his U.S. investor about setting up a company after he received his green card. Mr. Yang’s family can legally stay in the U.S., his wife can recover in a good air environment, and Mr. Yang can transition to a status where he can legally work in the U.S.

*Pseudonyms are used in the cases to protect the privacy of our clients.