Marriage Green Card Denial Overturned Through Successful AAO Appeal

This government officer, who works with USCIS and handles all sorts of immigration paperwork for government officials, had his own case denied twice when he married and sponsored his Chinese wife. He was furious, hired us to sue the government, and we completed his case with perfection. Let me show you how.

Everyone, my name is Joseph. I’m the managing partner here at Tsang & Associates, where we solve legal problems with creative solutions.

The legal problem is actually pretty simple. Here’s a U.S. citizen, a white man, marrying a Chinese woman and wanting her to get a green card. There are some nuances to this case because he is over 60, she is younger than 30, and she is unlawfully in the U.S., having overstayed her visa. He is also a government official with a whole bunch of security checks.

That alone still should not be a huge barrier to getting the case approved. He handles a lot of immigration paperwork. He knows it inside and out. He does these all the time. So, he filed the case himself—and it got denied.

He was furious. He hired us to appeal and refile the case. He was livid. He could not stand the injustice of it all, especially because he knows the system.

I advised him, “You don’t need to appeal it. It’s just a waste of time and resources. Just refile it. We’ll explain it, and we’ll get it approved again. Don’t worry.”

But he said, “No. I know you guys do appeals. I know you do a lot of 290Bs and motions to reopen. I want you to do it. Yes, it might be denied, but I need to put my foot down and explain to the government exactly why they’re wrong.”

It was a very interesting and nuanced situation. Almost 99% of my clients—especially Asian clients, whether they’re Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or any ethnicity in Asia—typically wouldn’t appeal.

Why? Because Asians as a population aren’t just timid; we’re also pragmatic. If appealing isn’t going to go anywhere, it’s seen as useless. So, why spend money and time on the principle of the matter?

But this white government official said, “No. The principle of the matter is important. The entire thing is about principles. I want you to sue them.”

So, we prepared the entire case. We filed the lawsuit. We refiled the case.

For their case, a normal marriage green card with a U.S. citizen shouldn’t be that difficult. But because of the age difference, the ethnicity difference, his government background, her overstay, and the previous denials, there were multiple red flags that they might challenge.

This is how it ended up:

• We filed the appeal.
• The appeal was later denied.
• We also filed the I-485, the I-130, the I-765, and the I-131.
• We prepared everything with an explanation of why it was previously denied.

Then the case got approved without an interview. The green card was immediately mailed to the house.

This happened in record time. Most of the time, it takes a year or longer to review everything. This was issued almost immediately.

I can’t tell you why exactly, but the client is adamant that it was because of his decision to file the appeal—even though the appeal was denied. He believes that because he fought for the principle of the matter, USCIS felt bad and approved his case much faster.

In my opinion, it’s because his case was very well done. From beginning to end, it was well-documented. He did a great job himself, and we helped him make it even better. Everything was clear-cut. They had already waited a long time the first time. It would have been unfair to make him wait a long time again.

That said, USCIS is a bureaucracy. They’re not paying attention to individual details in most cases.

I just wanted to share this story because if you’re considering whether you should sue the government—whether pragmatically or for the principle of the matter—if you ask this client, he will tell you to sue them.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us. We’d love to talk to you. Take care. Bye.