SUCCESSFUL MOTION TO REOPEN

• Nationality: India
• Case: I-130 Petition for Alien Relative
• Challenges:
  1. The common mother had two different names.  This caused confusion for the officer.
  2. The Marriage certificate had not been created at the time of the common parent’s marriage.
  3. We needed to conduct a DNA test.  This is very time consuming as it required participation by the Petitioner, and the Beneficiary and Common Parent both in India

BACKGROUND

In May 2012, Petitioner filed an I-130 Petition for Alien Relative, the Beneficiary was the Petitioner’s brother.  A week later USCIS sent a Request for Evidence to the Petitioner to establish that the Beneficiary and the petitioner in fact share common parenthood with both the father and the mother. Two months later the Petitioner submitted an affidavit for the father’s name changes, a copy of the Beneficiary’s birth certificate, the affidavit of the Beneficiary explaining the lateness of the birth certificate registry, and other evidence.

Denial: On January 18, 2016 the adjudicating officer denied the I-130 Petition on the grounds that the officer was not convinced of the sibling relationship between Beneficiary and Petitioner. The adjudicating officer had felt that the inconsistent names of the family members raised doubts about the validity of the relationship.

KEYS TO SUCCESS

USCIS had recently approved the I-130 petition for the Petitioner on behalf of the common mother of the Petitioner and Beneficiary. This established that the USCIS had already reviewed and approved the familial link between the Petitioner and the listed mother. T&A submitted this as evidence to establish the link between the Petitioner and the common mother.

Affidavit Providing Evidence of Mother’s Name Change

T&A submitted an affidavit validating the common mother’s name change. The previous adjudicating officer for the I-130 petition in question was not provided with this document and denied the new I-130 petition in part because of the confusion regarding the mother’s identity.

Marriage Affidavit from common mother and common father

T&A submitted a copy of the common mother’s affidavit which stated that she and the common father, (deceased), were married and that a marriage certificate had not been created at the time of their marriage. Therefore, the mother’s affidavit was submitted in place of a marriage certificate. The affidavit demonstrated that their marriage occurred before the Beneficiary’s birth. By showing the marriage relationship between the common mother and the deceased father T&A was able to demonstrate the relationship between the Petitioner and Beneficiary.

Income Tax Card for Mother and Father

By showing the Income Tax Card, we established a legal, familial, and economic relationship between the common mother and the common father.

DNA Testing

DNA results performed between the Petitioner, the Beneficiary, and their common mother indicated with a “probability of maternity” that both were siblings to the same mother.  The new DNA evidence that we submitted suggested that a maternal link between Petitioner and Beneficiary was highly likely.

OUTCOME

Upon the submission of the new evidence and the filing of the Motion to Reopen, Tsang & Associates was able to win the I-130 petition.  USCIS accepted the familial relations between Petitioner and Beneficiary on the basis of the new evidence submitted by Tsang & Associates.

*Name has been changed to protect client identity