Successful I-485 Despite Erroneous Presumption of Fraud

• Applicant: Ms. Maria Rosales
• Nationality: Mexican
• Case Type: I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or adjust status with potential denial for erroneous presumption of fraud
• Processing Time: 2 years and 2 months
• Challenges:
  1. USCIS believed Ms. Rosales had committed fraud which would permanently disqualify her from becoming a permanent resident of the U.S.
  2. Prior to coming to Tsang & Associates, Ms. Rosales had gone to multiple attorneys who all told her that her prior applications submitted would make it impossible for her to ever get her permanent residence (green-card).
  3. Her husband believed the advice of these attorneys and refused to financially or emotionally support his wife throughout the process.
  4. The accusations of fraud could have based on an incident that occurred in 1988 and on an application for her visa that were submitted by a legal representative from her country in 2000, which would make it difficult to prove her innocence.

BACKGROUND

It’s been said before, that big things come in small packages. A credit card, a wedding ring, a contract, a plane ticket, a word, a gesture, an e-mail, a letter of acceptance. Lives are often changed with the tiniest of pen strokes and the smallest of gestures. For Ms. Rosales, her life would forever be changed because of a singular stamp.

Ms. Rosales lived in California with her family. Her husband was a Lawful Permanent Resident and her children are all US citizens. Ms. Rosales, however, only had a ten-year tourist visa, which allowed her to travel between the U.S. and her home country of Mexico. She could not legally work with a tourist visa, so she focused her life on being a stay at home mom and taking care of her family, which Ms. Rosales was content with. The situation with her visa was not optimal, but she was willing to make sacrifices for her family. One day in 2010, Maria received one of life’s most dreaded phone calls; her father had passed away and the wake would be held the following morning. Ms. Rosales is first and foremost a family woman, so she did what any of us would do; she drove down to Mexico and spent time with her mother, her brothers, her sisters and her extended family. She mourned, she cried, she prayed, she supported her siblings and she spoke at his funeral. She was there in support when her family needed her most.

When it was time, Maria drove back to California to be with her children and her husband. When she went through customs, something strange happened — her customs officer was distracted. He scanned her passport and her visa but there was some commotion happening on the other side of the building. Officers were rushing across the office hurriedly shouting for others to follow. Ms. Rosales’ officer quickly handed the passport back to her with her visa and told her that she needed to leave immediately. Ms. Rosales didn’t think twice. She obeyed the officer and rushed out as she was instructed. She didn’t think much about it at all, but what she didn’t realize was that the officer neglected to stamp her passport. This small mistake would cause Ms. Rosales many problems when applying for her green-card.

Some years later, Ms. Rosales and her husband were pursuing green card applications and had hired an immigration lawyer. It was only after applying and being rejected that Ms. Rosales found out about the passport stamp. Her husband was approved for permanent residency, but Maria was not only rejected, but informed by her previous attorney that she could be accused of fraud on multiple accounts, which would mean she could never become a permanent resident. She asked the lawyer if she had any other option but he was not willing to take her case. Her previous attorney believed her case did not have any chance of being approved as the incident had taken place more than 30 years ago.

KEYS TO SUCCESS

As previously mentioned, there were many reasons as to why Ms. Rosales could not obtain her permanent residence. Each of these factors could theoretically forbid Ms. Rosales from ever becoming a permanent resident, and could even lead to her deportation. It was during this moment of desperation that Ms. Rosales decided to contact Tsang & Associates

A fraud charge is extremely serious but our team was willing to do everything necessary to help Ms. Rosales. First, our team needed to show that in order to deny Ms. Rosales her permanent residence based on a suspicion of fraud, USCIS would need to prove that that the fraud was committed in order to gain a benefit, when in reality the accusations were only part of the larger problem that consisted of many errors, confusion, and negligence.

Our legal team prepared an attorney response of (8) pages along with more than 100 pages of supporting documents including sworn and notarized affidavits which explained in detail why Ms. Rosales had not committed any sort of fraud and why she qualified for permanent residence.  Furthermore, our team also included arguments to support the fact that in the case that her permanent residence application was denied, Ms. Rosales would otherwise qualify for a waiver based on the extreme hardship to her Lawful Permanent spouse and U.S. Citizen children.

OUTCOME

After a lengthy and complicated two years, Ms. Rosales’ case was finally approved and she received her 10-year green-card. Our team of attorneys and staff decided to take on the case despite the fact that other offices turned her away.  Ms. Rosales can now focus on continuing to remain happily alongside her family and improve her quality of life.

*Name has been changed to protect client identity