Citizenship Sample Cases from our office

We assisted our client, a U.S. citizen, in filing an I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, for his wife. Approximately 8 months after filing the petition we received notice that the case had been transferred to another USCIS service center. Three months later we received a denial notice giving the reason for denial as no record of a response to a Request for Evidence (RFE). The denial notice stated that the RFE was issued on a date that was a few weeks prior to the notice of the case transfer. We contacted USCIS and subsequently submitted an inquiry with the  USCIS Ombudsman’s Office because we had no record of the client or our law office receiving an RFE. We also filed a motion to reopen the case. The Ombudsman’s Office eventually informed us that, upon contacting USCIS on our behalf, that the case was being reopened as it appeared to USCIS that the initial RFE was never mailed. The RFE was re-ordered by USCIS and subsequently received. The passport photos requested in the RFE were provided and we requested the adjudication be expedited due to clear USCIS error. The petition was approved as was an I-485 subsequent petition for the beneficiary.

We filed an application seeking a waiver of the foreign residence requirement for our client based on exceptional hardship upon the client’s U.S. citizen child.  We argued that the minor child would suffer extreme hardship if he were forced to leave the U.S. with his mother to fulfill the two-year home residency requirement because of a serious medical condition, for which treatment was not readily available in the applicant’s home country.  We provided ample supporting documentation in this regard.

USCIS granted the waiver.

We filed an applicant's N-400 Petition for Citizenship where the applicant was out of the US for 400+ days. USCIS issued a RFE requesting information about the applicant's stay outside the United States without the requisite N-470. We were able to provide several arguments justifying the out of country stay, demonstrating that the applicant had no intention of abandoning US Permanent Residency.

We filed for Citizenship for a couple living and working overseas on an N-470 for a US company. The couple had met all the requirements for Citizenship, but the US employer needed them to remain overseas until the project was completed. During the processing of the application, they returned to the United States for the fingerprinting and interviews.

We filed for Citizenship for a couple living and working overseas on an N-470 for a US company. The couple had met all the requirements for Citizenship, but the US employer needed them to remain overseas until the project was completed. During the processing of the application, they returned to the United States for the fingerprinting and interviews. At the interview, they both passed the history and language tests, but were told that they could not be approved for Citizenship until after the foreign assignment was over and they had returned to reside permanently in the United States. According to the interviewer, N-470 preserves Permanent Residency but does not allow for the N-400 to be filed from overseas. Our office interpreted the N-470 regulations differently.

There were 4 applicants, all members of a family. USCIS denied them citizenship stating that they were not able to show that they maintained continuous residency requirements for citizenship. Two of the applicants were students. They had gone abroad to study. One of the students had a shoplifting charge against him in the USA and had this as additional ground for the denial.