Proving Extreme Hardship!!??

[Altiman14 0]

ok thanks so basically we have 2 options of a waiver after the K-1 is denied? And yes the child will be one point of topic in any waiver because I want it to be raised in the US and I think our family as a whole is better of in the US then Ukraine which is obvious. I dont think she would have any problem getting a very good job lined up so we dont know what waiver we are going to prepare. The waiver is what we are doing to try and eliminate the 3 year ban and have several very good arguments ready to try and prove but nothing seems easy and nothing will be easy with immigration. Its a sad sad thing and the rules a guidelines are all wrong in some situations and its awful the people who work for immigration and the people who make these laws dont realize it. Its almost like its a robot and no human being is working for them or makes the decisions. When talking about guarenteed denial in any situation just shows there is no heart and nothing matters to anyone who makes the calls with immigration and I think a lot of people would agree with me. Hopefully the waiver and even us as individuals for that matter will beat the system and have all good things to say shortly! haha I will love and only say positive things about it when they say APPROVED

[Wayne and Claudia 40]

You have asked this more than once and you have gotten the correct answer. NO she will not slip through the cracks, and you will make the situation worse if she attempts to LIE to the consular hoping they don't know she overstayed. Then she will get a misrepresentation charge, which will be even more difficult to overcome and puts the case under even more scrutiny.

There is a one in a million chance they will not have her record of previous entry and exit and overstay and grant her the VISA at the consulate. There is and even slimmer chance that she will get through the Customs station here at Point of Entry (POE). So lets say you hit the lotto and she did get by both the consulate the embassy it will eventually catch up with her on the Adjustment of Status, result in a deportation and finally the fraud charge because to have gotten this far she would have had to lie on the forms, so then she would not get to adjust and the mother of your child would be DEPORTED and then you would add deportation to the long list of problems you already have.

So, my advice is stop the magical thinking, learn about the waiver process, and get to work putting the waiver packet together. Its going to be expensive to hire an attorney and your child is being born in another country soon, if you want to resolve this as quickly as possible you should accept the reality and get to work on the solution. See below link for how to put together a waiver packet and what is considered a hardship under current law. Good luck

http://www.scottimmigration.net/I601Memo.pdf

The only "excuse for overstaying" is the truth. Don't lie whatever you do.

[Used to be broken 147]

ok thanks so basically we have 2 options of a waiver after the K-1 is denied? And yes the child will be one point of topic in any waiver because I want it to be raised in the US and I think our family as a whole is better of in the US then Ukraine which is obvious. I dont think she would have any problem getting a very good job lined up so we dont know what waiver we are going to prepare. The waiver is what we are doing to try and eliminate the 3 year ban and have several very good arguments ready to try and prove but nothing seems easy and nothing will be easy with immigration. Its a sad sad thing and the rules a guidelines are all wrong in some situations and its awful the people who work for immigration and the people who make these laws dont realize it. Its almost like its a robot and no human being is working for them or makes the decisions. When talking about guarenteed denial in any situation just shows there is no heart and nothing matters to anyone who makes the calls with immigration and I think a lot of people would agree with me. Hopefully the waiver and even us as individuals for that matter will beat the system and have all good things to say shortly! haha I will love and only say positive things about it when they say APPROVED

[Used to be broken 147]

Sorry about that..

The people who "enforce" the rules are going by the guidance and rules that Congress laid out. They have to work within the law. It makes them neither bad nor good and they are humans and although I don't know any of them personally it is my guess that this process is difficult for them. The intent of Congress in providing relief or "waiver" for certain circumstances is to reunify US Citizen family members. So your comment regarding "beat the system" is a bit off the mark.

The waiver is a LEGAL BENEFIT that you qualify for as a US Citizen to use to try to bring back your family. You will prevail by working within the system to demonstrate that you have a hardship that meets the legal standard. This is not "beating the system" this is using the correct language and evidence to prove your hardship.

Learning how the system works and how to address your hardship in terms that are legally constructed with evidence of those hardships is the key to getting your waiver approved.

You should find an attorney who is very familiar with waivers that have gone through the same consulate you will be working for, as they should have some feel for what the adjudicator has done/said in denials and approvals in the past which should be helpful in putting your waiver packet together.

[Altiman14 0]

I realize it's congress who makes the rules and understand completely its not the choice of the people who work there but I was saying that out of a bit of anger.. and as far as the "beat the system" comment that was also out of a little anger, just upset with it all. There will be no lieing what so ever and we are going to use accurate and very good arguements to try and "prevail" and hopefully we do. As far as an attorney goes it seems like there are no immigration attorneys around and very hard to come by exspecially one with knowledge and experiance in waiver situations, also some people have told me not to use an attorney and some have even said if immigration finds out an attorney was used its an automatic denial. Any thoughts? Also personally I think we have such good arguments for the waiver that it isnt going to be to difficult or time consuming its just a matter of laying the information out properly and with great information and proof.. Not saying its going to be easy and nothing will be difficult along the way just dont see a reason for an attorney at this point. That might change later on but we'll see. Thoughts? I have also read some other couples in this position and there timelines for all packets,visa's or petition forms and some have been so lucky to have theres approved in a few weeks to a couple months, others a few months and closer to a year, so it really just depends on information and arguements? It just seems like such a dramatic wait period fluctuation in all different cases and I dont understand that really.. what is the biggest factor in moving this process along quickly and smoothly? Thanks to you all for always responding to me too. I appreciate it

Edited November 2, 2010 by Altiman14

[Henykat 16]

You need a lawyer

[Used to be broken 147]

I realize it's congress who makes the rules and understand completely its not the choice of the people who work there but I was saying that out of a bit of anger.. and as far as the "beat the system" comment that was also out of a little anger, just upset with it all. There will be no lieing what so ever and we are going to use accurate and very good arguements to try and "prevail" and hopefully we do. As far as an attorney goes it seems like there are no immigration attorneys around and very hard to come by exspecially one with knowledge and experiance in waiver situations, also some people have told me not to use an attorney and some have even said if immigration finds out an attorney was used its an automatic denial. Any thoughts? Also personally I think we have such good arguments for the waiver that it isnt going to be to difficult or time consuming its just a matter of laying the information out properly and with great information and proof.. Not saying its going to be easy and nothing will be difficult along the way just dont see a reason for an attorney at this point. That might change later on but we'll see. Thoughts? I have also read some other couples in this position and there timelines for all packets,visa's or petition forms and some have been so lucky to have theres approved in a few weeks to a couple months, others a few months and closer to a year, so it really just depends on information and arguements? It just seems like such a dramatic wait period fluctuation in all different cases and I dont understand that really.. what is the biggest factor in moving this process along quickly and smoothly? Thanks to you all for always responding to me too. I appreciate it

There are plenty of attorneys with experience in I601 waivers. There is no reason to believe anyone telling you using an attorney will be an automatic denial. AILA is a good source to look for experienced Immigration Attorneys, some specialize in waivers. Laurel Scott has a practice dedicated exclusively to waivers. She is expensive but when you consider what the "stakes" are in this situation, it might be money well spent.

I certainly think in fact I know an approval can be obtained without an attorney, however having said that most of the people I know who have prepared their own waiver have spent about a year researching and preparing the packet. You have to submit the I130 first and then go through the NVC process so you have time to do research and get an education on the process.

While you may think you have "good arguments" to present in your waiver, its not the arguments that win the approval, its the evidence of the actual hardship proving your arguments are legitimate. You have to prove why it is an extreme hardship to live in the US without your spouse/fiance and why you cannot live with her in her own country. To be clear its not an emotional sappy story its a legal case, hence the reason many people employ an attorney to represent them and point them in the right direction in terms of collecting and documenting the hardship evidence and then making sense of that evidence in the legal brief that accompanies your letter and evidence.

As far as the time of processing figure how long it takes to get through USCIS and NVC, then the interview in the country your spouse will have the interview in. Not sure where Ukraine folks go to interview. Then you find out what jurisdiction the consulate or embassy your spouse interviews in is subject to, and they will have a sub-office that handles waivers. (USCIS website has this info) When you find that out, you can estimate based on other cases time in process how long it will take for the waiver to be decided. Processing times are all over the map, and so are adjudication standards. For example in CDJ Mexico they have a pilot program and a "triage" system where clearly approvable waivers are adjudicated in a couple days, those that are not clearly approvable are referred and take 6-12 months to be decided. London is taking almost a year, Athens, Moscow and Frankfurt are anywhere from 3-6 months.

I think to get some realistic sense of where you stand in terms of "approvability" you should spend the money to consult with an attorney. You should also spend as much time as you can reading AAO decisions on appeals, reading boards that have posted hardship letters, and posts of people that were approved and denied to get a feel for what adjudicators are looking at/for. The best cases and source of feedback are cases similar to your own, but also going through the same consulate which will be a challenge in Ukraine.

[Rosey 1]

i think u should get a lawyer.

i am in the same situation. i had my green card interview on oct 19,2010. my interview went very well but she said i need a waiver becoz i overstayed in US. I wish we could knew this before but my bad luck my baby is US citizen and she is with me from last 8 months in Canada. my hubby is US citizen too. my husband is spending thousands of dollars to visit us after every 2 weeks. now we found a lawyer to get the waiver done. please dont do it by yourself because if it denies then it will take more time. yes, it will cost more but your child and fiance is more important and worth a lot. we are getting all the documents done which will help us to get our waiver approved early. i dont have to go for the interview again. after my waiver will get approve..i just have to send my passport to get the visa from the US consulate in montreal.

hope it helps

I realize it's congress who makes the rules and understand completely its not the choice of the people who work ths ere but I was saying that out of a bit of anger.. and as far as the "beat the system" comment that was also out of a little anger, just upset with it all. There will be no lieing what so ever and we are going to use accurate and very good arguements to try and "prevail" and hopefully we do. As far as an attorney goes it seems like there are no immigration attorneys around and very hard to come by exspecially one with knowledge and experiance in waiver situations, also some people have told me not to use an attorney and some have even said if immigration finds out an attorney was used its an automatic denial. Andoy thoughts? Also personally I think we have such good arguments for the waiver that it isnt going to be to difficult or time consuming its just a matter of laying the information out properly and with great information and proof.. Not saying its going to be easy and nothing will be difficult along the way just dont see a reason for an attorney at this point. That might change later on but we'll see. Thoughts? I have also read some other couples in this position and there timelines for all packets,visa's or petition forms and some have been so lucky to have theres approved in a few weeks to a couple months, others a few months and closer to a year, so it really just depends on information and arguements? It just seems like such a dramatic wait period fluctuation in all different cases and I dont understand that really.. what is the biggest factor in moving this process along quickly and smoothly? Thanks to you all for always responding to me too. I appreciate it

[Altiman14 0]

So giving I have very good arguements and better proof of them and also getting an attorney to help me through the process would it be far fetched to say there is a possibility of her somehow being able to come back for spring time or summer?? This is just a give or take a little question obviously no one knows for sure. I am asking these questions while getting everything ready and doing other research so I dont want anyone to think im just sitting around asking stupid questions but it helps me get a outlook on everything because all of you have great feedback. Just was wondering because I want my son to be raised here and want them both back as soon as possible and dont want to get to the point or even think about having to take the baby away from her if he is getting older because eventually he will live his entire life here and I just want him here as soon as possible... Thanks everyone