I-601 waiver letter

[prpplague 0]

Comments???

I-601 Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility

"Extreme Hardship" request on behalf of XXXXXX (BGNxxxxxxxxxx)

from her husband XXXXXX

When entering the US in February of 2004, my wife XXXXX, was provided an I-94 form marked with "B-2 D/S". We called to verify the "until date" with BCIS. We were verbally told over the phone that blank dates defaulted to 6 months and "D/S" markings which are incorrect for the B-2 visa would default to 1 year. We were also told that we need not get a new or corrected I-94. With that information XXXXX stayed 1 year and 10 days as we prepared to move overseas to her home country of Barbados. Two years later as we filed for a IR-1 visa, we were told that DHS had ruled that it was to be a 6 month stay and not a 1 year stay, which places Donna with a 190 day overstay, which incurred a 3 year ban. Continuing the 3 year ban, which only 14 months remain, would prove to be an extreme hardship for me as a United States Citizen for the following medical, economic, and emotional reasons.

My father, XXXXXX, of XXXXX, Texas, has recently been diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia. Lewy body dementia (LBD) is a progressive brain disease and the second leading cause of degenerative dementia in the elderly. The clinical name, dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), accounts for up to 20% of all dementia cases, or 800,000 patients in the US. Over 50% of Parkinson disease patients develop Parkinson disease dementia(PDD), which accounts for at least 750,000 patients. (PDD is also a Lewy body dementia.) No cure or definitive treatment for Lewy body dementia has been discovered as yet. The disease has an average duration of 5 to 7 years. With this in mind, I would like to see my father as much as possible before he falls any sicker. In addition I wish for my son, who is a United States Citizen to know his grandfather while he can. My father has always been a vibrate youthful person and not being with him as he fades will be very detrimental to me as well as our family entire family.

In addition to my fathers illness, the economic hardships of living in Barbados have been tremendous. My current employer until recently has allowed me to telecommute to work in XXXXX, Texas. This has afforded me time to look at the local employment opportunities. My profession is that of embedded computer systems designer. There are currently no companies on the island of Barbados that do computer system designs. Although I do have cross training in other fields of computer science the only opportunities on the island are that of system administrator which would significantly reduce the amount of money I earn. In addition the cost of living in Barbados is extremely high. In order to provide my family with the standard of living available in the US, I would need to continue earning the same salary as I am currently paid from my US employer. Factoring in the cost of such items as private schools and medical care, the kind of life I can provide for my family is severely diminished. The public schools in Barbados are only available to Barbadian citizens so I am required to send our children to private school, which is still substandard compared to even the worst of US public schools. In addition I can not use any of the health care insurance provided my US based employer in Barbados. This means that in order to properly plan for emergencies I have to purchase locally provided insurance at great expense. As of January 15th my current employer is starting a new design project which requires me to be physically present in the XXXXXX, Texas office. Although I will not immediately loose my job if I am not present, it will severely affect my long term status at the company.

Continuing to live in Barbados or separating our family for the remaining time of the 3 year ban would have tremendous emotion repercussions. I have continued to be isolated from my family in which the cost of me to travel to the US or for them to visit me here is extreme. In addition to the heightened security measures for air travel, the process of visiting each other has been become very tedious. As a result of the isolation from both family and coworkers , as well as culture shock from moving to a country with a very unique culture, has caused me to suffer from sever depression at times. I am constantly treated as an outsider, and very disheartened when I am the only one around that is celebrating American holidays such as July 4th and Thanksgiving. Even as a person who served in the US Army, I honor those who died at Pearl Harbor on December 7th. These are the holidays I wish my our children who are US citizens to honor and celebrate. My son's mother died just before Thanksgiving of 2004. Although he hasn't forgotten his mother, he thinks of XXXX as his mother now. They have grown very close and share a strong bound. If we had to separate for the remaining 14 months of XXXXX's ban, he would suffer greatly. With the loss of his mother, this would feel as he had lost XXXXX as well.

In summary, you should be able to recognize that I have some very strong medical, economic, and emotional reasons for requesting approval of this waiver. XXXX and I consider ourselves very law abiding people, however, even the most honorable people can make unintentional mistakes and violate the law. We wish to correct our mistake properly and legally.We wish to return to the United States as a family. We hope with this letter, showing the reasons that not returning to the US would prove to be extreme hardship on our family, will lead you to approval of this waiver.

[riblet 0]

It seems well written and compelling to me. There are a few grammatical errors (if you wanted to know), but you'll probably catch most of those on a careful rereading.

Good luck, and sorry about your father.

Edited December 7, 2006 by riblet

[prpplague 0]

It seems well written and compelling to me. There are a few grammatical errors (if you wanted to know), but you'll probably catch most of those on a careful rereading.

Good luck, and sorry about your father.

hehe yea, it was a rough draft, gonna re-read it like 10 times tonight and make some tweaks

thanks

[prpplague 0]

Good luck, and sorry about your father.

thanks, it has been very rough on my family. he has always been a very inteligent, thoughtful, outgoing person. it has been hard for us to watch him fade like this. i don't belive my brother, sister and i have every gotten over looking at our father as a superhero in our eyes.

[kitkat1 5]

prpplague, if you haven't already posted this on immigrate2us.net, I would do so there for a lot of feedback.

Not sure what your attachments are but the guideline for 601 waivers is that each and every hardship has to be documented and proven. That means you need to have information from your father's doctor on his condition, information on the unemployment rate in Barbados (and any special certification you might need in order to be qualified to work there), information on your current health insurance and the cost vs. what you would receive there, the cost of living in Barbados, information on the school systems etc. I would also consider an into section explaining that you are currently living there because you want your family together, but how this will not be possible for much longer for various reasons (employment, medical, financial, separation from your father, etc.) Otherwise I'd be afraid their focus could be on the fact that you are surviving there and lead them to question why you couldn't do it long term. Of course it's meant to be obvious in your letter, but it might be smart to address somewhere, in an intro, that this situation cannot continue. Hope that makes sense. Good luck!

[Mr and Mrs Bird 0]

Hi

I agree with kitcat.

It's very importent that they don't see that you survive this situation in her country.

For the same reason my american fiance and I are seperated and now for 2 years.

I am from Denmark Europe and all our hardship letters tells how much it would affect everything if he has to live here instead.

Recently I realized that they don't even look at our feelings being seperated.

They only look at his hardship to leave everything in us.

Danish is a very hard language to learn especially for a man at 47 year.

And here he would have to learn danish before he could get a job.

That's a thing we are using alot to mention in our hardship letters.

Also we have hired an immigrant lawyer to help us.

He knows all the tricks I can tell.

I see your letter very well written but you really need all your famely and friends to write one too.

I wish you so much luck with all this.

Sweetie

[prpplague 0]

Hi

I agree with kitcat.

It's very importent that they don't see that you survive this situation in her country.

For the same reason my american fiance and I are seperated and now for 2 years.

I am from Denmark Europe and all our hardship letters tells how much it would affect everything if he has to live here instead.

Recently I realized that they don't even look at our feelings being seperated.

They only look at his hardship to leave everything in us.

Danish is a very hard language to learn especially for a man at 47 year.

And here he would have to learn danish before he could get a job.

That's a thing we are using alot to mention in our hardship letters.

Also we have hired an immigrant lawyer to help us.

He knows all the tricks I can tell.

I see your letter very well written but you really need all your famely and friends to write one too.

I wish you so much luck with all this.

Sweetie

yea we had some documentation, but not as much as i would like. we had about 12 hours notice for the appointment. the consular general said he'd prefer to go ahead and get it filed. both the consular general and the consul officer we dealt with added notes of support and requests for expidited processing. the consular general was pretty adimant that it would be approved.

[kitkat1 5]

Just so you know, you CAN send additional documentation after the 601 hardship letter submission. So if you are able to get more, you may wnt to send it. You don't need to have letters from family or friends -- but the more hard proof you can submit of your hardships, the better off you will be. good luck.

Hi

I agree with kitcat.

It's very importent that they don't see that you survive this situation in her country.

For the same reason my american fiance and I are seperated and now for 2 years.

I am from Denmark Europe and all our hardship letters tells how much it would affect everything if he has to live here instead.

Recently I realized that they don't even look at our feelings being seperated.

They only look at his hardship to leave everything in us.

Danish is a very hard language to learn especially for a man at 47 year.

And here he would have to learn danish before he could get a job.

That's a thing we are using alot to mention in our hardship letters.

Also we have hired an immigrant lawyer to help us.

He knows all the tricks I can tell.

I see your letter very well written but you really need all your famely and friends to write one too.

I wish you so much luck with all this.

Sweetie

yea we had some documentation, but not as much as i would like. we had about 12 hours notice for the appointment. the consular general said he'd prefer to go ahead and get it filed. both the consular general and the consul officer we dealt with added notes of support and requests for expidited processing. the consular general was pretty adimant that it would be approved.

[prpplague 0]

Just so you know, you CAN send additional documentation after the 601 hardship letter submission. So if you are able to get more, you may wnt to send it. You don't need to have letters from family or friends -- but the more hard proof you can submit of your hardships, the better off you will be. good luck.

yea i found that out yesterday. as soon as the rest arrive by mail, i'll forward them to the santa domingo sub office.