VAWA, Part 24

[Rhema1 342]

59 minutes ago, Shroy123 said:

Hi. First of all I am soo sorry about your parents. May their soul rest in Peace Ameen !

 

second- your attorney messed up. Why the hell she didn't file I485 along with I360? If that was the case, you could have received work permit and travel document so that you could travel to your home country without parole.

 

third- " name has been updated " means uscis has touched your file and you will receive a notification on your case soon.

 

forth- do you have a visa to enter to states? If yes, you can come on that visa otherwise i don't think you are eligible to enter into usa without visa or travel document. Now i am not sure if you can file for i485 in your home country with pending i360. If yes, immediately file for it and also form i765 and i131 and come back once you get your combo card with in few months. 

 

fifth- since your spouse never filed for i130 i assume you don't have pending i485 with uscis. 
 

sixth- your current attorney is a piece of ... sorry about my language but some attorneys don't even know the process and file cases without any knowledge to get money from clients! 

I feel very sorry 😭😭😭

Her attorney really messed everything up.

How can you be a spouse of a USC and your lawyer asking to wait for the vawa approval before you can get an EAD/AP. 

That's terrible !!!

Just follow what has been said before. For I do think you can apply for I-485 along with the combo card outside the United states and go through a consular process 

Edited December 24, 2021 by Rhema1

[J2020 94]

5 minutes ago, Nick2020 said:

 

You need to hire better attorney, and file file I-485,I-765 and I-131, it does cost you for this but it will get you work permit and travel permit which will make you life little easier.

 

Good Luck.

Thank you for responding..

 

I asked her to get me a travel permit, or even a humanitarian parole but she said I can’t get a travel permit or status adjustment now and I have to wait for the I-360 to be accepted then go to the embassy to get a visa for entry.
 

I have asked her many times before I leave the states for the work authorization and the advance parole or travel permit but for over a year she kept repeating the same thing which is I won’t be able to get any of that till the I-360 is approved. I had no other choice but leave to see my parents. And now I’m just trying to see if there’s anyway I can do something that can help the process or reentry. Or even other people that are doing vawa thro consular processing with the embassy. 

[J2020 94]

10 minutes ago, Rhema1 said:

I feel very sorry 😭😭😭

Her attorney really messed everything up.

How can you be a spouse of a USC and your lawyer asking to wait for the vawa approval before you can get an EAD/AP. 

That's terrible !!!

Just follow what has been said before. 

She said USCIS won’t accept a request for an AP before the approval of the i-360

[Nick2020 47]

8 minutes ago, Mubja said:

She said USCIS won’t accept a request for an AP before the approval of the i-360

I had AP 18 months before USCIS approved I-360.

 

Is she a private attorney or work for some sort of organization which provides free service?

[J2020 94]

22 minutes ago, Rhema1 said:

I feel very sorry 😭😭😭

Her attorney really messed everything up.

How can you be a spouse of a USC and your lawyer asking to wait for the vawa approval before you can get an EAD/AP. 

That's terrible !!!

Just follow what has been said before. For I do think you can apply for I-485 along with the combo card outside the United states and go through a consular process 

So you think I can still apply for the I-485 and the combo card while I’m outside the US? That would be great 

[Rhema1 342]

18 minutes ago, Mubja said:

She said USCIS won’t accept a request for an AP before the approval of the i-360

That's why you need to file for the I-485 as the spouse of a USC. 

That will qualify you to the EAD/AP. 

You can file for it concurrently. 

But in this case you really need a different lawyer. For those two ones messed you up. 

@Demise @shiva32   , just to know  whether she can file for I-485 along with combo card  outside the USA. 

If yes , can she also apply for the fee waiver ?

Edited December 24, 2021 by Rhema1

[J2020 94]

4 minutes ago, Nick2020 said:

I had AP 18 months before USCIS approved I-360.

 

Is she a private attorney or work for some sort of organization which provides free service?

This makes me wanna cry rn. My attorney def messed up my situation. 
 

Yes the one that filed for me was a pro Bono through an organization that help victims of domestic violence. And now I have a paid attorney but she isn’t doing much either, she keeps telling me to just wait for the approval of the I-360 then contact the embassy for further processing. She also said there is no interview for vawa 

[Demise 1,322]

25 minutes ago, Rhema1 said:

That's why you need to file for the I-485 as the spouse of a USC. 

That will qualify you to the EAD/AP. 

You can file for it concurrently. 

But in this case you really need a different lawyer. For those two ones messed you up. 

@Demise @shiva32   , just to know  whether she can file for I-485 along with combo card  outside the USA. 

If yes , can she also apply for the fee waiver ?

Interim EAD and AP are both benefits associated with a pending I-485, doesn't matter if it's by marriage, other family relation (parent/child/sibling), work, VAWA, SIJ, S/T/U visa, registry or some other special basis. I think you only can't get AP if you are adjusting from asylum or refugee status where you should instead file for a refugee travel document if you need to travel, though I am not 100% sure on this one.

 

If you are seeking VAWA from abroad then I-485 for AOS isn't the right path to go via. You file a standalone I-360 seeking consular processing, upon approval you file DS-260 with the DOS, get an immigrant visa, pay the immigrant fee with USCIS, come to US on your IB1 or B21/BX1 visa, and wait for them to print and mail your green card. If you wrongly filed I-360 saying you will adjust from abroad then upon approval you'll file I-824 with USCIS to move the approved I-360 from USCIS to DOS.

 

Can you get a fee waiver? Yeah all VAWA associated applications (I-360, I-485, I-765 for either C09 or C31, I-131, EOIR-42B, I-90, I-751, or N-400) can seek a fee waiver. I am not 100% sure about the DOS associated fees like DS-260 or the immigrant fee but I think these too can be waived.

Edited December 24, 2021 by Demise

[J2020 94]

3 minutes ago, Demise said:

Interim EAD and AP are both benefits associated with a pending I-485, doesn't matter if it's by marriage, other family relation (parent/child/sibling), work, VAWA, SIJ, S/T/U visa, registry or some other special basis. I think you only can't get AP if you are adjusting from asylum or refugee status where you should instead file for a refugee travel document if you need to travel, though I am not 100% sure on this one.

 

If you are seeking VAWA from abroad then I-485 for AOS isn't the right path to go via. You file a standalone I-360 seeking consular processing, upon approval you file DS-260 with the DOS, get an immigrant visa, pay the immigrant fee with USCIS, come to US on your IB1 or B21/BX1 visa, and wait for them to print and mail your green card. If you wrongly filed I-360 saying you will adjust from abroad then upon approval you'll file I-824 with USCIS to move the approved I-360 from USCIS to DOS.

Thank you for the info, this help explain it more than what the attorney said. 
 

the I-360 was filed in 2020 while I was still living in California. But when I had to leave the states and my attorney said I’m not illegible for an AP till my I-360 is approved, I left the States to see my parents after the attorney assured me that I can still continue to process vawa and I-360 self petition through consular processing in the home country. 

[shiva32 240]

18 minutes ago, Rhema1 said:

That's why you need to file for the I-485 as the spouse of a USC. 

That will qualify you to the EAD/AP. 

You can file for it concurrently. 

But in this case you really need a different lawyer. For those two ones messed you up. 

@Demise @shiva32   , just to know  whether she can file for I-485 along with combo card  outside the USA. 

If yes , can she also apply for the fee waiver ?

 

13 minutes ago, Mubja said:

This makes me wanna cry rn. My attorney def messed up my situation. 
 

Yes the one that filed for me was a pro Bono through an organization that help victims of domestic violence. And now I have a paid attorney but she isn’t doing much either, she keeps telling me to just wait for the approval of the I-360 then contact the embassy for further processing. She also said there is no interview for vawa 

@Demise has the exact details nailed down in her post. But the bottom line is that you can't apply for I485 from outside the country , and consequently you can't apply for advance parole document to travel back to the United states. @Mubja  please let us know if you are 100 percent sure there was no i485 filed before you left USA.

[Demise 1,322]

2 minutes ago, Mubja said:

Thank you for the info, this help explain it more than what the attorney said. 
 

the I-360 was filed in 2020 while I was still living in California. But when I had to leave the states and my attorney said I’m not illegible for an AP till my I-360 is approved, I left the States to see my parents after the attorney assured me that I can still continue to process vawa and I-360 self petition through consular processing in the home country. 

Yeah he is correct.

 

Like you could maybe get humanitarian parole to come back to US but there's really no good guidance on this thing, especially that a pending I-360 doesn't guarantee approval and USCIS isn't particularly keen on granting it to someone who may become an overstay since you know, there's no solid guarantee that the I-360 will be ultimately approved.

Edited December 24, 2021 by Demise

[shiva32 240]

2 minutes ago, Demise said:

Yeah he is correct.

 

Like you could maybe get humanitarian parole to come back to US but there's really no good guidance on this thing, especially that a pending I-360 doesn't guarantee approval and USCIS isn't particularly keen on granting it to someone who may become an overstay since you know, there's no solid guarantee that the I-360 will be ultimately approved.

I disagree that her attorney was correct. The attorney could have concurrently filed I485 along with advance parole at the same time as the I 360, if her spouse was a U.S. citizen. She could have obtained emergency advance parole before she left, preventing the situation that she is in right now. At this point of time if she cannot get humanitarian parole, she has to wait till i360 is approved, and has to deal with any requests for evidence etc from outside the country. This nation is full of incompetent lawyers, I'm sorry that's becoming a personal pet peeve. 

[J2020 94]

7 minutes ago, shiva32 said:

 

@Demise has the exact details nailed down in her post. But the bottom line is that you can't apply for I485 from outside the country , and consequently you can't apply for advance parole document to travel back to the United states. @Mubja  please let us know if you are 100 percent sure there was no i485 filed before you left USA.

My spouse never applied to adjust my status through marriage that’s for sure. And my file for vawa self petition doesn’t have any i485 form at all. How can I know?

 

 

[J2020 94]

4 minutes ago, shiva32 said:

I disagree that her attorney was correct. The attorney could have concurrently filed I485 along with advance parole at the same time as the I 360, if her spouse was a U.S. citizen. She could have obtained emergency advance parole before she left, preventing the situation that she is in right now. At this point of time if she cannot get humanitarian parole, she has to wait till i360 is approved, and has to deal with any requests for evidence etc from outside the country. This nation is full of incompetent lawyers, I'm sorry that's becoming a personal pet peeve. 

It’s really unfortunate that the attorney made this huge mistake. 
 

Thank you so much for your assistance. This helps clarifying the situation, Appreciate you 

[shiva32 240]

1 minute ago, Mubja said:

My spouse never applied to adjust my status through marriage that’s for sure. And my file for vawa self petition doesn’t have any i485 form at all. How can I know?

 

 

FOIA request to USCIS. Also make it a point to please save each and every immigration document in physical and electronic form in the future. If you cannot advocate for yourself, it's unlikely anybody else will. For example I save all of my immigration documents in physical form in a locked cabinet, and also scan them all to Google Drive.