Questions for parent with criminal records :(

[Boiler 45,488]

Extreme Hardship
The BIA has avoided ever clearly defining extreme hardship, insisting that it is up to each individual adjudicator to decide . “Extreme hardship” can very vaguely be defined as greater than the normal hardship the qualifying relative can be expected to experience if the alien is denied admission. It is important to prove both why the qualifying relative cannot move abroad AND why the qualifying relative cannot simply live in the US without the alien. The extreme hardship must always be to the qualifying relative. Extreme hardship to others, such as the alien him/herself or the alien’s children will only be considered insofar as it is an extreme hardship to the qualifying relative. It is insufficient to prove that the qualifying relative has elderly or sick relatives; one must show the link between the medical condition and the waiver, i.e. one must prove how the problem is made better by the alien’s presence or qualifying relative’s presence in the US or made worse by said person’s absence from the US. If the argument is that someone related to the case requires care due to a medical issue, one must prove why the person’s siblings, parents or adult children are unable to provide the care in the absence of the alien or qualifying relative. The best arguments for the case will always be unique to the facts of the case. There is not standard set of hardships to be argued in any case and in fact two cases may have an entirely different set of arguments with no overlap. As was described above, the more aggravating factors there are in a case, the stronger the extreme hardship must be in order to expect approval. A case without aggravating factors may win with a weak hardship case, and in fact most of my approvals have what I would consider to be weak hardship cases. Just to give the reader an idea of what some stronger arguments might be and what some weaker arguments might be, I’ve provided some examples below, categorizing them by the strength of the argument. A case may still be approvable even if none of the arguments used appear on the lists below. For the lists below, “QR” = qualifying relative.

Compelling arguments
(a) QR has a MAJOR medical condition (e.g. brain tumor, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy) which makes QR unable to move abroad and for which QR absolutely needs Alien in the US to help take care of him/her,
(b) QR is caring for an elderly, chronically ill, or disabled relative who needs constant care and whose condition is bad enough that QR either MUST live with the relative or QR MUST spend at least an hour a day assisting the relative with things like hygiene or physical therapy, and this makes QR unable to move abroad and makes him/her really need Alien in the US to help him/her care for his/her relative and manage his/her other responsibilities, or
(c) Alien's country is in a state of active war or major political upheaval .

Stronger arguments
(a) QR is the primary caregiver for his/her child(ren) from a prior relationship and the child(ren)'s other parent will not allow the children to be taken out of the country AND the child(ren) have formed an emotional attachment to Alien
(b) QR has a serious medical condition that makes it very difficult for QR to move abroad and QR needs Alien to provide help (e.g. QR needs to have major surgery sometime in the next year, with an expected recovery time of several months),
(c) QR is caring for a moderately disabled relative who normally can care for him/herself but occasionally has episodes in which he/she needs a lot of help from QR and during those times QR, in turn, needs help from Alien,
(d) a relative is unusually financially dependent on QR (e.g. QR's mother has just gone through a nasty divorce with QR's father in which she got nothing and because she has never worked, she doesn't qualify for social security, so QR is supporting her in the entirety for the rest of her life), or
(f) Alien's country is on the verge of major political unrest or negative political change or the country is known for oppression of one sort or another (e.g. QR is a Christian woman and Alien is from Saudi Arabia), or it is in the infant stages of post-war recovery.

Moderate arguments
(a) QR is the non-custodial parent of a child from a prior relationship and has an actual relationship with that child and the child's other parent will not allow QR to take the child out of the country but Alien does not have a relationship with the child at this time,
(b) QR been diagnosed by a licensed psychologist/psychiatrist with clinical depression due to Alien's immigration problems and has been attending regular therapy sessions for a period of six months or more at the time the waiver application is filed,
(c) QR and Alien have young children together or QR has full custody of QR's child and can bring him/her abroad and Alien's home country has bad public health conditions and bad public education,
(d) QR's job requires a license in both the US and abroad and it will be very difficult to get licensed abroad (e.g. attorney, medical doctor),
(e) QR has job skills that are very specific to the US (e.g. a tax accountant with extensive familiarity with US tax law),
(f) Alien's country has one of the very worst economies in the world,
(g) QR has a close relative who is partially dependent on QR financially (e.g. QR's mom gets social security but needs QR's extra $500 per month to stay in her present apartment) or physically (e.g. QR's mother functions well now, but her health has been declining and it is expected she will need more of QR's help in the near future), or
(h) QR has a child that he/she is about to put through college (note, some offices consider this a stronger argument, some consider it a weaker one).

Weaker arguments
(a) QR has debts he/she wouldn't be able to pay if they moved abroad,
(b) Alien's country has a high unemployment rate and wages are low,
(c) Alien's country has a high rate of violent crime and/or kidnapping ,
(d) QR has been depressed or anxious due to the situation , but has not been attending regular therapy sessions for a period of six months or more at the time the waiver application is filed,
(e) QR's parents are aging,
(f) QR wife is getting older and wants to have children, or
(g) QR or QR’s parent or child has high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, asthma, allergies, autism/Asperger’s, or ADD/ADHD.

[curiousfox 1]

15 hours ago, carmel34 said:

Has she been filing US tax returns since she naturalized?

We may have done this incorrectly, but I believe she's never filed individually since she never worked since moving to USA, let's say 0 income for 20+ years. Dad was sole earner (and yes filing taxes yearly).

[Redro 4,611]

14 minutes ago, curiousfox said:

We may have done this incorrectly, but I believe she's never filed individually since she never worked since moving to USA, let's say 0 income for 20+ years. Dad was sole earner (and yes filing taxes yearly).

So, to make things easier- you should file for your dad. Parent of USC and spouse of USC are both immediate relatives so they’re both fairly quick compared to other family visas. 
Your mother should have been filing taxes even if she made $5 a year (in interest) as someone married… even if your mother isn’t going to petition your father she should back file taxes as USCs and residents should file US taxes every year. 
Is your father still filing US taxes even though he is no longer a resident? If so… to make things simpler they should have filed jointly. 
Have you consulted with a lawyer and gotten similar feedback or are you still waiting for answers? 
Is the lawyer aware your father traveled to US on ESTA? Or did he just travel to the US when he has to sign I407? 

Edited June 28, 2023 by Redro