Okay, so I married to an American citizen.
We met in 2010, spent 7 years in a long distance relationship, got married in 2017, and shortly after she moved up to live with me in Edmonton.
She has 4 older children from her first marriage and I have 2 younger daughters from my first marriage.
We made a deal when she moved up that when my daughters were all done with school, we would move back to the USA.
My youngest daughter finished school in June of 2022.
Knowing that the whole process would take a while we started the immigration process in June of 2021.
In October of 2021, my oldest daughter (who was 20 at the time and her 21st birthday was in November of 2021) decided she wanted to move with us so we submitted the paperwork to add her petition.
We received our approvals in March of 2022.
Other than taking a long time, the process has been a fairly smooth one.
We did our medical exams in December of 2022 and had our interviews on January 4th of 2023 at the consulate in Montreal.
They asked me 3 questions and asked my daughter 2 questions.
They rejected my wife's divorce documents from her previous marriages saying they were not certified copies or originals and told me I got the wrong criminal background check.
They also told me I would receive an email with a bunch of supplemental questions.
They informed us that our cases were going into administrative processing.
They kept my daughter's passport, but sent me home with mine.
We sent the replacement documents and my passport to the consulate 3 weeks later.
The email with the supplemental questions arrived on January 30th and the answers were returned the same day.
My passport was sent back to me a few days later.
As of today it's been 109 days with 3 updates on the CEAC website.
I have prompted the consulate for an update on our cases twice with the standard 2 page email coming back from the email service that basically says you have to be patient and wait.
On Monday we had a zoom session with a lady on the Josh Goldstein legal team to discuss a WOM suit.
I have been going back and forth via email with her all week.
She told me that they can help me with a Mandamus suit, but they can't help my daughter.
She told me that because my daughter turned 21 during the process she is no longer being treated as a child, that her application is now in the F1 category, and will not be current for several years.
This didn't make sense to me.
If that is the case why does the approval notice still say she’s classified as an unmarried child under the age of 21?
Why did they have her do her medical now?
Why did they have her come for an interview if she’s still 5 or so years away from being eligible for approval?
Why didn’t they inform us of this?
Why did they keep her passport in Montreal?
Did they think she wouldn’t need it for the next 5 or so years?
So I dug into it.
Her CEAC account still says her Visa is an F11 which comes up on Google as the unmarried son or daughter of a U.S. citizen.
I also dug into USCIS Child Status Protection Act which states:
C. Immediate Relatives
1. Applicability
In order to qualify for CSPA:
· The adjustment applicant must have had one of the following approved or pending on or after the CSPA’s effective date: a qualifying Petition for Alien Relative (Form I-130), Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant (Form I-360), or Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status (Form I-485);
· The applicant must have been under the age of 21 and unmarried at the time the qualifying Form I-130 or Form I-360 was filed; and
· The applicant must remain unmarried.
If the petitioner of a pending or approved IR spousal petition dies, the spousal Form I-130 automatically converts to a widow(er)’s Form I-360.[12] The widow(er)’s child(ren), if any, must be under the age of 21 and unmarried at the time of the petitioner’s death to be classified as derivatives on the automatically converted Form I-360, regardless of whether the child(ren) had a separate pending or approved Form I-130 at the time of the petitioner’s death.[13]
Similarly, the beneficiary of a pending or approved spousal Form I-130 may subsequently file a VAWA-based Form I-360. In order to include his or her child(ren) on the self-petition as derivatives, the child(ren) must be under the age of 21 and unmarried when the Form I-360 is filed, regardless of whether the child(ren) had a separate or approved Form I-130 when the Form I-360 was filed.[14]
2. Determining Child Status Protection Act Age
For IRs and IR self-petitioners or derivatives under VAWA, a child’s age is frozen on the date the Form I-130 or Form I-360 is filed, respectively. For derivatives of widow(er)s, a child’s age is frozen on the date the Form I-360 is filed or the spousal Form I-130 is automatically converted to a widow(er)’s Form I-360 (in other words, the date of the petitioner’s death). If the adjustment applicant was under the age of 21 at the time the petition was filed or automatically converted, the applicant is eligible for CSPA and will not age out.
My daughter was under 21 and unmarried at the time we filed the I-130 for her and remains unmarried today so should she not be protected by this law?
I put all these questions to the lady at Josh Goldstein's law firm and haven't heard back yet.
Something doesn't add up to me.
Am I missing something or is she mistaken?
I'm thinking of speaking to another law firm today about all of this.
I have seen the Hacking firm mentioned and PIC.
Hacking was easy to find.
Who or what is PIC?
