18 Mar Getson & Schatz, P.C. Provides Evidence to Immigration Judge that Client did not make any Material Misrepresentations on Form I-9
Getson & Schatz represented a client from Ethiopia who entered the U.S. on a nonimmigrant F-1 student visa. The client subsequently stopped attending the school for which his F-1 student visa was granted and was employed without employment authorization. The Department of Homeland Security eventually found our client to be out of status and placed him into removal proceedings by serving a Notice to Appear. Our firm requested a discretionary relief for our client in the form of adjustment of status based upon his bona fide marriage to a US Citizen. The government puts the burden on the foreign national to prove that he is eligible for this relief under the law and that he deserves such relief as an exercise of discretion. Several requirements must be met in order for the foreign national to be considered for the relief of adjustment of status including that the foreign national is admissible and an immigrant visa is immediately available at the time of application. In order to seek this discretionary relief, we had to prove that the positive factors relevant to our client’s application outweighed the negative factors. Some of the evidence that we presented included his strong family ties in the United States including his U.S. citizen wife, U.S. citizen children, his U.S. citizen siblings, and his legal permanent resident mother. A significant hurdle our client faced was proving that he was admissible to the United States because the Department of Homeland Security argued before the Immigration Judge that our client had made a material misrepresentation on Form I-9 with his private employer. Our firm successfully argued to the Immigration Judge that our client did not make a material misrepresentation on his private employment-related I-9 form under a statute that would make him inadmissible. The Court subsequently granted the discretionary relief to our client. Our client is now able to remain in the United States with his wife, children, and his other family members as a Permanent Resident.