I-601A Waiver Application Approved

I-601A Waiver Application Approved

Our Immigration Law Group successfully represented a citizen of Mexico who had entered the United States without inspection obtain approval of a Form I-601A, Application for Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver, which will allow him to apply for an Immigrant Visa at the U.S. Embassy in Ciudad Juarez to return to the United States to lawfully reside with his U.S citizen wife and two daughters.

Our firm initially obtained an approval of an I-130 Petition filed by the U.S. citizen wife of our client (“the applicant”).  We then paid that National Visa Center fee bill and prepared the I-601 Waiver Application to demonstrate that the applicant’s wife would suffer extreme hardship if he were not permitted to remain in the United States with her.

The application was approved giving consideration to the totality of a range of factors which affected the applicant’s wife and revealed the many hardships she would have faced without her husband in the United States. In order for an I-601A application to be approved, the hardships the U.S. Citizen spouse would suffer must be considered to be beyond those ordinarily associated with separation from a spouse and rise to the level of extreme hardship.

Both the applicant and his wife submitted affidavits as part of the application detailing the hardships that would result and the affidavits gave details to the causes of the hardships. The application detailed five major factors which would cause extreme hardship to the applicant’s wife;

1)      Mental Health: The applicant’s wife suffered from mental health issues stemming from childhood abandonment. She was moved between various homes of abusive extended family members who did not care to look after her or her siblings. Following a psychological evaluation performed by a Clinical Psychologist it was determined that she would be subject to extreme hardship “within a degree of psychological certainty” should her husband be denied lawful status in the U.S. This was due to the loss of her husband possibly causing childhood feelings of abandonment to resurface and affecting her ability to work and look after herself and her children. News articles and reports on poor mental health care in the Mexico, and stigmatization of mental health disorders in the Mexico, were also included as additional support. The affidavit also stated how these mental health issues would be worsened by the lack of financial support if her husband were not present in the U.S.

2)      Financial Considerations: The applicant is the sole owner of a construction company that he single handedly is responsible for managing and the applicant’s U.S. citizen wife does not work. The applicant claimed that in being forced to leave the U.S he would lose the business, which is the major source of financial support for his family. Additionally, the applicant also owns rental property, which serves as income for his family which he manages.  Without the applicant in the U.S this income would no longer be available to support his family who would have no choice but to remain in the U.S., leaving them with no way to pay their bills or maintain their home. Additionally, the applicant could not support his family from Mexico due to high unemployment, extreme underemployment and bad poverty levels in their home town.  This is intensified due to fact that applicant hasn’t lived in Mexico for over a decade, and has no connections there which could benefit him. His wife, whose only qualification is high school level education through a GED, also has never held a full time job or worked since 2009.

3)      Education: the family’s eldest daughter has special education needs which she receives in the U.S and would not be available in Mexico. The applicant established that without him in the U.S the loss of these special education needs would cause his wife extreme psychological hardship. In addition to below average test scores, their eldest daughter is unable to recognize and read appropriate and or high frequency words and cannot follow instructions with minimal supervision. The applicant established that without him, his wife would not be able to cope with the perceived failure to provide for their daughter, and due to her own childhood abandonment would be mentally incapable of handling the thought of not providing for their daughter. Additionally getting these same special education needs would be impossible in Mexico.

4)      Personal considerations: the applicant’s wife has no immediate relatives living in Mexico; therefore there would be no one to help her adjust if she relocated to Mexico with her husband. While his wife does have relatives in the U.S., the application included statements from these family members explaining why they are unable to look after the family should applicant be made to leave the U.S.  Her parents are elderly, her sister has four children of her own and a very demanding job, and her brother also has his own family and attends college.

5)      Special factors: Lastly, due to rampant criminal activity in their local neighborhood and the dangerous conditions in Mexico, the applicant established his wife would suffer extreme physical and emotional hardship if she either remained in the U.S. without him or returned to Mexico with him. This is due to high crime rates in their neighborhood and drug related violence in Mexico. The applicant established it would be unsafe for his wife to face these types of conditions without him in the U.S and that the violence is too pervasive in their home country for him to protect his family.

In addition to the affidavits, bank and bill statements were also included as further evidence of the financial situation of the family.

With the approval of the I-601A we are now in the process of submitting the documentation to the National Visa Center for the immigrant visa interview to be scheduled at the U.S. Embassy in Ciudad Juarez.