17 Dec Getson & Schatz, P.C. wins case before Board of Immigration Appeals
We filed an I-130 Petition with USCIS in order for a United States Citizen to petition her husband for permanent resident status. Following an interview at the USCIS Philadelphia District Office, USCIS issued a notice of intent to deny indicating that the foreign national husband had misrepresented that he was married on the visitor visa application he completed at the U.S. Embassy overseas. USCIS found that as a result of this misrepresentation his current marriage was bigamous and they intended to deny the I-130 Petition. Our client indicated that he did not personally complete and sign his visitor visa application and that he made no misrepresentation and never told a consular officer he was married. We obtained a handwriting expert to prove the application was not completed by our client and he did not sign it. Despite the overwhelming evidence from the handwriting expert that our client made no misrepresentation on his visitor visa application USCIS denied the I-130 Petition. We filed an appeal of the denial of the I-130 Petition with the Board of Immigration Appeals indicating that our client made no misrepresentation on his visitor visa application as indicated by the handwriting expert, that he was never married other than his current marriage to his U.S. Citizen spouse, that his current marriage was not bigamous, and that USCIS erred in denying the I-130 Petition. The Board of Immigration Appeals agreed with our position, granted our appeal, and remanded the case to USCIS for a new determination on the I-130 Petition.