31 Mar Motion to Reopen I-130 Petition Granted for Failure of Petitioner to Receive Notice of Request for Evidence
Our client had self-filed an I-130 Petition on behalf of her sister 7 years ago. Because of the long waiting period for siblings of U.S. citizens to immigrate to the United States USCIS takes several years to adjudicate sibling I-130 Petitions. Our client changed her address and USCIS sent a Request for Evidence to her old address which she never received. When no response was received to the Request for Evidence USCIS denied the Petition due to abandonment. Our client eventually discovered that the I-130 Petition had been denied, did a Freedom of Information Act Request to obtain a copy of her file, and then came to us for assistance. We filed a Motion to Reopen the denied I-130 Petition setting forth the efforts our client had made to advise of her address change, citing the applicable code of federal regulations for reopening a petition denied due to abandonment, providing the evidence that had been requested in the Request for Evidence, and indicating the prejudice our client would suffer if the I-130 Petition was not reopened and she had to file a new I-130 Petition with a new priority date, thereby losing 7 years of time for her sister to have the opportunity to immigrate to the United States. USCIS approved our motion to reopen and simultaneously approved the I-130 Petition. Our client and her sister were ecstatic with the result.