Great victory -- probably

I recently had a great victory in immigration court. But it was not so much a victory for me as it was for my country. My client came to me about a year ago. He was an illegal alien who had been present in the US for 15 years. His wife, for much of that time, was a US citizen. She never took any steps to gain his permanent residence. The couple had two children, boys, eight and 12. When I met my client his children were being held illegally out-of-state by his US citizen wife who assured him that his lack of status meant that she kept the kids and that the bully wins.

Not while I have anything to say about it.

I encouraged my client to contact a family attorney to get the return of his kids. He did have them pursuant to a lawful court order, and his wife's seizure of his children was against the law. The fact that he had no legal status here did not make any difference, I am happy to say. The children were returned to him within a reasonable time.

My client initially had custody of his kids because a judge in another state had found their mother to be dangerous and hazardous to them. For the same reason I believed the US government would look favorably upon application for cancellation of removal from my client. This application requires my client to prove he has been here more than 10 years, and that his deportation would work an exceptional and extremely unusual hardship upon his US citizen children or spouse.

Once we collected evidence in the case, it appeared clear that my client saved his children from a very dangerous mother. We went to court, explained the circumstances, and I am very confident that when the judge makes his decision we will win (bizarre court rules mean he cannot rule until October). It is not often that I am so proud of the people I represent. But something about this client was special to me.

One of the great things about being an immigration attorney is seeing how important it is to some parents that their children have a chance at success.

An education in immigration

I became an immigration lawyer because I did not really want to be a lawyer. I found that in 1996 I could be an incompetent nice guy who sat next to my clients while they got green cards. There was not much lawyering involved. I encouraged my clients to tell the truth, and I used to point out weak points of my cases so that the officer could do a thorough investigation and be satisfied that the relationship was real.

Immigration made sense back then. The immigration service showed me by their actions that they believed good people should get green cards and that bad people should be shown the door. For nearly any crime an alien could request a waiver of deportation, citing humanitarian or other equitable grounds. Although the crime of marriage fraud existed, no cases were pursued in Tampa. A marriage that did not meet the bona fide requirements of the Tampa office was simply denied. People who believed in their bona fide marriages continued to immigration court, others went back home.

Immigration was not about "national security." Immigration was not about reminding people from other countries that they are not us. Immigration was not about preventing nice people from immigrating. Immigration was about helping good people enter the US while trying to prevent bad people from entering the US. What is a good or bad person was up for debate in any given case.

The immigration officers at the time had broad discretion to decide cases as they saw fit. I learned that in nearly every case there appeared to be some technical violation of the immigration law somewhere (there are a lot of laws), but that a wise immigration officer would decide whether or not to create an issue on a given application depending on whether or not they thought the applicant was a good or a bad person. They would look to tax records, criminal records, and will make a determination about the person based on the record in front of them. The law was used to make it more difficult for bad people to apply for residency. There were times when good people would get kind of a pass. By "pass" I mean that the immigration officer would determine a waiver was not required, although maybe one should have been required, or the immigration officer would not ask questions about an area where there was clearly trouble, but where the trouble served no purpose, as in the case of previous unauthorized employment, the nature of previous marriages, and other issues outside the purview of an application for adjustment of status.

Now it appears that the immigration officers have no ability to decide if the people in front of them are good or bad, as they have been told to assume that everyone is bad. The law is used to delay and harass aliens applying for lawful permanent residence, regardless of whether or not they are good or bad people. The local office in Tampa acts as if there is a magical application for every circumstance, and any technical default in any case will result in them denying jurisdiction or denying a case.

I know that the immigration officers are frustrated, because I can see it in their eyes. These are generally good people who want nice people to move to the US. But the level of proof now required for a simple marriage or other immigration case is beyond any reasonable level.

I was reviewing an interview I attended regarding removal of conditions in 2006. I was with an officer who has a great reputation for knowing who is or is not telling the truth. My white Canadian client was applying for removal of conditions based on her short term marriage to a black US citizen man. My records show that we presented about 10 pieces of paper, and that the officer asked six questions of my client, determined she was telling the truth, and ended the interview, granting lawful permanent residence without conditions.

Such a simple interview is unthinkable now. For removal of conditions married couples are sometimes denied, as their currently real and existing marriages are deemed not real enough. I can tell you that the law in 2012 is no different than the law in 2006 or even 1998. The attitude of CIS is different. What is also different is the many and numerous obstacles that have been put in the way of ordinary and regular people getting the benefits they deserve from the federal government.

I have seen too many clients open themselves up to ridiculously detailed testimony regarding relationships and events from long ago for no purpose. I have seen the pain on my client's faces as they told the truth to a painful degree, only to be called a liar. I win in the end, but the toll on my clients. and their faith in the United States, compelled me to act more aggressively.

No one is served by the current immigration policies at Tampa CIS. Not the government, not aliens, not US citizens, nobody.

I did not want to be a lawyer, but the US government has forced me to be one. This is my country too. My clients have officially "lawyered up" for the duration. Instead of being free with evidence and testimony, we will give only what is required by law, not by Tampa CIS. When CIS does not agree with me, then I will simply go see the Judge in Immigration Court.

Feels like the first time!

You would think after doing this lawyer thing for awhile once could just coast, right? Name recognition and reputation are all you need, right? Wrong. I must admit that I have not been doing all I can to be the great lawyer I know I am. Today I renew my dedication to my career and my clients. Watch out CIS!

There is no bad news for current clients. Everything will continue to be great. But future clients will be evaluated carefully to make sure that they are right for my firm. I find that I work best with people who are invested in their future. Trying to help someone who refuses all help is frustrating.

It will be just as easy to hire a lawyer from my office for great immigration work. It will just not be so easy to hire me to handle your case. I will focus on a small number of extremely important cases, while overseeing the other cases in the office but leaving routine work for another attorney.

I have been doing this a long time. I know a great deal. But by pulling back and taking fewer clients as personal projects I will be better able to help all of the clients of my firm.

Neil

September 2011

The world is beautiful, the air smells better, food tastes better, and I now wear pants that are six inches less around the waist than pants I wore just three years ago. I have been through some changes!

In 2007 I weighed 250 pounds on my 5'10" frame -- at last check I weighed 205. I am stronger, smarter, and more ready to help my clients than every before!

And this is good, because while the law may be getting nicer, CIS sure is not. Other lawyers used to be jealous that I worked in Tampa, where the relationship between lawyers and government was not at all contentious. This was good because with lawyers involved many more cases can be handled more quickly than without. I used to just try to make the ISO's job easy when I saw them. Those days appear to be over. It appears that CIS Tampa is no longer interested at all in what lawyers want or how we can help move cases along.

Even the most mild mannered lawyers I know are getting mad about the treatment our clients are getting in Tampa. It is not too much to ask that the people who work for the local CIS office do their best to do their jobs as quickly as possible. Lawyers help, we do not hurt. If CIS chooses not to work with us, they will find AILA lawyers to be a persnickety, nitpicky bunch. I am not sure that any dispute will end well, and I hope CIS comes around.

Neil Lewis

Excitement at ICE

Excitement at Immigration and Customs Enforcement

My client was pending removal to Egypt. He had been ordered removed following NSEERS registration in 2002 and his request for political asylum based on his status as a Christian who feared returning to Egypt was denied. The appeal was denied and my client filed two Motions to Reopen, but neither was successful.

He received what I call a “please come so we can arrest you” letter. He was represented by a well-respected area immigration attorney. This attorney was the kind of attorney I respect and trust. My advice would have been to never appear. Make them come get you if they want you.

This attorney told my client that he HAD to appear, and that his lawyer would fire him if he refused to go with him. In a similar case recently, another client got a letter like that. We did not appear and later received a letter to go to Immigration Court. There are times when reporting to Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a good idea – that was not one of those times.

Since my client appeared at that interview, he now has an ankle bracelet and is being forced to leave the US for Egypt on March 15, 2011. My client called me for a second opinion. He wanted to know what he could do. He understood that he could return to Egypt and come back based on his bona fide marriage to a US citizen, so long as the needed waiver of inadmissibility was granted.

My client was looking at Egypt with great fear. He knew that Mubarak was gone and that religious tensions could explode at any time. He watched the church bombing and the religious violence with great trepidation, and he had no interest in returning to Egypt, because he feared he might die there.

I told my client to tell his lawyer to file a Motion to Reopen. His lawyer refused, for reasons I do not understand. My client fired him and came to me. When I filed the Emergency Motion to Reopen and Stay, I could tell him that now he at least had a CHANCE of not leaving the US.

My client’s US citizen wife has a list of terrible maladies that should assist the BIA in making the right and correct decision. As I understand it, I need to show that there is a good chance that my motion will be successful to gain the stay.

I imagine that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would let my client remain in the US no matter what the BIA does, but the deportation officers do seem quite relieved that my client has a lawyer looking out for him now.

UPDATE : My client’s Request for Emergency Stay was granted and he has a chance of remaining in the US for life.

The unknown immigration war

The main thing that irritates me now about immigration law is the SHAME that my clients are starting to feel for being illegal. The cannot get IDs, they cannot work, if they talk to a policeman they might get arrested. It is no wonder I meet so many abused women in my practice, as they are all terrified that their US citizen husbands or boyfriends have the power to make them return home whenever they say.

Things have changed so much. When I moved to Florida, I have to admit, it bothered me to wait in line behind illegal immigrants to get my first Florida driver's license. We may have been too permissive then.

But now it seems we have gone overboard in the other direction. My practice, which used to consist of business immigration, family immigration and some deportation has become 50% deportation because so many people are being arrested, threatened and tormented for the "crime" of being born in the wrong country.

You would not believe how many nice aliens I know who are being (for lack of a better word) screwed with by the government because of indifference or sloth on the part of government employees. or because the letter of the law, interpreted harshly, suggests that maybe, maybe, they might be deported.

You would not believe the enormous jail we have in Florida (and there are more in other states) where we keep only NONCRIMINAL aliens who are facing deportation. Why do we lock up so many noncriminals who are a threat to no one? I do not know. Why do noncriminals face the toughest Immigration Judge in Florida? I do not know.

All of this is unfair, ridiculous, and unAmerican. It must change.

Dream the impossible dream

I have a number of outstanding victories lately that I would like to share with you.

Case #1. A Family torn apart.

USC husband, Mexican wife and two USC kids. They went to an "attorney" in Pinellas and the result of his fine representation was that the wife was banned from the US for ten years with no waiver available. The couple came to hire me. I did not like their chances, but the truth still matters, doesn't it? While we worked on the case the wife and older son lived in Mexico, and the Husband and younger son lived here. This untenable situation was a great motivator.

Among other things we did, we reapplied for permanent residence as the wife of a USC. One year later my client got her interview, where she was able to convince the reviewing officer (thanks to great documentation from the family) that the previous application was wrong, and that she had only been in the US illegally once. Her application for a waiver of the ten year bar based on illegal stay was approved immediately and she returned and is currently living with her husband and two children -- all together like they should be.

Case #2. We are not waiting for the waiver.

My USC client is married to an Ecuadorian. The alien has previous immigration issues and will need a waiver to return. I was hired only to assist with the waiver. While we were working on the waiver, the USC wife refused to put her plans for family on hold had her second child, which she raised along with her first child with her parents help. The husband remained in Ecuador. I worked closely with the wife preparing and submitting the waiver, and I was confident it would be approved.

Imagine my dismay when the employee of the US Embassy took the waiver, and told my client "That's all you got? That waiver is never going to be approved!" After I calmed my client down and let them know that the decision would not be made in Ecuador, but in the central waiver processing office, we settled in for the interminable wait. One and one half years later (and yet another baby for the couple) the waiver was approved, and my client and his reunited family are back together.

Dragon helps me out!

Forgive me for being absent so long, my friends. It is been a crazy couple of months.

I recently purchased the Dragon voice-recognition software, and I could not be more pleased. This software can even determine what I am saying, which is a step up from our last attempt at voice-recognition software.

New things in immigration:

TPS for Haitians - it's about time that the nice people from Haiti got a break. It is too bad that it took a devastating earthquake to give them that break. This is great news for those from Haiti facing deportation, as this process will stop for a while.

CRI -- comprehensive immigration reform has been presented and is pending in Congress and the Senate. I certainly hope the president is more successful with this endeavor than he was with healthcare reform.

In recent cases, I have won quite a few 240 A(b) applications for my clients, and although the government is starting to appeal every loss, we are undefeated on appeals. You may remember these cases involve non-permanent residents who have been in the US for more than 10 years, who can show exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to their qualifying US citizen or lawful permanent relatives.

At Citizenship and Immigration Services, they remain very leery of every marriage case, and the decisions on petitions to remove conditions remain as baffling as ever. I saw a decision recently, during a consult, where the immigration service officer called the US citizen wife a lesbian, and said this was why he could not approve the case. If your petition to remove conditions has been denied, do not feel special. Too many good people are having their lives disrupted and their bank accounts destroyed because of poor decisions from the local office.

I hope to write more often in the future. Sorry I have been absent for so long.

Neil

Recent photos of happy clients

and yes, they are posted with my client's consent, of course!

When will Immigration Reform come?

President Obama has promised that a draft immigration reform bill will be presented to Congress by the end of the year. This is not important to you, of course, if you think it is right that a lawful permanent resident must wait eight or more years to be joined by his wife, when a temporary worker can have his wife come to the US in a matter of weeks. It is also not important to you, if you think that it is fair that a person convicted of a drug crime more than 30 years ago has no right to show that he is a changed person and no threat to the US.

The present immigration system is flawed and vicious. The expansion of the term "aggravated felony" in 1996 made nearly every alien convicted of a felony deportable without relief, no matter how long they lived here, whether anyone was hurt by their crime, or how their family would be affected.

ICE arrests far too many non-criminal aliens, and the private facilities in which they are jailed are a national disgrace. ICE routinely "disappears" aliens, and leaves their family wondering what happened to them for 72 hours or more -- when it would seem easy to let the alien make a phone call.

Bring on that reform Mr. President, and be ambitious about it, for God's sake!

Motion to Reopen Granted!

Great News! My latest success story is a victory for his country, and for those who think that LPRs should not be arrested and kicked out for missing an interview.

My client is a native of Nicaragua, who has been married to his wife for more than seven years. they have four USC kids together, and she is the one who petitioned for him to get permanent residence in the first place. But -- when the couple failed to appear for their interview for removal of conditions, he was put in deportation proceedings and ordered deported.

Nevermind that the address they sent his notices to was NOT the address he specified as his mailing address on his petition to remove conditions (a cautious man, he wanted to make sure he got his notices, so he got a P.O. Box expressly for that purpose).

Nevermind that the ISO did not notice the mistake when my client failed to show for his interview. Nevermind that the Judge failed to notice that when he ordered my client deported. Nevermind that my client was nearly deported to the wrong country and he has been physically abused the entire month he has been at Krome --and that my client is deaf and they cannot communicate with him at Krome -- this story will have a happy ending.

But, for the love of God! ISOs -- if you have an alien miss an appointment, call the number on the petition! Check the address on the mailing, and make sure it went to the right place! Judges, do not be so quick to believe the government when they state that they sent a notice to the correct address. Check it out for yourself!

Incredibly annoying that they don't know where my client is for his 751 interview. They don't know where he is for his court hearing. But they do know exactly where he is when they want to arrest him.

We are better than this, America!

A tip of the cap to my esteemed colleague at the Chief Counsel's office who chose not to oppose the Motion to Reopen. I hope you do not get in too much trouble for doing the right thing.

The joy of my job

I had another hearing today, a 212(c) hearing. My case was well prepared, the client did well, and the government attorney was generous, so everything went fine. My client, who was looking at being deported to his home country if he did not show that he was a good man who was unlikely to offend again the laws of the US, was undestandably relieved.

His aged mother and father, his wife and kids, and his brothers and sisters all were quite happy that he got to stay. The IJ was even kind enough to salute my client's six year old daughter, who wrote a touching letter to the IJ that brought my client to tears when he read it aloud at the request of the IJ.

Good times.

No quotas mean good news!

from the LA Times: "The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Monday in Los Angeles that he has ended quotas on a controversial program designed to go after illegal immigrants with outstanding deportation orders."

These quotas encouraged ICE agents to go after any alien here without permission, so that they could fill their assigned number of arrests. Their focus should properly be on the aliens who have been ordered deported already, or who have been convicted of crimes that make them a danger to american society.

I have know too many families that were torn apart for no reason lately. Now I know the reason, and I glad to see that the quota system has come to an end.

What is Obama thinking?

President Obama stated recently that immigration reform, which he called "a priority" must wait until 2010 because of other pressing concerns. He must not know what is going on in the "trenches" of the immigration practice. I have clients who are arrested for nothing, and people who are declared inadmissible for life, because of non-violent crimes committed 30 years ago. Incredibly stupid things are continuing to happen in immigration, and they are now happening on your watch, Mr. President.

Top 5 things that must change in immigration:

1. Bond must be available to all non-criminal detainees. It serves no one to keep non-criminal aliens in custody (and costs the US money). This no brainer should have happened already.

2. The term "drug trafficking" needs to be redefined, so that a drug felony does not make one inadmissible for life. It makes sense to penalize drug traffickers, and who can be against that? But as it is defined now, drug trafficking includes nearly every felony drug crime, and that is incredibly stupid. And how about a time limit?

True fact: Murder someone and you may apply for permanent residency. Get convicted of possession with intent to sell one vicodin, and you may never apply. I have a client convicted of possession of marijuana with intent to sell in 1975. He cannot ever gain permanent residence in the US, because he is a "drug trafficker."

3. More visas need to be allocated to those awaiting permanent residence based on a family preference petition. Do you know that if you are a permanent resident who wishes to have your wife and child join you here, currently you must wait six years before they will be able to come here (unless you are from Mexico, where the wait is 18 (18!) years. You politicos say you want people to come legally. How about making it possible and making the wait less arduous and long.

True fact: If you are here with a work visa, your wife appears at the US Embassy and gets her visa and comes to join you immediately (two to four weeks). If you are a permanent resident, then you wait six years. If you are a US citizen, you apply for your wife and she will be here in 1 to 1 1/2 years. Crazy.

4. Create a retirement visa. It is insane that wealthy foreigners cannot come in here to spend their money without working, unless they want to do it for six months per year. Let them come in and spend, so long as the agree to summary removal if their stay in the US costs the government any money at all, and they provide proof of insurance.

5. Give permanent residence to any alien who has a Masters degree. The European Union currently does this, and they are attracting the best and brightest over there. The US will not maintain its position atop the world based on number of people (China), resources (Russia) and we are currently hard pressed to do it based on education and technology (India). Why not use the thing we have that everyone wants, residency, and use it to get the best and brightest here? This would allow us to poach the best brains from around the world, and allow us to maintain our supremacy abroad.

CIS sure has changed!

I had a couple inteviews today at CIS. One was an adjustment case that was fairly complicated. My client got voluntary departure and left the US more than 20 year ago and returned illegally after 7 years in his home country. His original application for Permanent Resident was pending from 1996-2006 before it was denied, because he failed to appear for a fingerprint notice. The ISO today (ISO Hon) could not believe it had been pending ten years -- I had to explain to him the "pocket veto" technique of years past when an immigration officer who was not sure what to do on a case could just stick the file in his cabinet and wait.

Clearly such delays are no longer allowed, and CIS gives decisions quickly. Today, for example, my client was told he needed a waiver, because of unlawful presence issues. I was pretty sure that unlawful presence did not apply to my client, and the officer invited me to let him know what I discovered when I returned to my office. I e-mailed the officer and the supervisor (Ms. Warner) two hours later, and let them know what I found, and I was contacted within 5 minutes by the supervisor, letting me know that I was right, and that my client would be approved immediately.

Ten minutes after that I got an e-mail from the ISO, telling me that my client could come down today for his LPR stamp, if he wished. My client, who has been waiting 13 years for his residency, and who has an ill mother in Colombia, does wish to get that stamp today!

I am incredibly impressed with the efforts of ISO Hon and Supervisor Warner. They were never concerned with defending the decisions they made, they just wanted to be right. And that is the right way to do it.

Arrested for being a Muslim

I know, I know. This kind of sensationalist headline is usually followed by a story that shows that a guy was arrested correctly, and it had nothing to do with his religion.

But in this case, there is no other reason why my client was arrested than his religion. My client entered the US legally, on a B-2 visa. He got married to a US citizen and applied for permanent residence (all perfectly legal and above board).

My client is from a predominantly Muslim country, and he is Muslim as well. When we went to get his permanent residence, at the interview we were informed that he needed to register for NSEERS to get his green card. This was news to me. My client had no duty to register for NSEERS when he arrived -- it was not like he made a mistake and did not register, nor is he an alien who ignored the registration requirements while he lived here. As a new arrival, he would have been registered upon his entry if that was necessary.

Yet, we dutifully made the appointment with CBP and went to register. At registration, my client, a non-criminal 19 year old, was arrested and taken to the Immigration Facility (PRISON) euphemistically named the "Broward Transitional Center". When I last saw my client, he was in a 6' by 6' cell, with a chrome toilet with no seat. My client was shocked and terrified that he was being arrested, and I had no answers for him. It does make no sense.

I questioned the CBP officers and asked if he was being arrested for violating rules -- did he not register when he should have? Did they think his marriage to the US citizen was not real? What did he do wrong?

The incredibly unsatisfying answer they gave me was that he had done nothing wrong, but since he was "out of status", because his B-2 entry expired, they had to arrest him. I pointed out that my client was not deportable, as he was an applicant for permanent residence, but the officer said that was a matter for the Immigration Judge. My client was arrested for being Muslim.

I handle about 100 cases per year which are simple applications for permanent residence in Tampa. Very few of the applicants have current visas or are "in status". No one, except anyone Muslim, apparently, is arrested.

We could not have extended the B-2 while pending an application for permanent residence -- as one must prove that they intend to leave the US soon to extend the B-2.

My client will get his green card and will live here in the future, after being in jail for two to three weeks and dealing with incredible paperwork hassles, but now the actions of my government embarass me and make me wonder who does this arrest serve?

The arrest does not benefit the US, as this kid posed no threat to anyone. The arrest does not benefit the Immigration Court, as they have plenty of cases to deal with. The arrest most certainly does not benefit the US government's image with Muslims in America, who already worry that they are treated differently than everyone else.

Frustrating......................

Two new residents!

In danger of losing their lawful permanent residence, the lovely mother and daughter here trusted me to prepare and submit their petition to remove conditions.

Today we met with one of the great ISOs at Tampa, and he easily approved the case, finding that my client's marriage to her US citizen former husband was a real and bona fide relationship.

Congratulations my friends! Felicidades mi amigas!

See you in 2011 for citizenship.....

The trouble with Bond and poorly drafted NTAs

The NTAs (Notices to Appear) they draft in Tampa here are usually not so good, and the failure of the office to draft good NTAs can cause real world problems. Take my recent client, who was convicted of assault and battery and sentenced to probation (no jail time). ICE arrested him and the NTA charged him as an aggravated felon because they said his crime of violence was punished by a sentence of more than one year in jail.

The wrong charge on the NTA affected my client greatly as he was held in KROME with dangerous criminal aliens -- murderers, rapists, drug dealers -- rather than with the aliens he should have been held with.

The wrong charge did not hurt my client for too long, and I got him qualified for bond Friday morning, with the assistance of the wise ACC Michael Mansfield. The aggravated felony charge (which normally forbids bond) was ignored by Mr. Mansfield and a reasonable bond was set. I had the bond paperwork in my hand at 8:15 a.m. My client should get out that day from KROME easily right? Right?

Not so easy. Although the IJ ordered bond at 8:15 a.m., the Deportation Officer in Miami in charge of my client's case did not have the paperwork for the bond until close to 2 p.m. My client's father, who was at Tampa CIS waiting to provide the bond, had to just sit and wait from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. until they finally let him post bond. I have to acknowledge the great work by Tampa ICE making sure that my client got released the same day from KROME, as generally bond provided that late does not ensure a same day release.

My client was free at 8:45 p.m. His father was there waiting to pick him up. Now we will go to Orlando to return my client to his lawful permanent resident status.

I-751 nonsense

People who receive permanent residence based on a new marriage receive a green card good for two years. Within 90 days of the end of the two year period, the couple must file a form I-751, a petition to remove the conditions upon residence.

It is a fairly simple thing to file if the couple is still together. You file proof that the marriage continues, and CIS will either grant the permanent green card or call you in for an interview.

It is a fairly simple thing to file if the couple is divorced. The alien needs to file proof that the marriage was real, and CIS will most likely call the alien in for an interview.

BEWARE -- if you divorce within two years of gaining your lawful permanent residency, CIS may presume that your marriage was fake, and the burden will be entirely on you to show that it was real. If you divorce more than two years after you got your residency, it is presumed that your marriage is real, and the burden is on the government to show that it was false if they want to take your green card away.

The problem with I-751s has always been that CIS does not know what to do when you file as a married person and then divorce prior to your I-751 interview. Tampa CIS's view has been recently that your joint I-751 must be denied before you can then file a new I-751 on your own. Now a memo from CIS HQ (Neufeld, Acting Assoc. Director) shows that a joint petition may be changed to a waiver petition by request of the alien. This commonsense view is long overdue, and actually returns CIS to the policy INS had from 1999 - 2002 (or thereabouts).

This change change change would be comical if it did not affect so many people's lives. I have had clients who filed three separate I-751s before CIS would give them a decision on their marriage. I also know too many who never knew their joint petition was denied because the notice denying the petition and the notice sending them to Immigration Court was sent to the marital address (where they no longer lived). They learned about the denial when ICE came to arrest them (because THEN CIS knew where they lived).


Can we not have a form that allows married couples and unmarried aliens to petition for removal of conditions, that does not have all these loopholes and "gotcha's"? It should be enough to keep the green card if an alien, married or unmarried, can prove that the marriage was real.

The new memo helps some, but we really need a new form.

Know your attorney

With so many tools at your disposal, it is hard to understand why some people do not knw whether or not their attorney is a good guy or not.

How to check your attorney's (we will call him "Bobby Lawyer") reputation:

1. Google "Bobby Lawyer complaints"
2. Check the state bar website. This will tell you (in Florida) only if he is a member of the bar--and if he has any disciplinary history it will show here -- here it is http://www.floridabar.org/tfb/flabarwe.nsf
3. go to http://avvo.com and find your lawyer -- this is a website that allows lawyers and clients to post their thoughts on practicing attorneys. You cannot pay to have a better rating, nor can you influence the site by advertising.
4. Talk to your friends, family and others you know, and see if anyone knows about this lawyer.
5. Ask many questions of your lawyer when you meet him. If he is insecure in the least about his knowledge of the subject you are discussing, he will be upset that you dare to question him.

By following these simple steps, you can most likely find out if hiring the lawyer you are considering is a good or bad idea. Good luck!