I love it when a good plan comes together – especially when it’s Plan B!
In 2019, we were hired by Sarai and Miguel to help them with Sarai’s immigration status. Miguel was a lawful permanent resident, Sarai had DACA and they had recently gotten married. Sarai explained that she had entered the United States as a child without documentation. Without a legal entry, though, she couldn’t get her green card here in the United States. She would need to consular process – going back to her home country with a waiver provisionally approved – and return to the United States with an immigrant visa. We started work on the case by filing an I-130 to show the relationship between Sarai and Miguel.
The I-130 was approved and began work on the I-601A waiver. We were just getting ready to file the waiver when Sarai told us that in 2016, while in DACA status, she had obtained advance parole and left the United States briefly. She returned with advance parole. This was a game changer.
With an advance parole entry, it opened up a path for Sarai to apply for her green card in the United States. However, since Miguel was a LPR and not a US citizen, the time that Sarai was in the United States between her 18th birthday and her first DACA grant (about two years) counted as unlawful presence and was a bar against her filing for her green card. Only immediate relatives get the perk of not having unlawful presence count against them when filing for adjustment of status. Instead of filing an I-601A waiver, she could have file an I-601 waiver.
In May 2022, Sarai and Miguel decided that Sarai returning home was too risky and it would take too long (maybe up to three years) to have her case finalized. They switched course from consular processing to adjustment of status. We filed the I-485 and the I-601 and waited for an interview. Finally, in late 2022, we appeared for an interview at the Atlanta Field Office. Then, in late March 2023, we received notification that the green card had been approved. Sarai is now a lawful permanent resident!
One of my favorite things about immigration law is piecing together different facts and getting to a happy outcome. For Sarai and Miguel, it looked like they had one long and hard road ahead of them. Then one small fact changed everything and they suddenly had options. They took a slightly riskier path, but one that had a quicker outcome. And it worked!
-Tracie
*names have been changed