Need a second opinion regarding N400 application in limbo

camelbakwater

New Member
Hello,

I currently have an attorney fighting my case, however, recently I have found myself in need of a second opinion as the original plan of action with my attorney has suddenly changed.

Some background:
Having originally entered the country legally from an Asian country roughly 27 years ago - my mother incorrectly filed for a change in our status to get green cards about 15-20 years ago which at the time caused an issuance of deportation for my family and my self (she did so due to the passing of my father shortly after our arrival to the US).

At the time, she hired a lawyer for adjustment of status, but our case kept getting held up at the CIS level and my Mom about 15 years ago losing patience went to a CIS office and spoke directly to an offer who stated to her at the time that she was fine to file for a green card due to being married to a US citizen. She did so, and my family and I were issued green cards.

After the allotted time, we filed for citizenship. My siblings and I, being at a very young age at the time of all of this (under 10 years old) had no idea of the deportation proceedings initially so when those questions were asked we truthfully answered no as we had no knowledge what-so-ever. My mother, to her memory, answered the question truthfully but on her application from the time, the question was left blank.

With that said, CIS denied our original application for citizenship roughly 8 years ago claiming we should not have been issued our green cards. After that time, we refiled 2 more times on our own. One of those times, just 1 of my siblings was able to get an officer to escalate her case and she was awarded citizenship. Unfortunately my other sibling, myself, and mother were all still denied.

Having lost a bit of faith, we waited a few years to reapply this time doing so a year ago with a lawyer who we explained the entire case to. He was adamant from the beginning for pushing the CIS to not sit on our case as he felt we had a very good chance to win our naturalization in court. We all got our interview letters and were able to be seen by the same officer who told us all to our face that he would be able to get this resolved either himself, or by ICE due to the circumstances being in our favor, and award us our citizenship since we'd already had our green cards for over 10 years and the clerical errors were not on our part. That never came, so my lawyer then filed a suit with the district court.

Very recently my lawyer has reached out to me and told me that the government is claiming they will deny our naturalization again, and, we might not be sent to court and if we were the government would argue that our green cards (even after having them over 10 years) were not "lawful" and we would not meet the first requirement for citizenship.

I am just wondering how this can be valid since all of our answers to the CIS have been truthful, and seemingly, the fault of not catching the error they are claiming was on their side. One option my lawyer has stated we have is we still push them to make a decision, but he is now saying they will deny it and we might never see a court (and he said even if we do, the judge would just rule that he has no jurisdiction over this matter) and we'd be back in limbo.

The other option he is stating is we could make a deal with them, while not admitting to anything they are claiming of the green cards being invalid, we could get new ones reissued (which is a potential risk because he is stating we'd need to use our original petition from over a decade ago) and then reset the 5 year clock before we could then REapply for citizenship.

I was very hopeful with what my lawyer originally told us that we'd be able to fight this in court and get our naturalization, but now, he is making it seem like that will not happen and I am just hoping for a second opinion as I have paid a lot of money (and time) already. Originally he was adamant that since the 5 years had passed the government lost the claim to say our green cards were invalid.
 
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