Update on my Appeal

M

mariainclt

Registered Users (C)
Hi All,

Had my appeal hearing....what a difference from my initial interview....night and day.

My original application was denied based on break in continuous residence. I had an 11+ months plus another 5+ months stays outside the US due to medical reasons. My original interview was dreadful, IO was very unpleasant, refused to accept any evidence I brought with me to support my claim that I did not, in fact, break continuous residency. He did not allow me to explain myself, present my case, nothing...just a complete nightmare. He sent me a denial letter full of inaccuracies, did Infopass, was of no use, I appealed (N-336)

I initially thought the appeal hearing would be in front of an immigration judge and was advised to hire an attorney, which I did. I hired him after I had already filed the appeal, I wrote the brief etc. He was just going to come with me to the hearing and defend my case.

My appeal date arrived..I showed up with my attorney. The hearing was not in front of a judge but kind of a re-interview with a supervisor. The supervisor was very nice, polite, professional...the complete opposite from the original IO.
I was sworn in, did not have to take the civics test as I had already passed it during initial interview.

The re-interview/hearing lasted about an hour. The supervisor asked me a ton of questions, all relevant, all fair. Sometimes he went back to something I had already answered and asked me again...not sure whether it was to see if I gave the same answer or for clarification. I did not get the impression he was trying to "trick" me or anything like that.
At one point I remember thinking...if he upholds the denial, at least I know I got a fair chance to present my case. My attorney spoke maybe 2-3 times.....as a matter of fact, it turns out I didn't need him there at all. Having said that, I do not regret hiring him, I rather have him there and not need him than needing him and not having him there. The peace of mind was worth it to me.

At the end of the hearing the supervisor concluded that in view of all the evidence I provided (none of which the original IO allowed to be included in my file) he was going to overturn the decision and was recommending my case for approval.
48 hours later I have a letter stating just that, the denial has been overturned and my appeal has been granted. It also says I should expect an oath letter in the mail. Of course I think the right decision was made, I truly believed my case should have been originally approved. Unfortunately we all know it is almost Russian roulette, u just dont know what kind of IO u will get.

Thank you so very much to everyone who has given me advice, support etc in this forum during this whole process!!

Its not over yet though. I will update when I get my oath letter....does anyone know how long these usually take to arrive?
Or how often they are scheduled to take place?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
mariainclt said:
Hi All,

Had my appeal hearing....what a difference from my initial interview....night and day.

My original application was denied based on break in continuous residence. I had an 11+ months plus another 5+ month stays outside the US due to medical reasons. My original interview was dreadful, IO was very unpleasant, refused to accept any evidence I brought with me to support my claim that I did not, in fact, break continuous residency. He did not allow me to explain myself, present my case, nothing...just a complete nightmare. He sent me a denial letter full of inaccuracies, did Infopass, was of not use, I appealed (N-336)

I initially thought the appeal hearing would be in front of an immigration judge and was adviced to hire an attorney, which I did. I hired him after I had already filed the appeal, I wrote the brief etc. He was just going to come with me to the hearing and defend my case.

My appeal date arrived..I showed up with my attorney. The hearing was not in front of a judge but kind of a re-interview with a supervisor. The supervisor was very nice, polite, professional...the complete opposite from the original IO.
I was sworn in, did not have to take the civics test as I had already passed it during initial interview.

The re-interview/hearing lasted about an hour. The supervisor asked me a ton of questions, all relevant, all fair. Sometimes he went back to something I had already answered and asked me again...not sure whether it was to see if I gave the same answer or for clarification. I did not get the impresion he was trying to "trick" me or anything like that.
At one point I remember thinking...if he uphelds the denial, at least I know I got a fair chance to present my case. My attorney spoke maybe 2-3 times.....as a matter of fact, it turns out I didnt need him there at all. Having said that, I do not regret hiring him, I rather have him there and not need him than needing him and not having him there. The peace of mind was worth it to me.

At the end of the hearing the supervisor concluded that in view of all the evidence I provided (none of which the original IO allowed to be included in my file) he was going to overturn the decision and was recommending my case for approval.
48 hours later I have a letter stating just that, the denial has been overturned and my appeal has been granted. It also says I should expect an oath letter in the mail. Of course I think the right decision was made, I truly believed my case should have been originally approved. Unfortunately we all know it is almost russian roulette, u just dont know what kind of IO u will get.

Thank you so very much to everyone who has given me advice, support etc in this forum during this whole process!!

Its not over yet though. I will update when I get my oath letter....does anyone know how long these usually take to arrive?
Or how often they are scheduled to take place?
Click to expand...

Very true.Thats why it is always a good idea to bring an attorney with you even though you dont think you need it. The refiling fees and appeal cost might cost even more than if you bring the attorney the first place.
 
mariainclt said:
Hi All,

Had my appeal hearing....what a difference from my initial interview....night and day.

My original application was denied based on break in continuous residence. I had an 11+ months plus another 5+ months stays outside the US due to medical reasons. My original interview was dreadful, IO was very unpleasant, refused to accept any evidence I brought with me to support my claim that I did not, in fact, break continuous residency. He did not allow me to explain myself, present my case, nothing...just a complete nightmare. He sent me a denial letter full of inaccuracies, did Infopass, was of no use, I appealed (N-336)

I initially thought the appeal hearing would be in front of an immigration judge and was advised to hire an attorney, which I did. I hired him after I had already filed the appeal, I wrote the brief etc. He was just going to come with me to the hearing and defend my case.

My appeal date arrived..I showed up with my attorney. The hearing was not in front of a judge but kind of a re-interview with a supervisor. The supervisor was very nice, polite, professional...the complete opposite from the original IO.
I was sworn in, did not have to take the civics test as I had already passed it during initial interview.

The re-interview/hearing lasted about an hour. The supervisor asked me a ton of questions, all relevant, all fair. Sometimes he went back to something I had already answered and asked me again...not sure whether it was to see if I gave the same answer or for clarification. I did not get the impression he was trying to "trick" me or anything like that.
At one point I remember thinking...if he upholds the denial, at least I know I got a fair chance to present my case. My attorney spoke maybe 2-3 times.....as a matter of fact, it turns out I didn't need him there at all. Having said that, I do not regret hiring him, I rather have him there and not need him than needing him and not having him there. The peace of mind was worth it to me.

At the end of the hearing the supervisor concluded that in view of all the evidence I provided (none of which the original IO allowed to be included in my file) he was going to overturn the decision and was recommending my case for approval.
48 hours later I have a letter stating just that, the denial has been overturned and my appeal has been granted. It also says I should expect an oath letter in the mail. Of course I think the right decision was made, I truly believed my case should have been originally approved. Unfortunately we all know it is almost Russian roulette, u just dont know what kind of IO u will get.

Thank you so very much to everyone who has given me advice, support etc in this forum during this whole process!!

Its not over yet though. I will update when I get my oath letter....does anyone know how long these usually take to arrive?
Or how often they are scheduled to take place?
Click to expand...

Congratulations: these people know people, and that is why they set up multiple layers of defense, and I am very glad that this time it worked for you...glad it did
 
Congratulations..too bad you can't recoup the appeal fee since the original IO was at fault for not accepting evidence.

Charlotte is scheduling oaths weekly I believe, so it shouldn't be too long before you get your oath letter.
 
Congrats! Thinking back to my interview, it went well because I had a very nice and professional IO. Since I had spent a good amount of time outside of the US as a LPR as well, my case could have been twisted and turned into a denial situation as well if the IO would not have accepted my evidence showing that indeed I had met the residence and presence requirements.
Good to hear that the appeals process works for cases like yours.

From your user name it looks like you dealt with the Charlotte, NC DO - had some negative experiences there myself during the green card process before moving to Virginia. The Norfolk DO (much smaller, very nice staff) provided a whole different experience.
 
mariainclt said:
At one point I remember thinking...if he upholds the denial, at least I know I got a fair chance to present my case. My attorney spoke maybe 2-3 times.....as a matter of fact, it turns out I didn't need him there at all. Having said that, I do not regret hiring him, I rather have him there and not need him than needing him and not having him there. The peace of mind was worth it to me.
Click to expand...
Even though the attorney didn't say much, the mere presence of the attorney could have influenced the IO to be more fair and pleasant. Because when the attorney is there, the IO is more wary that any misconduct or improper procedure could cause hell for them in later proceedings. If the attorney was not there, you might have had another repeat scenario where the questioning is hostile and they don't want to fairly consider your evidence.
 
Hi there!
Congrats!!!!!! Let me give you now an update on my Appeal!!!!!! it was on March 22 - few days ago. Just like you, totally different situation and experience this time - i met with an adjudication officer. He did not ask me to swear or anything - just told me to sit down and very nice and polite asked if outside i was with my husband, which i was. Just to mention i was denied because of address discrepancies and them not believing we live together. So, he asked again for my address, my name, no questions on the test as i already passed. Asked about our tax returns, bills, insurance, bank statements - i gave him past 3 years of those. Then just asked about all different addresses that appeared on the public record for us and i quickly gave an answer that we never lived there, simply we do not have any documents proving we live anywhere else but at our home. So he said that he does not see any problems with my case and that i submitted enough evidence - he did not even want to look at most of the staff i had with me. Just said i will have to go for fingerprints , as i have not given new once in the past 15 months - and after i made a face - i am due anytime and the last thing i want is going to wait for hours, but i guess i have no choice. So the officer said: " Hey if i am telling you that this means you will be fine". Which actually made me think that i just interviewed with regular officer, not one who makes decisions. So he said that everything looked fine and it is all matter of paperwork now for him to prepare, as this was denied case which means that he has to prepare and structure everything i provided him with. So he said i will be getting fingerprints notice in few weeks and then just wait for decision :)))))))). So i think everything went well, now its just more waiting.
Oh, and when i told the officer that if i knew the problem at the initial interview was the rental property and all addresses that came up under our names, i said i could have told you and provide you all the documents i am giving you know the next day after the original interview - his answer was unfortunately discrepancies happen with addresses - public record is not always accurate in showing current addresses - that was his answer :)))))))) I am thinking OH GREAT i waited for 11 months to hear that they don't completely trust public records, but still deny cases based on that :)))))
 
mariainclt said:
At the end of the hearing the supervisor concluded that in view of all the evidence I provided (none of which the original IO allowed to be included in my file) he was going to overturn the decision and was recommending my case for approval.
48 hours later I have a letter stating just that, the denial has been overturned and my appeal has been granted. It also says I should expect an oath letter in the mail. Of course I think the right decision was made, I truly believed my case should have been originally approved. Unfortunately we all know it is almost Russian roulette, u just dont know what kind of IO u will get.
Click to expand...

Great to hear this. Congratulations!! Don't fret too much about the oath letter - it will come soon.
 
@sd400 @faysal @tobias2801 @jackolantern: I have never needed an attorney before and, as I said, didn't really need one now. I did all the work, the brief, etc. (But as I said, dont mind hiring him, as I didnt know what I was going into)
I honestly do not think the supervisor would have treated me any different if my attorney wasnt there. The original IO, sure, he wouldnt have been able to behave the way he did with an attorney present. He may have denied my case anyway but at least he wouldnt have treated me the way he did.
The supervisor was different, this was a senior member of staff and every time I have been to Charlotte DO and I have seen him in passing, dealing with others, always seemed polite.
Still, coulda, woulda, shoulda....it's all in the past now, no way to know whether things would have turned out differently either way.

@Bobsmyth, yeah, too bad they wont reimburse, I didnt even ask at the hearing, I didnt want to push it. I could buy a few rounds of celebratory drinks with that money! lol

@bgnataliya, sounds like yours went well too, lets hope you get good news but most importantly, best of luck with the birth and your new baby!

@sanjoseaug20 thanks, I hope so.

@cafeconleche, suerte! I hope your goes well too.

To ALL, thank you, thank you, thank you..as I said before, your input and encouragement has been priceless and much appreciated.
Now I am thinking of doing an Infopass to find out when the next available oath date is :) it ain't over until its over!!
 
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