Clearance from DHS needed for a "Detention and Removal" order for no fault of ours

S

ssssusa

New Member
I and my 2 daughters had conditional green cards endorsed in our passports on 1st Feb 2007(status changed from L1 and L2 thru I-485 since my husband is a US citizen - we got married in 2006) . We had to return to India on 4th Feb 2007 for medical treatment for my second daughter. Since our stay here got extended we could not remove the conditions on the green card and it expired in Feb 2009. My husband had filed I-130 for all of us again in Oct 2009. We have been in India for more than 3 years now.

We attended an L1A(Blanket) visa interview at the US Consulate in Chennai on 1st March, 2010 through my employer. Chennai US consular officials have asked me to get a clearance from the Department of Homeland Security so that they can approve the L1A(Blanket) visa. Apparently the DHS has issued "Detention and removal" orders in our names. I came to know from the Chennai US consular officials that the processing on the I-130 petitions have also been stopped in Dec 2009 and none of us were informed about this. The USCIS website still gives the status as "Initial review" for the I-130 that has been filed for us by my husband in Oct, 2009.

I need to travel to US at the earliest. How should we proceed? What should we do? How long will the process take?
 
They think you remained in the US after your conditional card expired, and you didn't file I-751, so the removal order was issued. You'll need to submit proof that you left the US before the card expired.

Contact an immigration lawyer to help sort out this mess. I have no idea how long it will take to clear things up. Or maybe you can try to take care of it with assistance of the consulate -- by gathering the proof (passport stamp, boarding pass, evidence of you living/working in India since 2007, etc.) and bringing it to the consulate and asking them to get DHS to cancel the removal order.

Did all of you including your husband leave the US? If yes, that would explain why you weren't notified of this issue.
 
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My husband was in the US. The issue is that we did not even imagine such issues might come up. We had to leave due to medical treatment. We had not changed our address since we had already received our GC before we left. The Notice To Appear were sent to our old US address in the US and my husband received the forwarded mails. He sent replies by regular mail to DHS and Newark court informing them about our departure. We assumed that it will get corrected accordingly.

The consulate officials expressed their helplessness. They only mentioned that they will provide all info to DHS in our support when DHS officials contact them. They had taken our fingerprints at the consulate when we went for the visa stamping.

Before the expiry of the conditional GC, I had written to the consulate officials and they informed me that we cannot renew it outside USA and asked us to file I-130 again.

I have lot of proof to convince but I am worried about the process and time it takes.
 
ssssusa said:
My husband was in the US. The issue is that we did not even imagine such issues might come up. We had to leave due to medical treatment. We had not changed our address since we had already received our GC before we left. The Notice To Appear were sent to our old US address in the US and my husband received the forwarded mails. He sent replies by regular mail to DHS and Newark court informing them about our departure. We assumed that it will get corrected accordingly.
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Merely sending a letter is not good enough to convince them that you left. Your husband apparently didn't include sufficient proof of your departure, and with your husband still being in the US that led them to believe you were still in the US with him.

Ideally you should have surrendered the GC at the consulate with form I-407 as soon as you found out that you would need a new I-130. Presenting yourself at the consulate is a surefire way of convincing them that you left the US.

At least they'll know you are outside the US right now, once the consulate gets back to DHS. Now you'll need to convince them you left in early 2009 or before. Get an immigration lawyer ASAP to file a motion to have that removal order cleared up. Gather up your evidence and prepare to send it to the lawyer.
 
I got this information from the US Embassy in Dublin website:

If you are experiencing problems when applying to enter the United States:

If you believe that you are having problems entering the United States due to incorrect arrival and departure information, you can request a review of the information by writing to the following office and including evidence of your departure:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Air Sea Passenger Operations
Room 5.4D
1300 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, D.C. 20229
 
I had written to the above CBP address on 15th March and my husband got a reply datwed 20th april saying that our departure records for Feb 2007 are aailable with them. Yesterday (27th April) we received our I-130 approval notice also. so hopefully DHS has realised their mistake and is taking action to correct the DHS records. Thanks for your help.
 
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