I-130 and I-485

S

SpanishTeacher

New Member
I, a born and raised American Citizen, was married May 19th 2008 to a woman from Colombia. We were married in the US. Our lawyer then filed the I-130 and I-485 jointly. On November 5th 2008 we received an I-797C Notice of Action stating that our paperwork has been transferred to the California Service Center (I have heard this means we probably won't need an interview). Our case status online at the USCIS website states that the case status is pending, as far as processing goes. We have a hearing in front of an immigration judge on April 15th and we are wondering if there is any possibility that we will have heard from immigration before then, because if not, our hearing will be postponed and so will the process of my wife obtaining her green card.

**Please see below to read more out our case's specifics**.

My wife (before we were married) entered and was legally working in the US as an AU-Pair (nanny) on a work visa. Her visa expired without her realizing it, and when she was going to the airport, on April 11th 2008, to fly to New Jersey to visit her legal citizen relatives, she was detained at the airport and put in jail for a month before she received a bond hearing. Immigration had her in three different jails throughout the state of Pennsylvania. This was a huge local news story because of how absolutely ridiculous it was for her to be in maximum security prison for a month. On May 5th, she was granted by an immigration judge voluntary departure within 30 days. Since her and I were engaged already, we decided to get married, and did so on May 19th 2008. We contacted an immigration attorney to find out what our options were and she told us. We hired her, and she mad a successful attempt to reopen the case. My wife was allowed to stay in the country and a new immigration judge decided that the removal proceedings would continue until our I-130 and I-485 were approved by immigration. At that point the judge would grant us a green card. On November 5th 2008 we received an I-797C Notice of Action stating that our paperwork has been transferred to the California Service Center. This leaves us to where we are now. Our hearing with the immigration judge is scheduled for April 15th 2009, today is March 13th 2009, and we haven't heard anything from immigration, and our case status says that our paperwork is pending. We really wanted to travel to Colombia this summer, and hoped to do so with her as a permanent resident, but now we are worried because our status is still pending. Do you think there is any chance that are status may be changed to approved by the time of the hearing?
 
Did you have the green card interview yet, or receive the interview letter?

How long had her status expired when she was first detained?
 
Re:

We have not had an interview or received a letter for an interview. Our lawyer said at this point along, and with the fact that our case has been moved to the California Service Center, there is a good chance we will skip the interview process.

To answer the second question, her visa had expired approximately 3-4 months prior to her detainment in prison.
 
Skip the interview? That would be really unusual given how new your marriage is and the fact that you are both capable of being at the interview. The attorney must have meant the interview won't happen before the hearing with the judge.

It's also unusual that they were alerted to her expired status when checking in for a domestic flight, as they normally don't ask for any immigration documents for domestic flights. How did it happen? Did she show her passport as ID, and somebody noticed the visa expiration? Or did something on the computer alert the person at the check-in counter, who then called the authorities?
 
Re:

Yeah, its possible my lawyer meant that. We are going to be speaking with her next Friday, March 20th.

As far as how my wife was picked up. She had applied to have her Visa extended, but apparently she didn't file the right paper work (this was even before we were formally engaged), so she was young and just assumed it was extended, since she never received any mail stating otherwise. She would regularly fly domestically to New Jersey to visit her aunt, uncle, and cousins. She would show her passport/visa as ID. The last time she flew, when she showed it, they noticed it was expired, ran her through the system, detained her at the airport, transferred her overnight to Allegheny County Jail for two weeks, then transferred her to Cambria County Jail for about a week and a half, and then finally to York County Jail (which is a holding place for illegal immigrants) for nearly a week. She was finally given a bond hearing and even though she met absolutely no criteria for being considered a risk of flight, was given a $3,500 straight cash bond (no percentage).
 
So if she had only showed her driver's license or state ID instead of her passport it wouldn't have happened. Lesson learned ... don't give authorities a reason to check out your immigration status if you don't have to, even if you are legal and everything is in order. That's why I always show my license for domestic flights, not my green card or passport (but I will bring the green card in case I have to show it). And even for international flights, after I show my passport for the check-in, I only show my license for going through the security lines unless they specifically ask for a passport.
 
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