I am an I-485 applicant, married to an US Citizen. During the Visa interview, the interviewer asked us several race-based questions including what religion I am, what my wife's religion is. She even raised a question when we said that we lived together before marriage for an year, by saying that people from India do not stay together before marriage and that she had never heard of this before.
Either way, the officer was clearly not happy about the overall fact that we were Indians, Hindu, etc.
We had taken with us a notarized copy of our marriage certificate, but hadn't taken the original one (my mistake !). We just received a note stating that the I-485 has been denied due to failure to show original marriage certificate.
The note also states that we cannot appeal the decision, but that we can open a motion to reopen/reconsider.
My questions is --
1. How long does the motion to reopen take
2. I am currently on EAD (switched from H1). I don't have any more time left on H1. If I leave my job then it's all over - the way I see it. It's not easy to find anew job these days and I have a lot of responsibility on my shoulder to risk that. Yes yes, I know I should be more prepared, but under these circumstances, what is the implication of continuing to work ? I am married to an US Citizen, she is not working at the moment as she is not well, and I am the only means of sustainability. Do I have any recourse ? Is there any leeway available like the 245(k) for employment based applicants ?
3. I am getting an attorney who told me that there are several applications currently being denied from the Hartford field office for very unusual reasons and that the court is looking into it, the lawyers in Hartford are very angry and lots of things are going on internally due to the fact that Hartford is using unethical tactics to question/deny applicants. This is just a friendly note to those who are going to the Hartford Field Office, things are not going well over there.
Either way, the officer was clearly not happy about the overall fact that we were Indians, Hindu, etc.
We had taken with us a notarized copy of our marriage certificate, but hadn't taken the original one (my mistake !). We just received a note stating that the I-485 has been denied due to failure to show original marriage certificate.
The note also states that we cannot appeal the decision, but that we can open a motion to reopen/reconsider.
My questions is --
1. How long does the motion to reopen take
2. I am currently on EAD (switched from H1). I don't have any more time left on H1. If I leave my job then it's all over - the way I see it. It's not easy to find anew job these days and I have a lot of responsibility on my shoulder to risk that. Yes yes, I know I should be more prepared, but under these circumstances, what is the implication of continuing to work ? I am married to an US Citizen, she is not working at the moment as she is not well, and I am the only means of sustainability. Do I have any recourse ? Is there any leeway available like the 245(k) for employment based applicants ?
3. I am getting an attorney who told me that there are several applications currently being denied from the Hartford field office for very unusual reasons and that the court is looking into it, the lawyers in Hartford are very angry and lots of things are going on internally due to the fact that Hartford is using unethical tactics to question/deny applicants. This is just a friendly note to those who are going to the Hartford Field Office, things are not going well over there.
