Is my mother-in-law's case HOPELESS?

[DADof5]

Hi,

My wife is getting more depressed each day because of her mom's case - she filed for her mom's petition 8 years ago and everything seemed to look okay until her mom was interviewed at the local US embassy in 2003 and was approved - only to find out later that her passport and visa were held and canceled because after closer scrutiny, the US Embassy found her record she committed FRAUD.

The mom apparently applied for a B2 Visa on 2001 to surprise my wife on her birthday (kept it in secret) and everything went to a disaster. The travel agent/scumbag she consulted advised her to LIE and pretend that she traveled out of the country before - and even stamped fake Singapore immigration stamp in her passport. Then she went for an interview with 10 or 20 more victims like her who were also instructed to lie, and all were denied because 2 of them confessed to the lying.

We consulted a couple lawyers here in Los Angeles years ago but they told us there is no waiver available in this case and it seems hopeless. My mother in law is getting older each year and it breaks my heart to see them living far away from each other and getting depressed each day which also affects our relationship whenever she thinks about it. Any comments and help will be highly appreciated.

BTW my wife and myself are USC.

 

[ml_boston]

There are waivers based on hardship to USCs, if your wife can make a case that she is depressed because of the distance from her mother, and your kids growing up without the nurturing of a grandmother.

From what I hear these waivers are lots of work and very hard to get (lawyers will help immensely), you should get references for a very experienced family immigration attorney, and maybe one will feel confident that they can push through her case. Obviously, some will just "say what you want to hear" so you'll need to demand good references and ask for statistics like number of similar cases tried in the past, and success rate of those cases.

-ML

K1 -> I-485 -> I-751 -> N-400

Now filing I-130/I-485 for parent...
DO: Santa Ana, CA

 

[Concerned4us]

Fraud is well known to be a permanent ban. If multiple attornies gave you no suggestions or hope, your wife needs to become resigned to that fact. The situation is the result of her mother's direct, illegal actions and was certainly not caused by your wife, you or your children.

On a practical note, if your wide is seriously depressed due to this, she needs professional counseling. There is nothing to keep her from visiting her mother in her mother's home country or the entire family from moving there if it is so important. Many families live great distances from each other without the opportunity to visit or call and do not experience the drama that you are describing.