Please help.. parents approved, children not..

H

hreshtag

Registered Users (C)
Hi. Thanks SO much for reading my post.. I REALLY need some advice!

History: My grandma filed for my aunt (my dad's sister) years and YEARS ago for a family-based greencard from Iran. It was about 20 years ago. My grandma has a greencard. They got about 10 years ago. VERY unfortunately, they changed addresses here in the US and didn't receive the letters of approval of the application, etc. and therefore everything just basically.. expired. They filed again, but sadly this time my aunt's oldest daughter was older than 21 (her mid-30's now), and was not in the case. However, her younger child was in his mid teens and was in the case. Years later, they got approved (the 3 of them, parents +1 child who was 17 at that time). They paid the fees for the 3 of them, but for some reason, the appointment time was just NOT being given. We assume there was some type of missing document. So they decided to give it to an immigration lawyer who specialized in Iranian cases.

Current case: The lawyer got the ball rolling again. They FINALLY received an appointment in Turkey, BUT now BOTH children's names were not on the appointment form. The lawyer contacted whomever he had to and said that the younger child's name isn't on the appointment list. He was apparently told not to worry, just have all the files and documents ready for the embassy in Turkey, but still tried contacting them. He got no answer and it was during the busy Thanksgiving days. Apparently the lawyer had cases where the older child, because she was unmarried and living with her family in Iran, was even given a greencard because it's at least fairly common knowledge that Iran is NOT a place for a young, unmarried woman to live or be by herself without her family. Well, anyway, we/they/he had hope that the 4 of them would get a greencard, and if not the older daughter, than at least the 3 of them (younger son). Papers were prepared for all 4 of them, by the way. And the fees had been paid for the 3 of them.

Appointment: So they got to Turkey, did the doctor's visit, and went to the embassy. That's where things took a turn for the worse. My aunt got up to speak with the woman who would decide if they got the greencards. Now, my aunt is honestly the most polite, sweet, well-spoken & generally great person that I know. Her whole family is wonderful. She was sad to tell us that the woman literally barely gave her a chance to speak about her case, and basically made her decision without even hearing her out, or looking at her papers. She pleaded with her to please consider the documents that they had, but she basically chose to ignore them. She said, this is the US rule, when someone is over 21, they aren't counted. My aunt (who speaks English fairly well, as she's been to the US and lived in England for years in her 20's) literally could not speak with the woman and was given the brush-off, and it just BROKE her heart, and all of their hearts. Her husband and her were given greencards, but not her kids, even though the fees were paid (not to lawyer, to the greencard related people/government) for all 3 of them less than a year ago. If they were not even going to CONSIDER her son, why would they have charged them hundreds of dollars and had his name in the papers? It just doesn't make sense. Again, he was barely a teen when they filed, and still a teen when they got approved, and we were told all along that he will be approved. Was everyone/were we wrong in thinking this? It seems the woman at the embassy truly just did not care, either.. She just said to return in 6 weeks after the FBI check for her husband, and that was that. Is there ANYTHING that can be done? It's just broken all of our hearts. Thanks SO much for reading my story!!
 
Your grandmother is a GC holder or is she a US citizen? I am pretty sure it is the latter. For the current I-130, please list the folowing:-
(1) I-130 receipt date
(2) I-130 approval date
(3) Your aunt's son's date of birth
(4) The day the interview in Ankara took place.

hreshtag said:
Appointment: So they got to Turkey, did the doctor's visit, and went to the embassy. That's where things took a turn for the worse. My aunt got up to speak with the woman who would decide if they got the greencards. Now, my aunt is honestly the most polite, sweet, well-spoken & generally great person that I know. Her whole family is wonderful. She was sad to tell us that the woman literally barely gave her a chance to speak about her case, and basically made her decision without even hearing her out, or looking at her papers. She pleaded with her to please consider the documents that they had, but she basically chose to ignore them. She said, this is the US rule, when someone is over 21, they aren't counted. My aunt (who speaks English fairly well, as she's been to the US and lived in England for years in her 20's) literally could not speak with the woman and was given the brush-off, and it just BROKE her heart, and all of their hearts. Her husband and her were given greencards, but not her kids, even though the fees were paid (not to lawyer, to the greencard related people/government) for all 3 of them less than a year ago. If they were not even going to CONSIDER her son, why would they have charged them hundreds of dollars and had his name in the papers? It just doesn't make sense. Again, he was barely a teen when they filed, and still a teen when they got approved, and we were told all along that he will be approved. Was everyone/were we wrong in thinking this? It seems the woman at the embassy truly just did not care, either.. She just said to return in 6 weeks after the FBI check for her husband, and that was that. Is there ANYTHING that can be done? It's just broken all of our hearts. Thanks SO much for reading my story!!
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re:

Hi.. She only has a greencard. The rules were different when she applied, I believe. Now, you can do a lot less with a greencard, but years ago, I believe that greencard holders were given more chances. I'm not certain about the dates, but I'll ask them and get back to you. Thanks so much!
 
By the way, I do know so far that his birthday is May 1 1985 and the Ankara visit was on Nov. 30th 2010. I'm not certain of the dates exactly of receipt/approval. I believe it was 1998 that they received it, and 2002 that it was approved. And 2008 was when they charged the money for the parents and son. Again, I'll try getting more exact dates tonight. Thanks again!
 
Again, he was barely a teen when they filed, and still a teen when they got approved, and we were told all along that he will be approved.
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Note that his age as of the I-130 approval date is not very relevant here. The CSPA involves more factors than that.

If the I-130 was filed in 1998, and approved in 2002, that means it was pending for more than 3 years. That means his adjusted age under the CSPA would be 20 or younger in 2008 when they paid the visa fees. That means they wrongly rejected him. But apparently you are not very sure of the dates, so the consulate might have been right depending on what the dates were.

Unfortunately, consulates are not good at recognizing the CSPA if the applicant doesn't clearly assert their CSPA eligibility. They should consult the lawyer*, who can put together a letter showing that he is eligible under the CSPA based on the relevant dates involved, and can advise him of how to obtain a consular review to correct the error.


*or perhaps another lawyer, if this one didn't provide a CSPA explanation letter for them to take to the consulate. Although the way you described it, the officer probably wouldn't have read the letter anyway.
 
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It also doesn't make sense that your grandmother only has a green card. She has to be a US citizen, otherwise your aunt would have been rejected for being married.
 
Try to get the exact dates. At least get those dates to a lawyer that knows about CSPA.

hreshtag said:
By the way, I do know so far that his birthday is May 1 1985 and the Ankara visit was on Nov. 30th 2010. I'm not certain of the dates exactly of receipt/approval.
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re:

Hello again.. I asked the same question about the greencard, that if she's not a US citizen, how did she apply for her daughter who is married.. but I was told that when they applied, the rules were different at that point, and they wouldn't be able to apply if the case were the same today. But anywho, I found out their dates.. which are Sep 21 1998 and October 1 2002. Also, his birthday is actually 4/10/85. Thanks again, SO so much for reading..
 
Going by these dates, your cousin had 4 years and 10 days as buffer. So it seems he was under 25 years and 10 days when the visa number became available. I am assuming the visa number was made available before April 20th of this year. If that is the case, consulate got it wrong. If the visa number was made available after April 30th of this year, consulate got it right.



hreshtag said:
which are Sep 21 1998 and October 1 2002. Also, his birthday is actually 4/10/85.
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Hi.. I'm not sure where they could find that date (the date that the visa number was made available).. Do you know how they could find that out?
 
Ok, thank you. I looked up the F3 (I believe that's what they are filed under) category for April 2010 and it says May 22 2001. The were approved after this date, but their Priority date of 1998 was before. Am I reading it right? Thanks again, I really REALLY appreciate your time, more than you'll ever know. :)
 
hreshtag said:
Ok, thank you. I looked up the F3 (I believe that's what they are filed under) category for April 2010 and it says May 22 2001. The were approved after this date, but their Priority date of 1998 was before. Am I reading it right? Thanks again, I really REALLY appreciate your time, more than you'll ever know. :)
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You need to dig deeper to find out when it first became available.
 
Ok, thank you.. and if, per chance, it was made available before the date you stated, there would be a chance for him to get a greencard despite being over 21 with the CSPA calculated age?
 
Hello again.. I'm not certain where to look for more information. I've been googling it to no avail so far.. but by looking at the chart, I see that for May 2010, June 2010, etc., the cutoff date is still after their Priority date of 9/1998.. Basically, just to let you know, EVERYone in the family has already given up except for me. I don't want to waste anyone's time or chase something that will go nowhere, but as long as there is still a shred of hope, I'll still continue until I'm certain the consulate was wrong. THANK YOU for your help, its greatly appreciated.
 
Now I see where the problem lies. The visa number became available in Sept. 2006 (see http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_3009.html), but they didn't apply for the visas until 2008. The CSPA requires the individual to "seek to acquire" the visa within one year after the visa number becomes available ("available" means PD is current and the I-130/I-140 is approved).

"Seek to acquire" means either applying for the visa, or hiring an attorney to prepare the visa application. While he obviously didn't do the first, if there is enough credible evidence of doing the second before Sept. 2007, he might have a chance.

And there is another "loophole" that might save him. I understand that if retrogression occurs to the point where the visa number becomes unavailable during the one-year window, a new one-year "seek to acquire" window restarts when the PD becomes current again. I haven't gone through the visa bulletins to determine if such retrogression occurred here, but see if you can find at least one month between Oct. 2006 and Sept. 2007 when the family 3rd preference retrogressed to a date older than Sep. 1998.

And I still don't accept that the grandmother only has a GC. I can't find any evidence of any changes to the Immigration and Nationality Act since 1998 to stop permanent residents from petitioning for married children, after having previously allowed that.
 
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Hi. Thanks SO much for your reply. You are correct about the grandmother not applying. I was mistaken, 20 years ago, she was the one who applied for sure, but the case basically expired and this time it was the uncle who applied (and he's a US citizen). I just found this out last night. I now understand how to look thru the visa bulletins, and found this one:

travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_4512.html

from July 2009 that shows under the F4 category, a date of Oct 22 1998. Their PD was 9/18/98. They gave the case to a lawyer in March 2010.
 
There is hope, according to the statute you have at least a 3 years window of opportunity. An initial 1 years and if they terminate, you can try to reopen for 2 years AFTER they give proper notice. It has to be proper notice, that issue has already gone to court.

INA 203(g) Lists

For purposes of carrying out the Secretary's responsibilities in the
orderly administration of this section, the Secretary of State may make
reasonable estimates of the anticipated numbers of visas to be issued
during any quarter of any fiscal year within each of the categories
under subsections (a), (b), and (c) of this section and to rely upon
such estimates in authorizing the issuance of visas. The Secretary of
State shall terminate the registration of any alien who fails to apply
for an immigrant visa within one year following notification to the
alien of the availability of such visa, but the Secretary shall
reinstate the registration of any such alien who establishes within 2
years following the date of notification of the availability of such
visa that such failure to apply was due to circumstances beyond the
alien's control.
 
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