Question on Hardship

I

itc

Registered Users (C)
I have to appologize for lack of knowledge here and I am utterly confused with the immigration laws that I just started lookking at. Situation is as following:

1. I am a US citizen, and my wife is on J visa. We are expecting a child in a near future that will be born here in the US.

2. I understand that family separation is not hardship. They quote millitary although of course that is far from equal with out cases.

3. What happens if we provide a letter from an MD saying that child would suffer growing without one parent. Either growing here or overseas. I guess if health of a US citizen and a child is in question it should be a pretty good reason. What are the chances that this is approved?

4. In case of rejections, would other avenues on getting the waver be impeded?


Thanks for everybodies imput!
 
> 1. I am a US citizen, and my wife is on J visa. We are expecting a child
> in a near future that will be born here in the US.

Common scenario. Get in line.

> 3. What happens if we provide a letter from an MD saying that child
> would suffer growing without one parent. Either growing here or
> overseas. I guess if health of a US citizen and a child is in question it
> should be a pretty good reason.

Is there a political reason that you could not go to your spouses country (couple of places US citizens aren't that welcome these days) ?
If not, they will just say that you are free to follow you spouse.

> What are the chances that this is approved?

overall <50% for hardship waivers.
If you kid had some complex congenital anomaly and you can make a case that it needs specialized medical care only available in the US, you have a chance, I don't think that separation anxiety will do the trick.

As you can see from the Elian Gonzalez decision, the US goverment doesn't consider living outside of the US a hardship in and by itself.

> 4. In case of rejections, would other avenues on getting the waver
> be impeded?

I am not sure, but I believe you can't apply for a conrad or VA waiver while the hardship waiver is under consideration.
 
Correction

I was probably incorrect when I stated that you can't have an 'interested goverment agency' and a hardship waiver at the same time. At least according to the shusterman website, you can have both.

(you can have only ONE IGA waiver running at a time)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
hadron said:
I was probably incorrect when I stated that you can't have an 'interested goverment agency' and a hardship waiver at the same time. At least according to the shusterman website, you can have both.
Click to expand...
Yes you can have both pending. Whichever gets approved 1st then you have to go with that. Meaning if the VA/HPSA gets approved then you have to stay commited for whatever period of time.
 
Hadron,

Immensly thanks for your reply and the link you provided.

You must be lucky to know common scenarios of USC spouse and a child but I have not been able to find similar couples and we live in a metropolitan city. I do come accross many families with a child as a USC but I do not know a couple where one parent is a USC and the other on J visa and a child a USC. I'd really like to exhange experiences with them.

I am unclear as your mentioning of Elia Gonzales. This case only confirms that INS think reunification with the father is more important than anything else. Most of the public opinion in US supported that and I do too, that unification with the father is more important than growing up in the US without a parent.

You are asking if there is something preventing me to go with my wife. Of course there is. I will be unable to find a job there, even if I do find the job I do not speak the language. So I will be unemployed, that will be btw an end to my career. 2 years of not doing anything. I am not even sure if my wife can find a job, and even if she did it will not be easy for us to survive. On the other hand, the job I hold would would not be easily filled. US business will suffer. I do work at the VA (Veterans Administration Hospital) also, and more I work for free. It is not a full time job but I will be able to obtain a letter saying that veterans would suffer without my services. Again, it will be very difficult to support my family abroad for 2 years. Cost of living in my wifes country are pretty high. For my wife, also being unemployed for 2 years would be extremly difficult. If I also get a letter supporting that the child would develop best with two parents instead of one, I think that may be a strong case, but who knows?

One of the cases mentioned on the link you provided:

Matter of Vicedo, 13 I&N Dec. 33 (DD 1968). Hardship was found for purposes of a section 212(e) waiver where evidence showed that the two USC children would be deprived of the love and care of their parents, and the father could not pay transportation to the Philippines or maintain the family there.


This I bet is a common scenario and it worked.


I wonder if there are more people in similar situation and how they resolved the waver issue. I am really wondering if one's spouse is a USC and the child also is a USC, why hardship should not be pursued more often? Thanks a lot to everyone and especially to Hadron.
 
What the problem is seems that INS does not think you staying in here and wife and kid in their home country is hardship based on mere separation. You should prove that in ALL scenarios of one going and the other staying or going there is hardship. So if your wife was supporting you and would not be able to do that from home country then that is hardship for USC (you). Now if you have good job in here and are completely healthy (which I hope you are!), then things are difficult. If you had subclinical depression that would get worse by separation again it looks better.
I am not an expert on this, but know of friends with USC spouses that ended doing a waiver job; and they were from hardship stricken countries too.
I don't want to sound negative, just want to make sure you build a strong case before putting too much hope in it.
 
I612 said:
Yes you can have both pending. Whichever gets approved 1st then you have to go with that. Meaning if the VA/HPSA gets approved then you have to stay commited for whatever period of time.
Click to expand...

It is not necessary to stick with the first approval! I have a physcian friend got a waiver based on HPSA. He also had hard ship waiver cooking! when he got his hardship approved he left the HPSA and took a new job elsewhere!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
My understanding is that the hardship waiver is rather difficult to get and it takes quite a while until you get a decision back from them (until which time it is difficult to make decisions/committments regarding waiver jobs).

It is my understanding that just to have a USC spouse and USC kid will make it difficult. It is also my understanding that most cases of hardship involve either:
- health condition of the child
- health condition of the USC spouse
- the fact tha the USC spouse is for example a caregiver for an elderly parent whose care would fall to the state if the USC spouse has to leave.

Talk to a good immigration attorney. Pay him for the consultation (so it is not a sales appointment). Maybe I have it all backwards and it is easy to obtain a hardship waiver.

The scenario is not so uncommon. After you have gone through various residency/fellowship programs and met as many foreign residents as I did, you run accross plenty of people in this situation. In the end, the ones from countries easy to go back to (europe,NZ) typically sit out the 2 years abroad. Maybe they don't find employment at their level, but your skills as a physician are pretty much universal. The ones from developing countries typically took waiver jobs in the boonies and found some way to make it work for their spouse (I for example have a 82mi commute from the city where my wife practices to my little kingdom in the back-woods).
 
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