My wife (a US citizen) and I (Australian citizen) are suing the USCIS for putting me in detention for 30 days, right at our adjustment-of-status interview.
We were married in 2001, filed for adjustment in 2002. Interview was in 1/2004 at which we learnt there'd been a deportation order on me from 2000, sent to an address I lived in 1995. I never received any such notice and have been corresponding with USCIS for years, always showing my current address.
I originally overstayed my visa in 1995, then married in 1997 and applied for a greencard, but was divorced in 1998, shortly before my adjustment interview was scheduled. The deportation order was because I did not show up to the adjustment interview.
At the 2004 interview, the USCIS officers would not budge and locked me up at a detention center in Queens, New York, mostly for asylum seekers. After several months, judge dismissed the whole thing "without prejudice" and USCIS approved me for a greencard.
Does this happen often? My lawyers are suing. What can I expect? Can we be awarded damages?
We were married in 2001, filed for adjustment in 2002. Interview was in 1/2004 at which we learnt there'd been a deportation order on me from 2000, sent to an address I lived in 1995. I never received any such notice and have been corresponding with USCIS for years, always showing my current address.
I originally overstayed my visa in 1995, then married in 1997 and applied for a greencard, but was divorced in 1998, shortly before my adjustment interview was scheduled. The deportation order was because I did not show up to the adjustment interview.
At the 2004 interview, the USCIS officers would not budge and locked me up at a detention center in Queens, New York, mostly for asylum seekers. After several months, judge dismissed the whole thing "without prejudice" and USCIS approved me for a greencard.
Does this happen often? My lawyers are suing. What can I expect? Can we be awarded damages?