Hey friends. If you're interested in here in how we were able to help our client get her green card
in five months, watch this video in this one. I'm going to take you again behind the scenes
and share with you lots of winning tips guys, about how to prepare your marriage based case.
And even if you don't have a marriage based case, there are things in this video that
you're likely to walk away with. So watch this video all the way until the end.
For those of you who are new to me, welcome to my channel. I'm Latoya, McBean Pompey and immigration
lawyer in New York, but I work with clients all over the us and around the world. This case was
processed much faster than our usual adjustment of status, marriage cases. Every case is different.
The timeline, the process and timeline depends on where the case is adjudicated at, right?
For example, is it being adjudicated at a smaller field office or a large field office,
or when I say large, I mean a big city field offices that tend to see a lot more cases,
or is this a case that's really complex, right? Meaning there's a waiver that's attached to
this or something else that's going on with the case. And then certainly the timeline depends on
what's going on at USC. I S it just want to put this out there so that you guys can understand
that this is not the norm for us. Now let's get into some key facts of this case.
The couple found me on YouTube and they had a consultation with me in August, 2020.
They had been married since 2018, but they were now ready to start the green card process through
adjustment of status. We prepared the case and mailed it on September 1st, 2020.
We received no RFPs for this case. Only a courtesy notice from USC. I S about the [inaudible] medical
examination report, which they wanted the client to bring with her to the green card interview.
They also had an interview prep with us and their case was approved in early February, 2021.
Now, how did this happen? Well, firstly guys, as you know, I like to keep things simple. That's
my philosophy, right? So we simplify the case to argue three main points. Before I dive into
the three main points that I typically argue in marriage cases, I need to inform you that
public charge is not a requirement anymore for adjustment of status cases. As of March 9th,
2021, the Biden administration gave up the fight around public charge.
And therefore the form I nine 44 declaration of self-sufficiency is no longer a required form
with the adjustment of status process. So when we get to point number three in this
presentation, go ahead and just disregard it because public charge is no longer a record.
The three points that we argued were bonafide marriage. This is a real genuine marriage.
Number two, we argued that the client is eligible for adjustment of status. And then number three,
we argued that she is not a public charge and she is not likely to become a public charge in the
future. Now, if there's anything else going on in the case, such as an issue around, um, an issue of
inadmissibility that we need to argue, and we're also preparing the [inaudible] waiver, uh, then
we also argue around that issue as well, and go into a lot of details about the extreme
hardship to the U S citizen or green card holder, parent, or spouse. And so, but for the standard
adjustment of status cases, marriage cases, these are the three things that we typically argue.
Now, what else did we do to make this happen? While secondly, we told a story, we told
their story through declarations and memos, and you guys know that I am super big on storytelling.
Immigration will need to know who you are, what you want and why they should give it to you.
And if you haven't seen my video about that, I'm going to link to it here so that you guys can take
a look at that video to see exactly how to break down your case around those three simple points so
that immigration can get a better understanding of who you are and what you want. So focusing
on the storytelling is super important. And guys also just a reminder, I have another free resource
out there that tells that shares with you, my tips on how to tell your winning story. So you want to
click below and go through that free training on how to tell your winning story to immigration.
Now let's get back to the facts. So we did this, we told their winning story about how they met
what their data in life is like, what the proposal was like wedding. And then most importantly guys,
how they share their life together. Now, what does to gather NES look like? What does that
look like? So for the average couple togetherness looks like joint assets sharing responsibilities,
right? If children are involved in particular, how do you share the responsibility of raising a child
together? In addition to other responsibilities that you have as a couple, uh, we also focused on
the daily routine and also their marital domicile, and then overall how they overcame challenges
in their relationship along the way, and just generally how they support each other through
challenging times. So that's togetherness and my definition in my book now,
what else did we do to make this happen? Well, we used key evidence to tie together and
support their winning story, to tie together their winning story. In my free training that I
mentioned earlier about how to tell your winning story in that training. I talked about the fact
that immigration evidence is like pieces to a puzzle, and you've got to put those pieces
together for immigration in a way that they could understand it. And so we focused in on evidence
that supported the story about bonafide marriage. For example, financial records. In this case,
this couple had a lot of great financial records. They also had a lot of good records showing joint
residents. And then we got some letters of support or affidavits from people in
their life who could tell or a test to the fact that they have a bonafide marriage. The letters
of support can be incredibly effective in telling the winning story to immigration.
These letters are, should be prepared from people on both sides from the beneficiary side,
as well as the petitioner side. And the government is very specific about what they're looking for
when they're reviewing these letters of support or affidavit. And so you want to be caring. You
want to pay attention to those details in the form instructions, but in essence, you need at letters
that are not generic letters that you can get on the internet templates that you can get on Google.
You need people who really know you and know that story of your marriage and how you met and all of
that, and be able to communicate those details in bear letter of support for you. We also prepared
declarations as we always do. And then this particular couple had additional evidence showing,
um, the wedding ring purchase, uh, honeymoon, uh, receipts and other things like that.
And so we were able to pull together all of this great evidence from them to prove
bonafide marriage. Now, the other thing that we did was we made it clear crystal clear that this
client is eligible for adjustment of status. And you might be saying, well, I, you know,
if you submit the [inaudible] or even the visa, uh, showing lawful entry, isn't that enough? Isn't
that isn't, that all that's necessary there. And I would say to you that, well, you don't forget that
immigration also, or the officer I should say also uses his or her discretion to determine whether
you're eligible for adjustment of status or not. Discretion is part of adjustment of status. And
so, for example, if you have a criminal record or if you have other things going on with your
character, the adjudicated officer can use those factors against you and deny you.
So it's very important that you show that you have the character for adjustment of status
as well. And then what else did we do here? Well, the fifth thing that we did, which was
also important is we prepared the public charge test for the government. My philosophy is this.
I don't want them to do too much thinking, let us do the thinking for them and show them why
this client is clearly eligible for this benefit. And so what we did with the public charge test was
we focused in on the factors, right? We looked at the client's age, her employment history,
her health, her household size income assets, resources, her education, and her skills,
and pull pulled all of those factors together in a very cohesive way to tell the story
that she is not a public charge, nor will she become a public charge in the future.
So once we had everything together, I should say, we prepared a very big packet in a nice, organized
way for the government, with our declarations, our memo, all of the evidence, all of the forms.
And we sent it off to the government. Now, the last thing that we did, which was very important,
and I, I mentioned it earlier is we prepared the clients for their green card for their green card
interview. And we attended the interview with them guys, don't skip this very important step
of being prepared by an attorney for your interview. You might be thinking, well, my
cases sailing through right, I've filed, I haven't gotten any RFE. I now have my interview. Notice
why at this late stage, should I engage an attorney? And I will say this to you. Well,
yes, your bear, your case may very well be going along pretty smoothly up until this point.
However, you don't want a scenario in which you don't really prepare for this interview.
And this happens all the time and you go into this interview with your spouse and
you may not be aware of the fact that there's something else on the record that you just didn't
catch, or you didn't even know about until you got to that green card interview. And the officer
asked you a question about it and you're caught completely off guard. And now, you know, if that
happens and you don't answer correctly, um, maybe because of nerves or whatever the case may be. And
next thing you know, you get either a notice of intent to deny or even an RFE, um,
or even a denial letter, or you get another interview notice for a Stokes interview,
right? Those, these things happen all the time, or like what happened in a recent
case that we worked on in which the client did get her green card about a week ago.
Um, they walked into the interview and immediately at that field office, they were
separated everyone, including our clients. And so the petitioner had to go in first and face about
30 to 40 minutes of questioning. Then the beneficiary walked in and faced question, and
it was very intense, very intense. So sometimes you don't really know what you're walking into, so
it's very good. So it's a good idea to be prepared if you need help with your marriage adjustment of
status case, be sure to contact my office on our website, through a consultation@mcbeanlaw.com
so that we can sit down with you and talk about your case and how we may be able to help you.
Now, guys, the marriage process can be incredibly tricky. So wherever you are on this spectrum,
whether you haven't filed yet, or you filed and you've gotten an RFE, or perhaps you've gotten a
notice of intent to deny, or if you've even gotten a denial recently, we can help you in all of those
scenarios. These are the things that we tackle every day for our clients. So be sure to start
with your consultation@mcbeanlaw.com. I hope this video was helpful to you.
Be sure to share this with other people, subscribe to this channel, by the way, if you have not yet
subscribed and hit the notification bell so that you won't miss any of my upcoming videos, guys,
I will see you in the next one. Bye. Bye [inaudible].