Today, we're going to talk about a new trend that I have been
seeing in VAWA cases in terms of requests for evidence.
Is immigration taking a different strategy in sending out
requests for evidence on peoples VAWA cases?
As an immigration lawyer, I have helped hundreds of people self-petition
for protection under the violence against Women's Act, also known as VAWA.
The vow process can be complex and is incredibly long,
and there is very little clarity into the process of exactly what USCIS
is looking for in order to prove a case and there is just general misunderstanding
about VAWA all across the board, even from many immigration attorneys.
In this video, I'm going to explain to you one trend
that I am seeing now with VAWA RFEs.
Stay tuned until the end,
because I'll give you my tips and strategies for how to deal with
this sort of RFE should you get one from immigration.
My name is Moumita
Rahman, and I have been practicing immigration law for the past 13 years.
I am licensed by the lovely state of New York,
but I help immigration clients all over the United States.
So if you would like my assistance on your case,
call us at 212-248-7907
to schedule an appointment for a case evaluation.
So what is a new trend that I have been seeing for VAWA cases
in terms of getting a request for evidence?
And why would USCIS be requesting this sort of evidence from clients?
So first of all, I want to clarify something about an RFE.
The dreaded words RFE can strike fear into the hearts of almost everyone
when they hear it, and especially when they receive a request for evidence
people's hearts drop and they think it is game over
and they think that it is over for their case.
This is simply not true.
Immigration can give RFEs for a multiple number of reasons.
For example, sometimes they have not seen the document that you've provided to them
that shows that you have an eligibility for a specific type of case.
Number two, another reason why you may receive an RFE
is because the immigration officer is confused about what you've said
in your case and about how you could possibly qualify or sometimes
they just lack the experience necessary to make a decision in a complicated case.
And number three, the immigration officer may send you an RFE
because they simply do not know the law and are making a mistake
about a certain type of case and about whether you qualify.
And that's why they may be saying to you in that dreaded RFE:
“You have given us insufficient evidence to prove blah, blah, blah
in your case.” If you're filing for VAWA here
are some of the top trends that I am seeing for requests for evidence.
I had a gentleman come to me who had filed for VAWA
with a different attorney, and it looks like that maybe
that lawyer did not go through the evidence carefully enough to make sure
that it matched the information that was given in their affidavit.
For example, this gentleman, who became my client, filed an application
where he stated to immigration that he had lived with his particular
American citizen abusive spouse for a certain number of months,
and this residency ended, for example, in June of 2021.
But the evidence that he gave to
his lawyer to provide with the case showed that he and his spouse
had maintained a bank account through, let's say, August of the same year,
which would be at least two months past the date of shared residency.
And the RFE that I am seeing immigration give these days on
VAWA cases is they are asking people to explain
why there is evidence past the date of shared residency.
And for a VAWA case, they're considering this to be an inconsistency in the record.
So what is my tip?
If you have accounts with your spouse that go past a certain number of months
after you stop living together, you can still explain why that is so.
It is actually very common to have joint bank accounts and other joint accounts,
and maybe you do not inform the bank or the institution
that you are no longer living together and they don't update your addresses.
That could be one explanation, but one tip that you can really take into account
when you're filing your cases: If you still have joint accounts
that go past the date of your shared residency, then simply don't include it,
because that's just inviting some questions.
Now, another RFE that we are seeing is that immigration may say to you
in your VAWA case that you have shown us X, Y, and Z, but it is insufficient
to show that you and your spouse are in a good faith marriage.
This is actually still an RFE that we have seen in past days,
but it's still continues to show up,
especially if immigration wants to give you a hard time about your case.
So why would they even give you an RFE saying that
you have not proven that you have a good faith marriage,
even though you gave them bank accounts, a tax return, maybe an affidavit?
Simply this can be due to the officers training and lack of experience
and they just believe that you need to show much
more higher evidence to show that you have a good marriage.
But remember that in a VAWA case, the standard is any credible evidence.
So any credible evidence of a marriage is good enough for a VAWA case,
and you simply have to explain it.
So the tip that I can give you right now is even if you don't have a lot of joint
marriage evidence in your VAWA case, you can still explain that
you don't have this evidence or you don't have a lot of evidence
in your case because of the fact of X, Y, and Z.
Maybe you didn't live together a long time.
Maybe you did not have a Social Security number in order to open accounts.
Maybe your spouse refused to put your name on accounts.
There's always an explanation, but it has to be individual and true to your case.
When you respond to RFEs you just want to give a full explanation.
And it is always a good idea to do an RFE with the help of a lawyer
who has experience in writing to immigration to argue with them
about why you still qualify for a case and why maybe what they're saying is wrong.
And in fact,
you do have sufficient evidence to prove that you qualify for your case.
So while getting an RFE can be scary and it can be challenging to respond
to, don't lose hope.
It does not mean that your case is over.
And in fact, the RFEs that we have helped other people respond to
who filed cases with different attorneys,
those clients have gotten their VAWA cases approved.
If you want my help navigating your immigration case, write
this number down: 212-248-7907.
Call this number to schedule a case evaluation with my legal team.
And if you enjoyed watching this video, please do me a favor.
Take a minute to subscribe to my channel.
I do this on my free time so that I can help educate the public
on the scary complexities of immigration laws
so they have knowledge and then they have power
and they can make decisions for themselves with or without an attorney.
My name is Moumita Rahman, and I'll see you at the next video.