Watch this video on how to handle an intent to deny after her marriage fraud interview
and learn more.
Hello everybody.
My name is Jacob Sapochnick and I'm an immigration attorney based in San Diego, California.
In this video, I wanted to talk about the process of responding to an intent to deny
following a second Marriage-Based interview, also known as a STOKES interview.
So typically, when you file a marriage petition that I went 30, and the 45, if all goes well,
after you got the receipts and the work permits and the whole thing, there should be an interview
scheduled.
And that interview, they want to determine, the government wants to determine if this
is a bona fide marriage.
So both spouses will appear and they'll ask questions, general questions about the relationship
and they want to see joint documents together and they'll ask certain questions.
After that first interview, if they're not convinced that it's a bona fide marriage,
as second interview will be scheduled.
And that interview, it's a more detailed interview where they separate a couple and they'll ask
the same questions, one party and the other and then they'll compare, compare the answers
and they'll make a determination whether it is in fact a bona fide marriage or not.
And that is a topic for a separate video which we've done.
And I'll do more in detail some videos because we have a lot of questions about this issue.
But after a second interview, there should be a decision.
And before there a decision, in many, many jurisdictions, the U.S. Immigration Service
will issue an intent to deny.
It's an official document titled Intent to Deny and that document that will detail some
of the things that happened in the second interview.
Some of the documents that were submitted by the couple of throughout the case and also
any inconsistencies that took place during the interview.
There will also be listed there and say typically they'll give 30 days to respond to that intent
to deny.
And the biggest issue is that, they're concluding that intent to deny by stating that the government
is not convinced that it's a bona fide marriage and it was only a marriage of convenience
for the sake of getting the paperwork of immigration.
And so, it is very important to take this document very seriously and respond to it
correctly.
Typically, what we do in our office, when we get a client with an intent to deny, we'll
try to analyze what happened in that second interview if we were not there in.
And typically, if we go with our client, we have detailed notes as to what happened in
the interview, and then we can help respond to the intent to deny because we can always
use some of our notes to show that, what was the position, what was our position, what
was the client's position and what actually happened at an interview.
As it makes it easier to respond to the intent to deny.
If there was no attorney present or we just have that piece of document that lists the
inconsistencies, it is important for…for the clients to list their version as how they
see it as to why the inconsistency it happened.
Sometimes, people are nervous.
Sometimes you forget things.
Remember, it's an intimidating interview that usually two officers involved and they ask
questions and they repeat them again.
And sometimes people forget.
If the inconsistencies are not that material.
If you forget, if it's a Tuesday instead of Wednesday or if you had chicken instead of
beef, those are much easier to overcome.
But if the inconsistencies are much more, you know, important and like date of marriage
or was there a proposal or there was no proposal or…then it's important to…to sit down
and be honest and admit that, you know, the person who wasn’t nervous and therefore
they…they didn't tell the truth.
But it still doesn't mean that it's not a bona fide, bona fide marriage.
So, it is important to be a truthful and honest when responding.
And so, I always ask the clients when we interviewed them, why did you say this?
Why didn't you say this?
Well, I was nervous.
I forgot.
Well, why did you lie?
So it's always important to admit to say, yes, we didn't tell the truth about this,
but this marriage is real because here is the proof of why it is real and bring evidence
to their…to the response to show why this was a bona fide marriage when incepted because
really that's the burden of proof to show that this is a marriage that was real when
the, when the, when the couple entered into the marriage and it just didn't work out for
whatever reason.
Or if they have difficulties currently or if you know, the inconsistency happened just
because they were nervous.
Put this in paper and explain why it happened to be very honest.
At the end of the day, if there is enough evidence to show that it was a real bona fide
marriage, we have to put this in our, into a brief and show the USCIS that what happened
in the interview is not a reflection of the real situation of this couple and it's still
a real bona fide marriage.
Once you put this together and the key here is, is to avoid the presumption of fraud because
even if they deny this, at least you won't have a presumption of fraud and there's, and
there's just denied because there are not sufficient evidence.
Once you respond correctly using that strategy with affidavits and all the additional evidence
you have, they will make a decision and either approve the case or denied.
If the case is denied, then we have to, it's important to discuss it with an attorney to
make a decision whether it's important where you can refile or do something else to get
your immigration status.
In any case, hopefully this was helpful.
If you have any questions about the intent to deny process, please email me at jacob@h1b.biz.
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