I-130/I-485 PLEASE HELP! :-(

[SpanishTeacher 0]

I, a born and raised American Citizen, was married May 19th 2008 to a woman from Colombia. We were married in the US. Our lawyer then filed the I-130 and I-485 jointly. On November 5th 2008 we received an I-797C Notice of Action stating that our paperwork has been transferred to the California Service Center (I have heard this means we probably won't need an interview). Our case status online at the USCIS website states that the case status is pending, as far as processing goes. We were supposed to have a hearing in front of an immigration judge on April 15th, today, but that needed to be postponed until August 12th, 2009. We are wondering if there is any possibility that we will have heard from immigration before then, because if not, our hearing will be postponed, yet again, and so will the process of my wife obtaining her green card.

**Please see below to read more out our case's specifics**.

My wife (before we were married) entered and was legally working in the US as an AU-Pair (nanny) on a work visa. Her visa expired without her realizing it, and when she was going to the airport, on April 11th 2008, to fly to New Jersey to visit her legal citizen relatives, she was detained at the airport and put in jail for a month before she received a bond hearing. Immigration had her in three different jails throughout the state of Pennsylvania. This was a huge local news story because of how absolutely ridiculous it was for her to be in maximum security prison for a month. On May 5th, she was granted by an immigration judge voluntary departure within 30 days. Since her and I were engaged already, we decided to get married, and did so on May 19th 2008. We contacted an immigration attorney to find out what our options were and she told us. We hired her, and she mad a successful attempt to reopen the case. My wife was allowed to stay in the country and a new immigration judge decided that the removal proceedings would continue until our I-130 and I-485 were approved by immigration. At that point the judge would grant us a green card. On November 5th 2008 we received an I-797C Notice of Action stating that our paperwork has been transferred to the California Service Center. This leaves us to where we are now. Our hearing with the immigration judge was scheduled for April 15th 2009, but since we haven't heard anything from immigration, and our case status says that our paperwork is pending, our lawyer had to postpone the hearing until August 12th, 2009. We really wanted to travel to Colombia this summer, and hoped to do so with her as a permanent resident, but now we are worried because our status is still pending. Do you think there is any chance that are status may be changed to approved by the time of the next hearing?

[payxibka 10,048]

The USCIS moves slow.... my understanding is a marriage occurring during the removal process does not provide for the alien to adjust status.... You have an immigration attorney.... I can only imagine that your case is quite complicated....

[Bobby+Umit 161]

Wow - that is quite a story.

Only advice I would give is to not leave the country for any reason until your case is granted and you go in front of the judge, as needed.

Have you contacted USCIS on the status of your case?

On a side note, do you have any links to online articles about this case? I never heard of it.

[belinda63 3,054]

Just got off the phone with USCIS, as usual not very helpful. As of today 4/15/09 CSC is processing 1-485 family based adjustments from October 3, 2008. Now how it was that three weeks ago they were working on November applications I don't know, maybe they missed a stack of the October apps and had to go back and process them.

Good luck with everything but remember the government wheels turn slowly and the wheels of justice almost as slowly.

[SpanishTeacher 0]

Just got off the phone with USCIS, as usual not very helpful. As of today 4/15/09 CSC is processing 1-485 family based adjustments from October 3, 2008. Now how it was that three weeks ago they were working on November applications I don't know, maybe they missed a stack of the October apps and had to go back and process them.

Good luck with everything but remember the government wheels turn slowly and the wheels of justice almost as slowly.

Thank you very much! You saved me a call! I ask myself the same questions, how are they on October now, but say that they were working on ones from November 3 weeks ago. I just hope they get to November 5th's soon. Thanks again!

[SpanishTeacher 0]

Wow - that is quite a story.

Only advice I would give is to not leave the country for any reason until your case is granted and you go in front of the judge, as needed.

Have you contacted USCIS on the status of your case?

On a side note, do you have any links to online articles about this case? I never heard of it.

I have three links to local news stories about the case. The first two are from when she was imprisoned, and the third is from when she was released and originally given voluntary departure. As I said, that decision was overturned, and her case was reopened. Therefore, she was allowed to stay while the new removal proceedings are taking place. There are videos for two of those links. I am in the video that appears in the third video, listed as her boyfriend (as we were engaged at the time) (now we are married). I thank God everyday that she has been allowed to stay with me here and not have to return to Colombia while all of this paper work gets sorted out, however, I really wish the USCIS would move faster (as I'm sure many people do).

The reason there are no more news stories covering her situation is because after we got married, I decided to get her a NEW lawyer (that was quite expensive) to take the case, and this lawyer recommended that we keep the media out of the situation, and that it would help everything go more smoothly. I hope so! Well, below are the links to the stories and videos. Enjoy.

1: April 28th, 2008 http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/1...848/detail.html

2: May 5th, 2008 http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/1...238/detail.html

3: May 8th, 2008 http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/1...712/detail.html

Edited April 15, 2009 by SpanishTeacher

[Bobby+Umit 161]

Thanks for the links - !

[Bobby+Umit 161]

Did the Senator do anything?

[SpanishTeacher 0]

Did the Senator do anything?

Senator Casey's office simply contacted us saying that they were very concerned about this matter, and were going to look into how everything was being handled. They then sent me paper work to have Maria Patricia sign, however, she was in prison at the time, and immigration would not allow her to receive any paperwork. They contacted us again after she was released, but once again, nothing major, just that they were still looking into it. Nothing ever came of it.

[Bobby+Umit 161]

Ah - just got his name in the paper...

nice...