What should the doctors letter say? *hardship*

[JaclynE89 1]

The situation:

My husband and I are getting our things together to go to our lawyer to put in our 1601a waiver - to prove extreme hardship.

the only *really* strong case that we have going for us is that my mother is staying with us and she has nowhere else to go. she is a diabetic with nerve damage from below her knees down to her feet. she has abdomonal pain, etc. she is also very weak and walks slowly and can easily fall over. she has to hold onto things to walk. Basically, she can no longer work.. (though she doesn't agree). she has experience as a waitress the past 30 years and she just isn't qualified to be on her feet and walking around all day.. so my husband and I have been supporting her and she has been staying with us.

I got a diagnosis page from her doctor with just her diabetes and pain being noted, and the medications (insulin) that she is taking... however, that is not what i was looking for from the doctor. I feel that it is not strong enough for our application to be approved. I didn't want to mention directly to the doctor that it is for immigration for my husband, because that may turn her away from even doing it...

The hardship is obvious... my husband and I both support my mother (AND my brother.. who is in 12th grade he is living in my husband and my home.. which is a whole other situation). If my husband were to be forced to move to costa rica, or if i had to move to costa rica to be with him, my mother would have no where to go. though i make a little more $ than my husband, I wouldn't be able to support our household without him. My mom cannot work due to her diabetes which has affected her health..

I wanted to type up a short letter and show it to the doctor, and if she approves, she would simply sign it.. so she doesn't have to go out of her way doing this for us. I just don't know exactly how to word the letter... if anyone here would be able to help me out with just a couple of sentences or if there is an example someone can show me i would really sincerely appreciate it! thank you so much for any help or advice that you can offer.

[bond1980 4]

in doc note just need to write like how long she is been diagnosed what kind of treatment she taking and if stopped like what are the risks all these factors..

[LoveMyTico 999]

Why are you asking the doctor for a letter? My lawyer had US give the doctors office a signed hipaa release form and he called the doctors office and requested everything he needed. He wrote the medical letters. We wrote nothing.

[JaclynE89 1]

I am asking the doctor because our lawyer gave us a printout of things that we would need to get.. like it was literally a list "physchological report, doctors letter, etc" and once we have all of our stuff together, basically go back to him with it and thats when we will put in the application.. I wish we had it that easy. I literally have no idea where to even start with this..

Why are you asking the doctor for a letter? My lawyer had US give the doctors office a signed hipaa release form and he called the doctors office and requested everything he needed. He wrote the medical letters. We wrote nothing.

[HFM181818 750]

the 'extreme' hardship has to be focused on the American spouse, not a third party. The medical condition of another relative is not the issue...there are no laws that require a son or daughter to take care of an ailing parent....but....be prepared for some sleazy immigration attorney (i.e., the typical one!!) to convince you of anything in order to give you a bill for at least $8000 to 'file' a waiver....they are ripping you off at a level you won't believe....

[LoveMyTico 999]

What are you paying him to do? That's nuts. The hardship is not on your mother. Its on you. Remember that when writing th letter. Immigration doesn't care about your mother. And I'm not trying to be nasty. My hardship was that I have children here with my ex. He won' let the kids leave the country. My youngest has a brain tumor and is treated at children's hospital of Philadelphia. Healthcare in Costa Rica is not even close to the US. My elderly mother (84 years) is sick and we care for her. She was hospitalized for 3 weeks at the time we sent the waiver. We had c other small hardships but eventually got an expedite request approved because I got laid off and only had unemployment as income.

Psychologist letters mean nothing unless it has been ongoing care. One visit is a waste of your time. Everyone gets depressed while going through this process. At least your husband sleeps next to you every night. Most people are waiting outside of the U.S.. I waited 3 years to sleep next to my husband . get your lawyer to work for the money you are paying him. You could collect all this info and send it yourself if this is all he's gonna do for you. We paid 6k for everything. From the filing of the i130 to the waiver. In the end, I only really needed the lawyer to put together the waiver. The rest was cake.

Edited October 19, 2015 by LoveMyTico

[JaclynE89 1]

i know. haha. this one just charged us $675 for this application (plus the initial $2400 which is paid already) but we can't do it without him sooo.. its better to just have a professional attorney help us along the way than do it ourselves and have no idea if we are doing it correctly...

the 'extreme' hardship has to be focused on the American spouse, not a third party. The medical condition of another relative is not the issue...there are no laws that require a son or daughter to take care of an ailing parent....but....be prepared for some sleazy immigration attorney (i.e., the typical one!!) to convince you of anything in order to give you a bill for at least $8000 to 'file' a waiver....they are ripping you off at a level you won't believe....

[Transborderwife 4,666]

i know. haha. this one just charged us $675 for this application (plus the initial $2400 which is paid already) but we can't do it without him sooo.. its better to just have a professional attorney help us along the way than do it ourselves and have no idea if we are doing it correctly...

Clearly your lawyer doesn't know what he's doing either...

[JaclynE89 1]

your right. I'm going to call my lawyer and explain it all to him and ask for HIS advice. my mother is ill. we also have my brother who is living with us he is 18 but he is still in high school and we are supporting him.. there really are no other hardships, besides the desire for family unity and hey.. he is my husband. id be an emotional wreck without him. i would have no choice but to move to costa rica... i don't speak spanish, ugghh... i could just go on and on.

My husband has a cousin in philly, and I'm pretty sure he said that he went through all this before... you never know, idk if there is a possibility that he knows him, but small world it is. LOL.

What are you paying him to do? That's nuts. The hardship is not on your mother. Its on you. Remember that when writing th letter. Immigration doesn't care about your mother. And I'm not trying to be nasty. My hardship was that I have children here with my ex. He won' let the kids leave the country. My youngest has a brain tumor and is treated at children's hospital of Philadelphia. Healthcare in Costa Rica is not even close to the US. My elderly mother (84 years) is I'll and we care for her. She was hospitalized for 3 weeks at the time we sent the waiver. Psychologist letters mean nothing unless it has been ongoing care. One visit is a waste of your time. Everyone gets depressed while going through this process. At least your husband sleeps next to you every night. Most people are waiting outside of the U.S.. I waited 3 years to sleep next to my husband . get your lawyer to work for the money you are paying him. You could correct all this info and sensed it yourself if this is all he's gonna do for you.

You may be right...

My husbands friends actually used the same lawyer and apparently he's very good... I'm waiting to see it for myself.

Clearly your lawyer doesn't know what he's doing either...

[JaclynE89 1]

the 'extreme' hardship has to be focused on the American spouse, not a third party. The medical condition of another relative is not the issue...there are no laws that require a son or daughter to take care of an ailing parent....but....be prepared for some sleazy immigration attorney (i.e., the typical one!!) to convince you of anything in order to give you a bill for at least $8000 to 'file' a waiver....they are ripping you off at a level you won't believe....

The point of noting my mothers medical condition to make it *my* hardship would be if my husband were to be forced to move back to costa rica, i would be unable to support myself and the rest of our household without him.

[Transborderwife 4,666]

The point of noting my mothers medical condition to make it *my* hardship would be if my husband were to be forced to move back to costa rica, i would be unable to support myself and the rest of our household without him.

The rest of household won't likely matter to uscis. Focus on you

[Unidentified 2,930]

So USCIS doesn't care if her mother becomes homeless even though they're terrified that one of us aliens becomes a public charge?

[HFM181818 750]

again, extra income from the other spouse working that might be lost is an expected hardship, NOT EXTREME.. hardships to other relatives are not considered...nor to kids that are not both of yours....nor the postman's, the next door neighbor's or your dog....BTW, in exchange for thousands, do you know what the average sleazeball attorney does for all of that money?

Have YOU collect alleged hardships, his paralegal makes a bunch of copies, they pay some out of work psychologist to write some blather about your depression, some photos of crying children, some made up stuff about some country's living conditions (they have this on file), back to the photo copier, a cover letter that is mostly boiler-plate, with names filled in, add another 'persuasive' boiler plate cover letter, rinse, add postage, hand you a bill, then sit back....it amounts to less than 3 hours of actual 'work', most of it spent by the paralegal operating the copying machine...and for this, $6000-$9000, with absolutely NO guarantee of success nor anything resembling like a refund if it goes sour? Oh, and each time another RFE or something arrives from USCIS, the attorney's billable hours meter will turn back on....in reality, if you have reasonable grammar, you can easily do this on your own with the exact same chance of success....while I never adjudicated waivers, I drafted numerous cover letters from the consulate that would deflect the baloney written by an attorney.......the attorneys will try to convince you that without their input, all is lost....which is kay-wrap. They just want the cash.....nothing more. Tread carefully....ask your attorney (demand!) to tell about how many cases this shyster handled that were not approved...they will likely change the topic...that's when you'll know to head for the door, and take your checkbook with you.

[HFM181818 750]

No, they don't care about other relatives.....if an American has taken on too much responsibility, not their problem...stay put in the US...if one's mom or dad is that important, then the foreign spouse clearly isn't, and there are no laws that state that you MUST take up residence in some third world country....

[PK and PK 13]

The situation:

My husband and I are getting our things together to go to our lawyer to put in our 1601a waiver - to prove extreme hardship.

the only *really* strong case that we have going for us is that my mother is staying with us and she has nowhere else to go. she is a diabetic with nerve damage from below her knees down to her feet. she has abdomonal pain, etc. she is also very weak and walks slowly and can easily fall over. she has to hold onto things to walk. Basically, she can no longer work.. (though she doesn't agree). she has experience as a waitress the past 30 years and she just isn't qualified to be on her feet and walking around all day.. so my husband and I have been supporting her and she has been staying with us.

I got a diagnosis page from her doctor with just her diabetes and pain being noted, and the medications (insulin) that she is taking... however, that is not what i was looking for from the doctor. I feel that it is not strong enough for our application to be approved. I didn't want to mention directly to the doctor that it is for immigration for my husband, because that may turn her away from even doing it...

The hardship is obvious... my husband and I both support my mother (AND my brother.. who is in 12th grade he is living in my husband and my home.. which is a whole other situation). If my husband were to be forced to move to costa rica, or if i had to move to costa rica to be with him, my mother would have no where to go. though i make a little more $ than my husband, I wouldn't be able to support our household without him. My mom cannot work due to her diabetes which has affected her health..

I wanted to type up a short letter and show it to the doctor, and if she approves, she would simply sign it.. so she doesn't have to go out of her way doing this for us. I just don't know exactly how to word the letter... if anyone here would be able to help me out with just a couple of sentences or if there is an example someone can show me i would really sincerely appreciate it! thank you so much for any help or advice that you can offer.

If you Google for "1601a waiver letter" there are some links near the top (immigrate2us) with examples of hardship letters. I think you could adapt them to your need. Basically you have a mother would is dependent on you so you cannot live outside of the US.