Rete

Actually refugees are granted refugee status before entering the US by the Consulate. Aslyum seekers within the US might have entered with or without inspection.

Rete

She might well have had the eligibility to file the I-485 and her husband the I-130 for her if she can be grandfathered until the old Section 245(i). It is never as simple as it looks and newspaper articles don't mean that the authors researched before publishing.

jeffreyhy

HG,

You are assuming that the reporter understands what they are reporting about and used words that correctly describe the situation?

Reporters omit or confuse essential facts just as frequently as newgroup posters do!

Regards, JEff

HunterGreen

Actually, I am not assuming that at all, however you can't tell from my post that I don't.

khai ko

Shouldn't USCIS make an exception here?

Is it her fault that someone brought her to this country as a child? The government granted them amesty. Her mother is legal, she's married to a US citizen who is serving to protect this country, and her great crime is...getting married to him at the wrong time and being brought as a minor when she didn't have a choice?

If the law is stupid, shouldn't it be changed? Like someone said, have we/USCIS lost our collective common sense ?

Bluegrass Lass

To be honest, I feel for them, but I don't feel for them..if you get what I mean. If they wanted to make sure everything was above board and legal, they should have done their homework and realized that they had to wait to get married until after the legalization process was approved. If they had waited 6 more weeks, they would not be in this situation.

As much as I hate to say it, they brought this problem on themselves. I still think (as little as I know about asylum status) that is possible for her to adjust status based on marriage to a USC, so I really don't understand why there is a big kick-up.

Rete

The USCIS did not do this to them. She is here legally. She can adjust status to PR all they have to do is file for it. It is not as if she can't. They just didn't look into the matter.

More likely then not they married because he was in the service and was going to be shipped to Iraq. You see it on the boards all the time. Love comes first and foremost. No one thinks of the reprecussions of their actions until it hits them in the face. Not trying to be cruel but it is the truth and then they mouth off about how unfair it is to be separated, etc. They are in love, blah, blah, blah.

bluesails

How exactly do you come to that conclusion based on the information in this article? People who are here legally and can adjust by simply filing a petition don't end up in front of a judge with an attorney facing deportation.

Wow, that is a pretty callous statement, especially when you are familiar enough with the laws to know that they are extremely complex, that each rendition have made changes over the years that make minor mistakes big problems with big consequences and even things that when they happened were no problem at all, but after 1996 can cause you to be deported.

The consequences are not logical, so saying someone should just know what they are by osmosis or something, or even knowing what they should be researching, is not always realistic. There are plenty of attorneys that went to law school and been practicing for years that even get it very wrong, why do you have such disregard when a layperson makes a mistake for which they are paying dearly?

Rete

Simple: "If you were granted asylum, you may apply for adjust of status after one year in asylee status." Pg 85, Ch 6 U.S. Immigration & Citizenship, Allan Wernick author.

As the article states they had legal status as asylees she was here legally and able to apply on her own after she married, or she could have applied based on marriage to a USC.

No it is not callous. It is truthful from my point of view. She had been around the block and her husband has been as well. They are both immigrants. They know that you have to file for AOS but yet they never did a bloody thing about it. There are no immigration attorneys where she lives? No freebie immigration clinics set up by the city, state and/or private organizations, i.e. Catholic Charities.

Yes, people and attorneys get it wrong but they are proactive and don't take their immigration status for granted. She had amply time to sought out her status but failed to even start the process.

At least USCIS is giving her another chance to adjust her status and remain in the US.

ian-mstm

Not surprisingly, I agree with Rete. People are just plain stupid when it comes to immigration matters and, by and large, it's getting worse. We live in a "victim" society where there is honor in being on the receiving end of Big Brother. Even if I were not fairly well educated, I'd know enough to find out about my immigrant status in a foreign country and what I need to do to maintain or upgrade that status. However, many people wear blinders... they assume that things will work out even if they do nothing. I have no sympathy for people who can't even take the time to find out what's going on.

Ian

HunterGreen

Yes they do, if they don't actually file that petition. It is not up to the immigration judge to explain the process to them. The judge deals with people who haven't followed the rules, to put it simply.

That said, I'm still wondering: she was here legally as an asylee, how come all of a sudden she wasn't legal anymore? Was that because of the petition being filed on her behalf by her mom, which when denied (because of her marrying) automatically cancelled her asylee status?

ian-mstm

I'm guessing she was included on mom's application for adjustment. When the girl married, she suddenly ended up in a different category and was dropped from the application. Now, whether or not that would have (or should have) negated her status as an asylee, I don't know. I don't think it should have... but USCIS works in mysterious ways sometimes. I suggest the reason this happened is because her adjustment was snookered after she got married and some pencil pusher at USCIS decided that she had no other legal status, and completely ignored her asylee status.

Ian

HunterGreen

That could very well be the case, Ian. In the end I guess it doesn't even matter too much, because the judge has given her the chance to get 'back into legal status'. Why they didn't get out of the court room and headed straight for the nearest computer to print themselves some AOS forms is beyond me at this point.

ian-mstm

Just like I said earlier, "People are just plain stupid when it comes to immigration matters..."

Ian

Rete

Or why they didn't do that the day after the wedding (myself would have been prior to the wedding day)? Neither one of the couple is a stranger to immigration. This is the issue I have a problem with and does not allow me to be all that sympathic to her plight. Stupidity or just plain laziness is not an excuse.