Mr. I is the typical American business
success story, with an immigration twist.
He came to the US to go to college. After
completing his MBA Mr. I sought out a business
opportunity in the US that would allow him
to apply for an E-2 visa as a
treaty investor. In 1995 he found an old
manufacturing company in the South that had
recently gone out of business. The property
and equipment were in reasonable shape, although
in need of some repair. He put together an
offer that was accepted and took over the
business. He was also granted an E-2 visa
based on his new investment.
He hired a new crew (several of whom had worked for the plant in the past) and spent the first few months just cleaning up the property and getting everything back in working order. As soon as he had everything in shape he began rebuilding the customer base and building the business. Things went well and the business was so prosperous that Mr. I had to increase the production staff to 15 – 20 people.
Mr. I continued to renew his E-2 visa every
year as the business flourished. In the late
1990s Mr. I talked with his immigration counsel
and determined that he could seek permanent
residence as an alien entrepreneur based on
his current business. Working with counsel
he filed the Form I-526 in August 1997 and
was granted conditional permanent residence
in 2000 under EB-5. 2002 rolled
around and it was time to file the petition
to remove the conditions from his permanent
residence. The initial Form I-829 was submitted
to the Texas Service Center in December 2002,
and the wait was on. There was no word from
the Texas Service Center for over a year.
During this time Mr. I became disillusioned with his current immigration counsel and came to VisaPro for advice. In early 2004, when he received an extensive Request For Evidence, he came to us for assistance in filing the response. Because the USCIS was requesting several documents that only they had copies of (at the time of the initial interview on the I-526 the immigration officer did not have a copy of the file with the supporting documents, and Mr. I’s attorney did bring his copy of the filing to the interview, so the officer used Mr. I’s copy – unfortunately he kept the copy and did not return it to Mr. I) we filed a FOIA request to get a copy of the initial filing from 1997. While waiting for a response we gathered the rest of the documentation requested.
We never received a response to the FOIA request and were not able to get the copies of the documents that were being requested. Consequently we went back and forth with the Immigration Officer from the Texas Service Center for the next 2 years receiving additional time to file the response for Mr. I and building a case for him. In our discussions with the officer on several occasions during that 2 year period we were advised that he wanted to approve the case but needed the right documentation. In the summer of 2006 we had been able to gather enough old records and information to finally file a complete response to the RFE.
Shortly after filing the response we got another call from the officer handling the case thanking us for the thoroughness of the response. We thought at that time that we should be getting an answer soon. This was not to be. After another year of waiting Mr. I began getting nervous and starting reviewing all his possible options with us – including reverting back to an E visa, seeking permanent residence through another employer, and the DV lottery system. We advised him to not make any moves until there was a decision on the I-829. It took another year plus before the USCIS finally made a decision on Mr. I’s case, but in June 2008 the petition was approved and the conditions were removed from the permanent residence status for Mr. I and his family.
Conclusion
The moral of the story is that if you
are patient, take the time to develop a strategy
and a great case package, and work with the
USCIS officers reviewing your case, especially
with difficult cases, you will eventually
(in this case 5 ½ years) get a decision, and
in most cases that decision will be favorable.
We could have been pushy (and there are times
when you need to be) and filed suit to force
the USCIS to make a decision on the case,
but we felt that would be counter to the relationship
we had built on this particular case.
It was a long process but Mr. I now has an unrestricted green card, and since all the time waiting for the decision counts towards naturalization, he is eligible to apply for naturalization.
If you have a complicated case VisaPro experienced
attorneys can help you with the process. Contact
VisaPro to review your situation and discuss
your options.
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