Our Immigration Services
ONE OF OUR AREAS OF FOCUS IS WAIVERS
SOME OF THE DIFFERENT WAIVERS WE FILE FREQUENTLY INCLUDE:
J waivers so that J1 visa holders and their family members don’t have to return to their home country for two years
I601a waivers for entering and remaining in the U.S. illegally
I601 waivers for criminal convictions and immigration fraud
I601 and I-212 waivers for individuals who are abroad after being in the U.S. illegally and have left either by their own decision or after a grant of voluntary departure or an order of deportation
We are specifically very proud of the extensive experience and success we have achieved in the area of Waivers. Sometimes our clients ask us why our waivers get approved more frequently then purported legal professional like “notarios.” and the national average.* We attribute our success to our knowledge and experience and our thorough and meticulous presentation of each case.
IMMIGRATION LAW COVERING WAIVERS IS EXTREMELY NUANCED
Even attorneys who practice exclusively immigration law are unfamiliar with the very specific requirements for each type of waiver. For example, while most waivers require a showing of hardship to a U.S. Citizen or a lawful permanent resident in order to win the case, the level or hardship necessary and who can be the qualifying relative varies depending on the reason for the waiver.
Certain criminal convictions are not waivable. Filing for a waiver for which you do not qualify can result in immigrations officers finding you, detaining you, and putting you in court removal proceedings which can lead to your deportation. I601 waivers for having previously committed immigration fraud or misrepresentation require proving extreme hardship to a U.S. citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident spouse or parent. When an individual who has been in the U.S. illegally leaves the U.S., the required waiver and accompanying standard depends on how long the person was in the U.S. illegally, and whether they left via their own decision or via a grant of voluntary departure, or based on an order of deportation.
THE RULES GOVERNING HOW TO PRESENT THE CASES ARE ALSO VERY SPECIFIC
J-1 and J2 Waivers based on exceptional hardship for example, need to be filed in a specific order with specific papers at both the Department of State and USCIS. I-601a waivers can only be filed after a prior immigration process which we must complete for the client and again with specific paperwork. I-601 waivers in the U.S. must be filed concurrently with multiple other applications and there must be grounds for filing those other applications which of course we go over and prepare for our clients as well. Finally, the same applies for I601 andI-212 Waivers for clients who are abroad after having been in the U.S. illegally, there is a specific procedure which must be followed. We have seen denials which clients have received with other attorneys where the prior attorney is not arguing the correct standard of law or not following the correct applicable procedure. This results in the case being denied or even rejected and the client wastes their money and time and can even prejudice the likelihood of future success. Our knowledge, vast experience, and dedication gives our clients an advantage over other purported legal professional like “notarios.”
THE RANCHOD LAW GROUP HAS SUCCESSFULLY FILED CASES PREVIOUSLY DENIED
We in fact have filed numerous cases that were previously denied with another attorney or “notario” and we have been able to get the previously denied cases approved! One client even told one of our attorneys:
Again, that client’s case (wife is American, husband was in India after having been in the U.S. illegally) was approved after we modified and presented the previously denied case. While we can never guarantee that a case will be approved, we do guarantee that we present the strongest case possible for each client. When we file a case our clients feel reassured that everything that could have been done for the case was done.
WE BUILD ARGUMENTS TO SUPPORT YOUR CASE
We pride ourselves in looking at the evidence available for each case and coming up or building arguments in support of the case. We often have clients tell us that there is no hardship in their case, based on our knowledge and experience, we see cases differently. For example, we had one client who was applying for an I601a waiver for having entered and remained in the U.S. illegally whose wife was overweight. One of our attorneys asked whether when the spouse was upset she ate to sooth herself and it turned out we were able to build an entire winning case on this fact! We referred the wife to a psychiatrist who confirmed she was an emotional eater. We then argued the emotional hardship in this case was beyond the hardship spouses usually face upon separation because of her diagnosis. Again, this was a case where the husband couldn’t see the hardship but we were able to identify and build a successful case for this couple. Another example of a case where the client didn’t believe he could win a hardship case but we saw the case differently involved a J-1 visa holder with an American child. He told me his child was healthy but we asked him for complete records from the pediatrician’s office anyways. Turns out the wife had been taking the child to the doctor every time the child got a cold so with these records we were able to argue the child had a history of chronic respiratory infections and after researching and supporting our case with evidence of the poor air quality in the J-1 home country we won!
PROVING HARDSHIP AND EXTREME HARDSHIP
We also know that to win these cases we have to prove that the qualifying relative would suffer hardship if they tried to relocate to the client’s home country abroad and also if they remained in the U.S. without the client. Also, we know that cases are never won based on solely one argument, we present numerous different arguments for example arguments surrounding:
Our complete approach to our cases when combined with our knowledge and experience and topped with our dedication is what makes our firm different and can explain in part our past success in this area of law.
NOT ONLY THE LAW BUT ALSO THE CIRCUMSTANCES
It is not just about knowing the law, it is also about being able to identify the circumstances in each case and knowing how to argue that those circumstances meet the standards set forth by the statute and case law. In addition to following the correct procedure for each case in terms of process, forms, fees, order, filing timing and location/s etc., we also present with each case our original legal briefs. A legal brief is a written legal argument prepared by our attorney in support of each specific case. The legal brief sets out the relevant statute and law governing the case and argues how your specific case meets the standards set forth by the law. Some law offices will use paralegals to copy and paste information into their version of a legal brief but in our office, it is actually the attorney who completes the necessary legal research and prepares the brief in its entirety. Our waiver cases are supported by quite literally hundreds of pages of documentation both paperwork provided by the client and our own original research. While paralegals or assistants often help us in gathering client paperwork, ultimately it is the attorney who oversees everything, completes the legal research, writes the brief, and puts together the entire case. This ensures a quality product for each client.
