August 29, 2016
Married to a Permanent Resident? Maybe you can get a green card now! 
   
At the end of last month, USCIS opened the Provisional Waiver Process to Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs) or "green card holders" to allow for their spouses and children to benefit from processing the unlawful presence conditional waivers from within the United States. Now spouses and children of LPRs who entered through the border are able to file the entire consular process and hardship waiver from within the United States and know in advance whether they are approved. This is a great benefit because it diminishes the risk of departing the United States and not returning or being stuck abroad for a long period of time. It helps family unification for many new eligible families. This new ruling is effective starting today, August 29.
A Window of Hope for Families of LPRs

One of our clients, who crossed the border in 1991 from Mexico is married to a Lawful Permanent Resident and has U.S. citizen children. Before this rule above changed, she did not have an option to file for her hardship waiver while staying in the United States with her family. Her only option was to leave the United States, wait abroad in Mexico for months, and risk not being able to return to the U.S. if her waiver would not be approved.
 
This would mean for her to leave the United States, her home for the past 22 years, and leave her husband and children here and wait abroad for the about 12 months without having the guarantee that she would be back with her family, because if her waiver application would get denied, she would face a 10-year ban from returning to the United States.
 
This was not the ideal option for her, as she runs a successful restaurant business together with her husband, and she could not bear the risk to separate from her family members or stay abroad for such a long time. While he takes care of the kitchen, she is in charge of the financial decisions and the actual operation of the business, so it would be extremely harmful for their business and their entire family if she had to leave for a long time.
 
Under this new process, we can now apply for a provisional waiver of the unlawful presence ground of inadmissibility for her without having to take the risk of been separated from her family. The waiver process will be completed from within the U.S. and she will know if it is approved or not before she leaves to get her visa.
 
If you or a person you know can potentially qualify for this new process, call us today to find out.

Think about an area in your life where you wish things would be different. Now think about what the difference is between how things are and how you want things to be. The difference between the two is causing you frustration. What can you do in order to change it? What are the things that are not dependent on you and cannot be changed? What would happen if you acted in a particular way - how would you be able to change the situation ultimately? Would that affect what you cannot control or change? Maybe it would be better to change your expectations?