Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Deportation Proceedings Terminated Despite Criminal Conviction

We were able to obtain the termination of deportation proceedings that were instituted against our client, a citizen of Nigeria. Our client was first admitted to the United States in 1995. Subsequent to his admission his was convicted for an offense that subjected him to deportation, and In March 2008, deportation proceedings were ultimately instituted against him.

Thereafter, our client married his United States citizen wife, a Reverend. We immediately filed a petition with USCIS on his behalf with a request for a Bona Fide Marriage Exemption under §§204(g) and 245(e)(3) of the Act. We submitted corroborating evidence of the bona fides of their relationship to establish that our client’s marriage was real and that the Petition filed on his behalf was approvable. USCIS approved the Petition in 2009, after an interview of both our client and his spouse.

Our next course of action was to renew our previously filed motion to terminate deportation proceedings before the Immigration Court. In Court we advised the Immigration Judge that our client had an approved immigrant petition based on his marriage to a United States citizen, and that he was eligible to apply for his Green Card, requesting the opportunity to submit such application with USCIS with a waiver to spare the need for a trial before the Court.

The Government’s lawyer did not oppose our motion and the Immigration Court in Buffalo, New York terminated deportation proceedings despite the fact that our client is removable due to his criminal conviction.

Our next step is to prepare and file the our client’s Green Card application with a waiver package to cure his underlying ground of inadmissibility. To obtain approval of the waiver we must show that our client's deportation will cause an extreme hardship to his spouse should he not be allowed to remain in the United States. We are optimistic that this application will be approved.

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