CASE: I-130 Motion to Reopen Nunc Pro Tunc
CLIENT: Indian
LOCATION: Ohio
Our client is a naturalized U.S. citizen who resides in Ohio. In April 2001, our client filed an I-130 petition for his brother who is in India. About a year later, our client received mail from the USCIS requesting him to submit his brother’s birth records. Upon receipt of the letter, our client timely mailed the requested documents to the Nebraska Service Center. However, he had not heard from the USCIS with regard to the status of the I-130 petition.
In November, 2003, our client contacted the CIS Nebraska Service Center to ask about the status of the I-130 petition. In response to his request, USCIS informed him that his records were located at the Cleveland District Office. Thereafter, he contacted the Cleveland District office. However, he never got a response from the District office. While disappointed, he kept sending letters to the CIS Nebraska Center to request the status of the I-130 petition. Despite his efforts, he did not get any response from the USCIS. Moreover, from the time he filed the I-130 in 2001 to 2006, he never moved to a different address.
On September 16, 2010, after following up again with the CIS Nebraska Service Center, Petitioner received an email and the Service informed him that the I-130 petition was administratively closed on September 22, 2005 and the petition was no longer pending. Our client became so disappointed and sought legal assistance to resolve this matter. He retained our office on October 13, 2010 and Attorney Sung Hee (Glen) Yu promptly prepared and filed a Motion to Reopen to the USCIS and asked the Service to exercise its discretion in re-opening nun pro tunc the case beyond the filing deadline since our client has never been served nor informed by the CIS with regard to the administrative closure of the I-130 petition.
Moreover, the Motion requested the CIS to summarily approve the I-130 petition for our client’s brother because our client and his brother have been waiting for the CIS decision for more than 9 years, and since he also responded to the purported Request for Evidence. The Motion noted that it would be extremely unfortunate and unfair for our client and his brother if he has to re-file the I-130 petition again since the priority date will be moved and he would have to wait another ten years.
After we filed the Motion, his case was transferred to the Nebraska Service Center. On March 1, 2011, the USCIS Nebraska Center informed us that the USCIS moved to reopen the matter, and also approved the I-130. Our client’s 9-years pending I-130 petition finally got an approval, and once priority dates become current, his brother can file an Immigrant Visa in India, without having to re-file another I-130 and wait 10 more years.
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How long does an MOTIC takes to approve/deny
This particular case took around 4 months before they approved the I-130. So anywhere between 3-6 months usually, though sometimes it can take longer. It depends on the case.
Dear Sir,
My brother has filed I-130 for me in 2003. We got a RFE in October 2010 but unfortunately could not responded to the RFE. Now the status available over the internet is DENIAL. Please inform the procedure to reopen the case as again filing I-130 application is a time consuming.
Johnson,
Thank you for the comment. Why were you not able to respond to the RFE. Was in an exceptional circumstance which prevented you from responding. We had a similar case before and our previous client had a good reason for missing the deadline, and we were able to reopen the I-130 nunc pro tunc. But that’s the only way to retain the priority date of that I-130 – reopening it.