CASE: I-751 / Waiver of the Joint Waiver Requirement
APPLICANT: Vietnamese
LOCATION: Round Rock, TX
Our client contacted our office in March of 2019 regarding his daughter’s I-751 filing. Our client is from Vietnam and he married a U.S. citizen and got his conditional green card in 2015. He filed his I-751 application and his I-751 application was approved as well. When he was petitioned by his U.S. citizen wife, his wife also filed I-130 petitions for our client’s daughter and she (the daughter – the subject of this success story) got her conditional green card in March 2015. Therefore, her conditional residency terminated in March 2017.
Unfortunately, during their marriage, our client and his ex-wife went through struggles. His ex-wife (his spouse at that time) refused to sign the form I-751 for his daughters to remove their conditional green cards. His daughters had to file the form I-751 under extreme hardship. In their application package, besides the required documents, each of them wrote a letter, explaining their hardships if they are forced to depart from the U.S and return to Vietnam. The hardship evidence included the fact that they left Vietnam at an early age, being unable to communicate in Vietnamese anymore, no protection, family separation, being unable to continue with their education, life insecurity, and physical and emotional depression.
Nevertheless, our client received a Request for Evidence for this I-751 application in January 2019 and contacted our office for legal assistance. After consultation, we advised that we can help her re-file the I-751 application with a waiver of the joint filing requirement. We requested a waiver because our client (applicant’s father) entered into the marriage in good faith, but the marriage was terminated through divorce or annulment before they can file a joint petition.
On April 3, 2019, our office filed the I-751 application with various supporting documents for the daughter. Eventually, on May 27, 2020, the USCIS approved our request for the removal of conditions on her permanent resident status without even an interview nor an RFE. Now, she has her ten-year green card.