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J Waiver Approval for a Brazilian national married to a U.S. citizen

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I-612 Approval Notice




More good news on the J Waiver front! Our client, a Brazilian national, is married to a United States citizen who was working towards his master’s degree, who had a long-standing career with a well-known company, and who ran a small business on the side. With all of these things going on, he had a lot to lose if he had to relocate to Brazil for two years to be with his wife. We argued that because of his ties to the U.S. —including financial obligations— that relocation would impose exceptional hardship; we also highlighted unfavorable conditions in Brazil like high crime and prevalence of communicable diseases that would add to the hardship.

What was interesting in this case was that the two had already experienced separation, so the United States citizen husband, despite all of the hardship, was not willing to remain behind while his wife was in Brazil for two years.

During their short separation, he engaged in unhealthy coping mechanisms which affected his work. Luckily, she was able to return and prevent him from financial ruin. USCIS issued an onerous RFE which The Ranchod Law Group was able to successfully overcome.

Additional information and other success stories about I-612 Waivers:

The consequences of having domestic violence on your record

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Welcome back to The Ranchod Law Group Crimmigration blog!

Today we are going to discuss domestic violence.

As with any conviction, having domestic violence on your record can be very costly. Not only are there court fees to pay, but first-time offenders often have to enroll in 52 weeks of classes for anything from parenting to anger management. These classes can disrupt your routine or work schedule and missing even a single class can result in failed probation or jail time.

And then of course there are immigration consequences of domestic violence. One important consequence of a domestic violence crime is that it makes someone deportable, even if they have a green card.

The first thing to keep in mind is that not all domestic violence crimes are treated equally for immigration purposes. For example, in California, “spousal battery” and “corporal injury to a spouse” are two different types of domestic violence – but only one makes you deportable!

Deportable crimes of domestic violence are found under Section 237 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

They apply to everyone – people with DACA, green cards, other types of visas like H1-B, or no legal status at all.

Another consequence is that committing domestic violence can delay someone’s ability to apply for Citizenship for up to 5 years. This is true even when there is only an arrest and no criminal conviction. In most cases, applicants for United States citizenship, through a process known as naturalization, must maintain 5 years of good moral character before applying. During this crucial 5-year period, even an arrest that does not lead to a conviction can result in denial.

Finally, some domestic violence convictions can lead to Deportation without bail. This is a law known as mandatory detention and applies to some domestic violence crimes with a jail or prison sentence of a year or more. Sometimes, the best strategy for immigrants is to plead to a crime and avoid a lengthy sentence. This is true even if the sentence is suspended during completion of probation.

Mandatory detention can lead to years behind bars awaiting Deportation – even after the sentence given by the criminal court for the crime. For this reason, it is important to have a crimmigration attorney on your side to let you know all the possible consequences of a plea, even some that won’t happen until years later.
If you or a loved one faces a domestic violence charge, consult a crimmigration attorney right away who can let you know all the possible consequences of a plea.

Additional information on the subject domestic violence:

ICE raids, What to do and What You Need to Know

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod from The Ranchod Law Group with Brian for our weekly immigration show and today the hot topic is the ICE raids that are going on.

If you have questions you can contact us at (916) 613-3553 so there have been a lot of ICE raids recently and we are getting a lot of calls about what to do so that’s what this video is gonna be about.

So if an ICE officer does come to your door they can only open the door in two situations:

  1. Do they have consent? That means do you allow them to enter? And if you allow them then in by opening your door up and say they can come in.
  2. Reason number two would be if there’s an order that would allow them to enter. So they would need to have an actual order that allows them to enter.

If you are not in one of those two situations, then they cannot enter and you can refuse entry.

If you have questions you can contact us at (916) 613-3553

So we talked about two reasons right now:

  • one if you open the door and let them in or if they have an order that allows them to enter;
  • otherwise if you say you don’t want them to enter they’re not allowed to enter;

We also give to our clients something called a red card where you can slide this under the door informing the officer that you don’t want them to enter unless they have an order and if you’d like to get that free from us you can contact us at (916) 613-3553 and we’d be happy to give that to you.

I want to thank you so much for joining today and we will see you next week thank you and have an awesome day.

Additional information on ICE:

I-612 hardship waiver approval success story and approval letter

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I-612 Application to waive foreign residence requirements




The latest success story to come out of The Ranchod Law Group belongs to a Pakistani national for whom we filed a Waivers of the two-year home residency requirement based on exceptional hardship to his United States citizen wife. By working closely with the clients, we were able to successfully demonstrate that his wife would suffer exceptional hardship if he were to move back to Pakistanfor two years. We highlighted the fact that due to her recurrent major depressive episodes coupled with chronic pain, that being without her husband for two years was simply not an option as she would suffer medical hardships. Our argument explaining why she could not relocate was airtight as well. The husband is Pakistani and Muslim, while his United States citizen wife is a white, Christian woman. This kind of arrangement would already be socially frowned up in Pakistan, but adding to the exceptional hardship was the fact that the husband already had an arranged marriage, per local custom. Upon breaking that arranged marriage, our client effectively made himself and his family a target. Therefore, we were able to successfully argue that their lives would be in danger upon relocation to Pakistan. It is work mentioning that the case was approved without a Request for Evidence (RFE); in today’s climate, that is a huge feat!

Additional information and other success stories about I-612 Waivers:

¿Qué tipos de exenciones I601 están siendo aprobadas?

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Hola, soy Kaushik Ranchod, aqui con Brian. Hoy vamos a hablar de lo que estamos aprobando ahora. Sobre las Exenciones I-601, porque como saben, con la administración del Presidente Trump se está volviendo mucho más difícil que estos casos sean aprobados. En general, la tasa de negación ha incrementado un 40%.

Nuestra firma aún está por encima del 90% de aprobaciones en términos generales. Pero los casos que se están aprobando (y claro que tengo que decirlo aun cuando nuestros casos están siendo aprobados), no quiere decir que todos nuestros casos serán aprobados en el futuro. Es por eso que es tan importante evaluar cada factor específico y único y usted puede llamarnos al 916-613-3553 si tiene preguntas.

En la Exención I-601A para la que acabamos de obtener aprobación, de lo que hablamos en esta situación es que usted debe demostrar, para una Exención por perjuicio excepcional I-601A, un perjuicio excepcional para el ciudadano de los United States si estuvieran separados o si el ciudadano de los estados Unidos tuviera que ir al país de origen del esposo. Una cosa que hemos demostrado es el historial de trauma psicológico que el ciudadano de los Estados Unidos había tenido y cómo podría continuar ocurriendo e incluso aumentar significativamente debido a la separación.

A eso se le conoce como perjuicio psicológico.

Segundo, hablamos acerca de perjuicio financiero, por el hecho de que la pareja tenía un hogar y podían perderlo si el cónyuge tuviera que ir a México.

Adicionalmente, el cuidado de los niños se volvería tan costoso que no serían capaces de pagar por el: ese es otro argumento que establecimos.

Entonces juntamos todos estos factores para demostrar el perjuicio excepcional. En muchos de nuestros casos no hay UN solo factor que en sí mismo constituya un perjuicio excepcional, pero cuando combinamos todos estos factores ¡BOOM! ¡Podemos demostrar perjucio excepcional!

Hay un factor importante que dejé fuera, que es la condición de salud del cónyuge, que también fue un factor importante en el perjuicio excepcional.

Es muy importante recordar al presentar el caso para las exenciones de prejuicio excepcional:

  • Proveer una gran cantidad de registros médicos. Esto es porue no puede simplemente inventar cosas, sino que necesita respaldarlo con evidencia.
  • Crear un informe legal muy extenso con atención a los detalles, describiendo todos los factores y vinculándolos con un argumento legal que demuestre el perjuicio excepcional y cómo a través de la totalidad de las circunstancias, todos los factores crean un perjuicio excepcional.

Bueno, queremos agradecerles por sintonizarnos, pueden dejar sus comentarios en la parte de abajo y nosotros les responderemos en nuestro siguiente programa o podemos responder a sus preguntas en la parte de abajo o pueden llamarnos al (916) 613-3553 o (209) 219-2377.

¡Gracias y que tengan un excelente dia!

Información relacionada I-601A aprobaciones

Lo que realmente necesitas saber sobre la entrevista de USCIS

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¡Hola, soy Kaushik Ranchod de The Ranchod Law Group! Pues hoy vamos a hablar acerca de algunos aspectos básicos de la entrevista del Servicio de Ciudadanía e Inmigración de Estados Unidos (USCIS). Primero que nada, mientras estoy hablando el día de hoy 12 de marzo. Al tener la entrevista con el Servicio de Ciudadanía e Inmigración, antes usted ponía la notificación en el buzón y ellos le llamaban. Ahora, usted pone la notificación en otra sala, y después pasará a la sala de espera principal para luego ser llamado a la entrevista.

Entonces, ese es uno de los puntos básicos para estar preparado a su llegada y que ya sepa qué está ocurriendo, para poder sentirse un poco más cómodo durante la entrevista. ¡Llámenos al (916) 613-3553 o postee su pregunta en la parte de abajo! Entonces, ¿qué otras preguntas estamos recibiendo? Acerca de tener un intérprete- La gente quiere saber si pueden traer a sus hijos o a un hermano a la entrevista como intérprete para la persona que está siendo entrevistada.

Muy bien, si usted no habla inglés con fluidez, podrá traer un intérprete. Pero es importante notar que no podrá traer a un hermano o hermana, esposo o familiar, así que tendrá que asistir con alguien que no sea parcial durante la entrevista al interpretar para usted. E incluso si usted trae un intérprete y el oficial habla español, puede ser que usted no necesite al intérprete en la entrevista, el oficial podrá establecer que el seguirá adelante y traducirá. Y después, cuando vaya a la entrevista, asegúrese de estar por lo menos 30 minutos antes de la hora establecida, porque nunca sabe qué tan larga puede ser la fila y claro, si pierde la entrevista, su caso puede ser denegado. Por eso es importante, muy importante, tomar la entrevista con mucha seriedad y también vestir de manera respetuosa para la entrevista, ya que usted estará frente a la USCIS y quiere demostrar respeto.

Bueno, entonces estos son los puntos básicos que queríamos compartir con ustedes hoy, sucesos recientes de lo que está ocurriendo. Quiero agradecerles por sintonizarnos en nuestra actualización de inmigración y esperamos verlos la próxima semana. ¡Gracias y tengan un excelente día!