Archive for category: Green Card

Who can file for a family petition?

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod from The Ranchod Law Group and I’m here with Brian for our weekly immigration update show and today we’re going to talk about who can file for an I-130 petition and why the USCIS processing times are taking so long. So first I’m gonna start off with the USCIS processing times: they have almost doubled in the last five years in the amount of time that it’s taking. You know every case is different but that’s the average – that’s just what’s happening you know right now with this agency and it’s unacceptable: you can contact your Congress person to let them know or look up the USCIS processing times crisis levels to take action because number of applications have gone down, but the times have gone up.

So for an application that was taking five months as of five years ago, now it’s taking ten months – you can call us if you have a question (916) 613-3553 or post your question below. This is very frustrating for everyone involved, for families, for businesses who need to hire key employees, it’s hurting a lot of employees businesses and families as a whole, but you can take action – you can contact your Congressman, you can contact your senator and you can also go to the aila.org website to find out what else you can do.

Alright so now we’re gonna move on to: who can file an I-130 family based petitions. United States citizens and permanent residents can file for different types of family members. So first we’ll start off with United States citizens:

  • they can file for their spouse;
  • they can file for their child both married and unmarried;
  • they can also file for their parents and also for their siblings.

Now depending upon each relationship, some of the processing times are going to take longer than others. Now lawful permanent residents, they can file for their spouse and they can also file for their children – that’s different than United States citizens because lawful permanent residents cannot file for their parents and they cannot file for their brothers or sisters. United States citizens and permanent residents cannot file for aunts and uncles or cousins or second cousins. So we get that question like “oh well I’m a U.S. citizen can I file for my cousin or my uncle?” Unfortunately you’re not able to, but you know there are those different options and then also look at the employment based options as well – that’s beyond the scope of this video but give us a call (916) 613-3553 – we are happy to answer questions, or post your question below and if you would like to have a topic discussed you could post it below and we may choose your topic for the next weekly show. I want to thank you for tuning in and have an awesome day.

Related Information on I-130

What is Exactly a 245i?

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod here with Brian and today we’ll answer the question: what is a 245 i? That’s what we’re going to be talking about, then family based form I-130 petitions. 245 i is just an awesome powerful tool that can overcome entering the United States without inspection: entering without inspection means you didn’t come in with a visa and if you have questions you can call us at (916) 613-3553 . So 245 i, what the heck is it1? Well if you had a petition filed for you April 30th 2001 or earlier, that would be like an form I-130 petition also in some certain kinds of employment-based green card applications, depending upon what was filed, that may qualify as well. So in that kind of situation it can overcome entering without inspection which would allow you to apply for a green card in the United States instead of having to a file for a Waivers. So you might be asking well why do I care? Why do I want to file for 245 i instead of like just doing an I-601A Waivers? Well there’s a couple of benefits:

  1. You don’t need to show exceptional hardship
  2. You gotta stay in the United States
  3. The processing times for 245 i are faster than if you did exceptional hardship Waivers case

So I know you might be asking well I had a petition filed, I meet the requirements for the dates, but I’m getting married now and the petition was filed by my brother or my parent do I qualify for 245 i? Well I’m gonna answer that question in just a second. The great news is in that situation you would qualify for 245 i, so I don’t want you to worry and if you have questions you can call us at (916) 613-3553 to learn about your options. We do see mistakes that notarios sometimes make or people who are less experienced ignoring the physical presence requirements. I want to make sure you’re aware of the physical presence requirement, so if your application was filed on or after January 14, 1998, you need to have shown physical presence. But when do you need a shop physical presence? This is extremely important you need to show physical presence on December 21st 2000. Now this is where an attorney can really help you to explain and guide you through all the physical presence requirements we don’t have time for that today, but we’ll do a video on that sometime in the future. Just keep in mind that there is a physical presence requirement with that date that I talked about earlier. All right I want to thank you, if you have something you want to know about post it because we want to be there to help you. You can also throw your questions out now, you can call us at (916) 613-3553 . Thank you and have an awesome day.

[editorial note: Section 245(i) is a provision of the Legal Immigration Family Equity Act(LIFE Act). Section 245(i) allows certain persons, who have an immigrant visa immediately available but entered without inspection or otherwise violated their status and thus are ineligible to apply for adjustment of status in the United States, to apply if they pay a $1,000 penalty.] Back to blogpost

Related Information on Section 245(i)

Best Practices For Your Immigration Interview and Green Card Medical Examination

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod here from The Ranchod Law Group with Brian and you can call us at (916) 613-3553 . Today we’re going to talk about some green card updates and interview updates. So, one of the basic requirements for applying for green card is that you need a medical examination done by a United States CIS designated civil physician. Because the government has been slowing down so long with their applications, the issue that has been there for a lot of people who are applying for the green card is that their medical examination validity expires: so what do you do about this? So there’s some good news and there’s some bad news:

  • the good news is now United States CIS states that the medical will be valid for two years instead of one year which is great because they’re taking longer than a year at least in Sacramento and also in many other parts of the country to adjudicate a green card application;
  • the bad news is that normally it’s easier to just submit the medical examination documents with the green card application but the medical cannot have occurred more than 60 days before you submit the application otherwise United States CIS will consider it invalid

Moving on to a different topic, about the interviews specifically, the interviews here in Sacramento where you go in for a green card interview (but this could be anywhere as well), it’s really important to make sure that if you have an issue either during your immigration interview (or even getting in to the interview), that if you feel like you’re getting an erroneous decision by the person that’s letting you in to the interview (that they’re not letting you in and you have a valid ID), then bring it up and ask for a supervisor because, it’s important that you make sure that you maintain your rights and this is why it’s also important you have an attorney at the interview as well to represent you one so you have another witness there in case they deny a decision. We’ve had a client in this situation coming in for a parole in place interview and they didn’t want to let them in with the valid passport, which is a valid form of ID, and what was brought to their attention is that this is not something that should prevent from entering because, they didn’t want to let the person enter because they said they needed a driver’s license or some kind of United States ID which was incorrect.We’ve had situations where sometimes the officer may state something that never happened or misconstrue what happened and so by having an attorney there, that’s another witness to the actual events that happen and what that actual testimony that occurred and then second if the officer is asking inappropriate questions the attorney can step in and attempt to rectify that situation as well. Alright well we want to thank you for joining us live you can post your questions below and you can call us at (916) 613-3553 if you have questions thank you and have an awesome day.

Related Information and videos you’ll find interesting

The Mistakes You Should Avoid When Applying for a K1 Fiance Visa

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod Kaushik Ranchod from Sacramento with Brian and we’re here with our weekly get your immigration questions answered with The Ranchod Law Group . We’re going to talk about mistakes that are made when filing for the Fiancée visa .

The Fiancée visa : some of the biggest mistakes

Mistake number one

On their statement that they are including, they don’t state that they’re gonna get married within 90 days.

Mistake number two

Then mistake number two is not providing evidence of meeting within the last two years, because that’s one of the requirements: you have had to met your Fiancée within the last two years. If you have questions you can post your question below or you can call us at (916) 613-3553 I’m going to move on to the third biggest mistake that I see when trying to reunite your Fiancée :

Mistake number three

The third mistake (that is this isn’t necessarily only with the Fiancée visa ) is trying to enter the United States on a visitor visa and then filing for a green card in the United States : that could be interpreted as Visa Fraud . In that situation the best thing to do would be the Fiancée visa , rather than to try to come into the United States on a visitor visa and marry your spouse and then try to get a green card with your spouse admission.I also have a question I received from Brian:

What happens if someone enters the United States with a tourist visa but didn’t have the intention to get married… something that just happened randomly?

Ok so that’s a really good question! If you enter with a tourist visa and you didn’t have the intent prior to entering, because what is looked at is the intent prior to entering the United States and then you get married after the fact – depending upon the timing of when you actually got married, you may be able to adjust status and get a green card : there’s something called the 90-day rule.

I advise you, if you’re in that situation, to contact an immigration attorney in order to get things right and if you have any questions you can contact us at (916) 613-3553 or you can post your question below.Alright so I want to thank you for tuning in for our weekly immigration show – get your questions answered by The Ranchod Law Group – and tune in next Thursday one o’clock we’ll have a new topic for you, keeping you updated on the latest of what’s going on right now.We’re going to talk about the mistakes of fiancée visa s and we’ll see what’s going on next week because we never know what we have in store with us with this current administration.Thank you and have an awesome day.

Related Information on K-1 and K-3 Visas

What You Really Need To Know About the USCIS Interview

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod from The Ranchod Law Group!So today what we’re going to talk about are some “nuts and bolts” of the USCIS interview.So first of all as I’m talking today on March the 12th. When you have the USCIS interview, before you would put the notice in the box and they would call you – now you put the notice in another room and then you’ll get transitioned to the main waiting room and then called for the interview.So that’s one of the “nuts and bolts”, so you’re prepared when you go in and you know what’s going on, so you feel a little bit more comfortable at the interview: give us a call at (916) 613-3553 or post your question below!Alright, and then what other questions are we getting? About having an interpreter – people want to know who can go, like if they can bring children or a sibling to the interview as an interpreter for the person that is going to be interviewed. Alright, so if you do not speak English fluently, you can bring an interpreter but it’s important to note that you can’t bring a family member like a brother or a sister a spouse a parent, so you have to have someone who won’t be biased at the interview to interpret for you.And even if you bring an interpreter and the officer speaks Spanish you may not need to bring that interpreter to the interview, the officer may state that they’ll go ahead and translate. And then, when you go to the interview, you want to make sure you’re there at least 30 minutes ahead of time because you never know how long the line could be and of course if you miss the interview your case could be denied, so it’s important, very important, to take the interview very seriously and also dress respectfully for the interview because you are before the USCIS and you want to show your respect.Alright so that the nuts and bolts that we wanted to share with you today’s recent happenings of what’s going on.I want to thank you for tuning in to our immigration update and we look forward to seeing you next week. Thank you and have an awesome day!

Other information related to USCIS Interviews

Secret Green Card Loopholes

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod here with Brian at The Ranchod Law Group for our weekly immigration show. Today we have some exciting topics that we’re going to talk about – we’re going to talk about green card loopholes that you may not have heard of, we’re going to talk about waivers, the I-751 were you may be divorced but still be able to renew your green card and much more. We’re also going to talk about family based petitions. In our last show we talked about the military and how, if your child spouse or parent were in the military, they could help you to get work authorization and eventually a green card – that was really popular: about 25,000 people tuned in either watching this video or after.The fact and I wanted to revisit is that if you have such a family member that I mentioned, they can file parole in place for you that would allow you to eventually get a green card Then the other thing that we got a lot of questions about is family based petitions. So for instance:

If your child is over 21 can they petition for you?

In this case your child can petition an form I-130 for you – but that’s only part of the story. A lot of times we would advise you not to file the form I-130 if you can move to the next step of the green card process. So if you have a child that is over 21 and you want to get a green card if you’ve entered illegally you can do what’s called adjustment of status which is the technical term for applying for a green card within the U.S..

What happens if you’ve entered the U.S. without a visa?

This is known as entry without inspection. In that situation, you might be eligible for something called 245i or you may be eligible for a waiver. However the Waivers wouldn’t be through your child, they would file the form I-130 and then the I-601A waiver would be through a different family relation, through a spouse or a parent and if you entered on TPS you may also be eligible to apply for a green card within the U.S. without having to get a waiver.

We’ve also been getting questions about the I-751. The I-751 is where you have to renew your green card after 2 years and I recommend you do it 90 days before the 2 year period after getting your original green card If you haven’t been married and if you don’t do that, you will be put into Deportation proceedings so it’s really important that you do this! We’re talking about the importance of renewing your I-751, just wanted to correct myself, you won’t necessarily be put in Removal Proceedings but we have seen cases where that does happen and even if you get divorced within that 2 year period you can file what’s called the removal of the joint conditions through a waiver, and there are 2 ways you can remove the conditions:

  1. By showing that you have a good faith marriage.
  2. By showing hardship.

You can also make an argument based off of both of those grounds. We do many of these waivers. Typically, you will get called in for an interview in that situation. For a good faith marriage. It’s really important to show that you really entered the marriage with the intent to permanently live together and the way that you do that is by providing a variety of documents – affidavits from friends and family. Those are some of the ways that you do it and it’s very important that you build a very detailed and extensive situation because you have the burden of proof of demonstrating that you had a real marriage. Alright I want to thank you for tuning in, that is going to be it for today, I want to wish you a very happy new year! Ask your questions below and we can talk about them next time or we can discuss them in the chat below. I want to thank you for the awesome year, you guys have been amazing and don’t give up there’s a lot of pathways for you to get legal and maybe for some of you there aren’t, so we’ll be able to advise you, at least you’ll know what to do – thank you and have an awesome day.

Parole in Place Military Green Card for Spouse Parent and Child

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod here with Brian for our weekly immigration update and today, what we’re going to talk about is how children that are in the military can sponsor their parents or a spouse or a parent can sponsor their spouse or child or a parent.

Also I want to let you know that as appreciation for all of you out there who have been watching us

I wanted to let you know that we are having an end of the year client appreciation where we will be giving clients a significant discount until the 24th of December and you can call us at (916) 613-3553

Alright so one of the questions that I get is:




My child is in the military, can he sponsor me?




So if your child is in the military they can file what’s called parole in place for you which is a way for you to get advanced parole and also work authorization and they can do this even if they’re not 20 years of age – they can file for the parole in place for you and the best part is that even if you enter without inspection 1 time you can overcome that with this parole in place and you would not need to leave the United States so you wouldn’t need a waiver.

If your child is 21 or older and a US citizen they can, after the parole in place is obtained, file for a green card for you.

Now, this also works if your spouse is in the military or your parent’s in the military so in essence the parole in place overcomes that illegal entry and then the normal green card rules apply after that, whether or not you are eligible to apply for a green card based on the relation to your relative.

Ok, so Brian what other kind of questions have we been receiving about the parole in place or the clients have that retained us and we were able to get those cases approved?

I have to give you the disclaimer: just because we get them approved doesn’t mean your case will get approved but we will be able to advise you whether or not you have a good case – you can call us at (916) 220-3137 or ask your question below.

So one of the questions just to clarify: if I have an 18 year old son who is in the military I can obtain the parole in place but not necessarily the green card right away is that correct?

That is a fantastic question. So normally (in the normal immigration process) your child needs to be 21 years old in order to be able to petition for you. That’s also another question we’ve received:




My child is a US citizen, can they petition for me?




So they can normally file what’s called an I-130 petition if they are under the age of 21 they can file parole in place and you can get work authorization and the travel document but they can’t start the green card process until they turn 21 but once they turn 21, BOOM! they can apply for the green card so this parole in place is extremely powerful, it’s a way for you to get a green card because a lot our clients get worried when they file for the Waivers that they have to leave the United States when they file for the Waivers but in this situation you don’t have to leave the U.S.

Even with the I-601A waiver, if you leave, you’re going to have that Waivers approved but that’s a whole other topic, check out our videos for that – here the bottom line is that for this you don’t need to apply for a waiver.

Another question from clients about the parole in place is they’re afraid of the word “discretionary” what does that mean?

Does it mean that every single parole in place:

  • Will be approved?
  • Does it mean that every military has the right to be approved?
  • What does the word discretionary for immigration mean?

I understand if you are afraid of that word, discretionary, because it’s a big word and it means basically that it is up to the USCIS officer on whether or not you application will be approved and that’s where we come into play as immigration attorneys. We create a case explaining why your case should be approved so things they look at are:

  • Do you have good moral character are you a good person?
  • Do you have any other violations?

What we do is demonstrate why you are deserving of getting the parole in place and that’s why it’s really important to hire an excellent Immigration Attorney who has(I recommend) at least over a decade of experience in preparing these cases.

I want to go back to one of the questions that we got here:




If you’re 21 and you’re a US citizen can you apply for a parent?




That is one of the questions we got last week that I wanted to answer for you – yes you can apply, but if you have an illegal entry then you are not eligible for an I-601A Waivers per se: the child could file a petition for you but when you get to the I-601A Waiver you’re going to need to have a different kind of relationship there in order to qualify.

Brian, have we got any other questions about the parole in place?

Not about the parole in place but people are asking:




I hear a lot of our clients are green card holders who are afraid of travelling outside of the United States and coming back: they are hearing the news about denied admissions to green card holders at the time of re-entering the United States, is that something that is really happening?




Unfortunately that is something that is happening in my opinion it shouldn’t be happening but it does happen from time to time: my advice would be to not travel.

Technically most of our cases are being allowed to re-enter, unless there is an extended amount of time where the green card holder has been absent – for instance more than 6 months: if you’re gone for more than a year then you could very well have your green card taken away from you, so in this time with the current President Trump administration I would recommend not travelling as a green card holder.

At the same time I do understand people get sick, people have family members that get sick. We’ve had in our office a brother of a family member that got sick. They left and came back and didn’t have any problem, but I’m used to excersizing extreme caution for you during this time right now and if you’ve been absent for more than 6 months from the United States within a year or have any kind of criminal issue you should consult with an immigration lawyer before you travel because the consequences are extremely serious: you worked so hard to get your green card, you don’t want to lose it so that’s one of the main differences here between the green card and citizenship. When you’re a citizen these issues become irrelevant so if you’re concerned about these issues you may want to consider applying for Citizenship so you don’t have this stress that is on your head every time you travel.

Also as an update, people want to know what has been going on with the President Trump administration. Immigration denials have increased by 40% within the past year – 40%, so that is a huge number that is why it’s extremely important you take your due diligence and hire the best attorney that you can to represent you. In some cases they will just deny a case and that needs to be appealed because unfortunately that is the current administration right now. Thankfully I feel very blessed that overall our success rate is over 95% still, but it has become much more difficult with this current administration, and they are issuing many more RFEs than before so it’s something that we’re fighting every single day to ensure we can prepare the best possible application that we can prepare to make sure that your rights are preserved and it’s really important to know whether or not you should even submit your application.

Sometimes it’s better to not file an application if you contact us we’ll be able to let you know that anyone’s success rate, including ours, doesn’t guarantee success with your case. If you get an evaluation of your case then that will help determine whether or not it’s even a good idea to submit because in some situations it’s better to just wait and build up the strength of your case, file later or not file at all.

Alright so I want to thank you for tuning in and again as an appreciation for tuning in and watching us every week, we are giving our greatest client appreciation promotional discount of the year, so you can contact us at (916) 613-3553 and that’s only going to be available until the 24th.

I just want to thank you for being loyal and tuning in every week we really appreciate you and it is an honor to humbly serve – thank you!

Green Card Renewal When You Are Married or Divorced (Form I-751)

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod from the The Ranchod Law Group and I want to thank you for tuning in to our weekly immigration show.

Today what we’re going to talk about is… the need to remove the conditions on your greencard if you have a conditional green card.

So why do you get a conditional green card? Well the reason you might get a conditional green card is if you were married for less than two years. In this case you need to remove the conditions on your greencard within two years. You can do that 90 days before the two year period.

What do you do if you’re no longer married? That can be a problem but you can file for what’s called a Waiver of the joint condition filing by demonstrating that there’s a good-faith marriage.

There’s a myriad of ways to demonstrate this. What’s really important is you you have appropriate documentation. For example, joint documents that demonstrate that you were truly married. There is other documentation that you want to submit as well such as affidavits from friends and family members.

To learn more about the procedure, I invite you to contact our office at (916) 613-3553 to find out if you qualify for a Waiver of the joint filing:

  • If you are divorced;
  • If you are planning on a divorce.

It’s important that you contact our office because you do need to file for the Waiver and meet this requirement or you could be put into removal proceedings so I invite you to contact us at ©(916) 613-3553 and I look forward to helping you. Thank you, tune in next week for another video from the The Ranchod Law Group.

Links Related to the Greencard Replacement Procedure:

VAWA (Violence Against Women’s Act): Basic Requirements to Apply

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod here from The Ranchod Law Group with Brian we are here for our weekly show.

Today we are going to be talking about Violence Against Women Act (Violence Against Women Act). Violence Against Women Act applies to you if you’ve been abused or you received some form of Cruelty from your spouse that’s a U. S. citizen or permanent resident. This can also apply if you’re a parent or a child as well you may also qualify for some of the basic requirements:

  • Your spouse needs to be a U. S. citizen or permanent resident.
  • You also need to have lived with your spouse.
  • You have to show that you had a good faith marriage: that means that your marriage was real or the relationship was real.
  • You also need to demonstrate that you are a person that has good moral character

The great thing about the Violence Against Women Act is that you can apply the petition along with the green card if your spouse is a U. S. citizen.

If your spouse is a green card holder then you would need to wait for the priority date to become current before you file for the green card application. One of the other things that’s great about Violence Against Women Act is you can get work authorization if you apply when you apply for the green card.

Right now work authorization is taking about five months or longer so what we’re seeing is terms of processing times is that it is taking anywhere from 12 to 20 months for these applications to get approved. Now these are our government processing times it could take longer than that or it could decrease but we’re seeing government times just increase across the board with all applications.

Thank you everyone for tuning in and just remember to keep positive because there are different laws that are available to help you and if you have a question about that call us to see if you do qualify or not.

Thanks and have an awesome day.

Related Articles on Violence Against Women Act