Archive for category: I 601 Waivers

The i601A Waiver Application Mistake You Must Avoid

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Welcome to your weekly immigration show, this is Kaushik Ranchod from The Ranchod Law Group in Sacramento and today I want to talk to you about a serious mistake that I saw today.

It was an individual who trusted this attorney who made a grave mistake – they filed the case without an underlying Green Card application. Well what kind of case? An i 601 Waiver case. So any I-601 Waiver [as in this case – it was for an I-212 case], needs to have an underlying application that is either based off of a form I-485 or an immigrant visa.

Now that applies as well to an I-601A case as well you must have an immigrant visa pending for an I-601A. This is basic and this attorney missed it and it was just so sad to see how this person wasted so much time in their life, so much money, only to, at the end of the day, find out that this Green Card application should have been plowed.

So i want to make sure that you stay informed, you know it’s going on watch my other videos. This is how on this individual newsom that something was a miss that the attorney would only submitted very minimal supporting documentation, four to six sentences supporting the whole application, where in our situation when we represent clients we prepared a legal brief supporting all of the arguments and extensive documentation demonstrating the Hardship.

So you want to make sure that when you submit your application, especially in thePresident Trumpera, that one you have a Green Card application that’s supporting the whole I-601 or I-601A.

Oh and also that you are putting your best foot forward because I don’t want you to waste years of your life and then many times, in many situations, thousands of dollars when you can get a break the first time.

So I invite you to contact our office at (916) 613-3553 or email us at info@ranchodlaw.com to make sure that you are informed. Thank you have an awesome day.

Related Information on I-601A hardship Waivers

I-601 Waiver Success Story for a Pakistani National

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I-601 Fraud and Misrepresentation (perhaps because of nerves)

We at The Ranchod Law Group pride ourselves on our success as it means we have had the opportunity to positively impact the lives of our clients. One such client is currently in Pakistan while his ailing mother lives in the United States as a Legal Permanent Resident. His mother depends on him for many things, including financial and physical support as she is wheelchair bound. He was required to remain in Pakistan due to a misrepresented fact that came about perhaps because of nerves. Our office argued that the bar should be waived due to the exceptional hardships his mom would endure without him being here. We were able to demonstrate that because of her chronic medical conditions, including depression and anxiety, that it was in her best interest to have her son here in the United States with her. She also does not have any income and very little financial support here in the United States, therefore having her son who would be able to work here is critical. We also demonstrated why his mother would not fare well in Pakistan, given the poor state of healthcare, lack of mobility for those in wheelchairs, and social stigma around mental health in the country. Additionally, we demonstrated how her son would be unable to adequately provide for her due to the economic conditions on Pakistan. Soon, our client will be able to join his mother here in the United States and provide her with the care and support that she needs and deserves.

Related Information on I-601 Waivers:

I-601 Waiver Approval – Client from Southeast Asia

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I-601 hardship Waiver Approval Notice Feb. 2019

I-601 waiver approval notice for Client from Southeast Asia




Filed: 03/13/2018
Approved: 02/22/2019

Waiver approval for client found inadmissible to U.S. because of criminal convictions

The Facts of this Success Story

  • Client lives in a country in Southeast Asia;
  • is engaged to a U.S. citizen;
  • The U.S. citizen filed for her visa to come into the U.S.
  • she was denied her visa and found inadmissible for “a crime involving moral turpitude.”

Our Client had two prior criminal convictions.

In order to win the case we had to prove client’s U.S. citizen fiancé would suffer extreme hardship if her Waiver were denied. In order to prove exceptional hardship The Ranchod Law Group argued that due to his ties to the U.S., his career, his medical needs, and the country conditions abroad, relocation would result in exceptional hardship.

We are so happy and honored to have been able to help this couple begin this new stage of their life together in the U.S.

Related Information on Other information on I601 Waiver

What kinds of I601 Waivers are getting approved?

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Hi it’s Kaushik Ranchod here with Brian. So today we’re going to talk about what are we getting approved now? On I601 Waivers with the President Trump administration because as you know with the President Trump administration it is getting much more difficult for cases to get approved. Overall there is a 40% denial rate increase.Our firm is still above 90% of overall approvals. But what is getting approved now (and of course I have to say that even if our cases are getting approved) doesn’t mean that all of our cases will be approved in the future: it’s on a case by case basis and that’s why it’s really important to evaluate each specific unique factor and you can call us at (916) 613-3553 if you have questions.So in the I-601A Waiver that we just got approved, what we talked about for this situation is you have to show, for an exceptional hardship I-601A Waiver, exceptional hardship to the United States citizen if they were separated or if the United States citizen were to go to the spouse’s home country. One thing we showed was the history of psychological trauma that the United States citizen had and how that could continue to occur or even increase significantly because of the separation.So that’s known as psychological hardship. Second – we talked about financial hardship, the fact that the couple had a home and they could very well lose that home if the spouse had to go to Mexico.Additionally then the childcare as well would become so expensive that the household would not be able to afford the childcare: that’s another argument that we made.And then we tie all of these factors together to show the extreme hardship. So in a lot of our cases there’s not just ONE factor in and of itself that constitutes extreme hardship, but when we combine all of these factors BOOM! We’re able to show exceptional hardship!There’s one important factor that I left out – there is the spouse’s health condition as well that played a significant factor in the exceptional hardship as well.What’s very important to remember when presenting an exceptional hardship Waivers case:

  • Provide a lot of medical records documenting all of this because you cannot just make stuff up you have to substantiate it with evidence.
  • Create a very extensive legal brief with attention to detail, outlining all of these factors as well and tying it into a legal argument demonstrating the exceptional hardship and how, through the totality of circumstances, all of these factors create exceptional hardship.

Alright, so we want to thank you for tuning in, you can leave your comments below and we will respond in our next show or we can respond below to your questions or call us at (916) 613-3553. Thank you and have an awesome day!

Latest I-601 waivers processing times And an important H1B update

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Hi it’s Kaushik Ranchod here from The Ranchod Law Group with Brian and we are here with our weekly immigration show giving you the latest updates.Today we’re going to be talking about an important H1-B Visa update, I-601 “>I-601 Waivers processing times, and other timing issues.We recently got this question:

How long is it currently taking for the I-601 waiver?

that is currently taking eleven to fourteen and a half months.

The I-601A Waiver

  • where you have a spouse that is a United States citizen or permanent resident
  • you may have entered without inspection
  • you have a parent that’s a United States citizen or permanent resident

In this situation the processing times are currently six and a half to eight and a half months, so the times have been slowing down – we’ve been noticing a slowdown with the Trump administration and I don’t expect it to speed up. I expect only to slow down.

Moving on to a very important update the H1-B system has been flipped on its head. We have H1-B as a work visa where if your employer sponsors you and it’s in a specialty occupation (very common types of those are software engineers or a physician or an architect or a teacher) then you could be eligible for an H1-B Visa. There’s also other types of visa as well. I’m going to tell you about this very important H1-B update that has happened in a second and if you have any questions give us a call (916) 613-3553 or put your comment below. So, the H1-B update is that now master’s degrees will be a given priority over bachelor’s degrees in the quota. So typically before, with the H1-B Visa, there were 60,000 H1-B Visas available for bachelors and 20,000 for masters. Now that’s been flipped and masters are going to be given the majority and bachelors will be taken given a second smaller spot of that 20,000 quota. Master’s must be from United States University.So what do we have next brain? For other questions we’ve been getting this is a different topic but clients ask:

When should I apply for work authorization

So you can apply for a work authorization depending on what type of application you are considering – so for instance if you’re applying for a marriage-based green card you can apply for the work authorization at the same time as well as the travel document. Typically we’re seeing that take around five to six months for clients to get that approval and that’s why your application is pending: see a lot of times people are wondering they have to wait until the end of the process – no! This gives you an opportunity to work while your application is pending.

Then the other question that we’re getting as well is:

Should I apply for the marriage-based green card immediately? Should I wait?

As soon as you get married you can go ahead and apply for the marriage-based green card there’s no need to wait at all. USCIS will look at how long you’ve been married and evidence of your relationship so it’s important to note that those are things that are going to be reviewed and what they’re looking for us to see if you have a real relationship that can be evaluated in a variety of different ways.

Alright well we want to thank you for joining us today live, we will see you next week, so post your questions below give us a call at 916-613-3553 if you have questions. Thank you and have an awesome day

Related Information on H-1b Visas, Green Cards, and I-601Waivers

I-601A waiver for Mexican national – Health Insurance, Psychological and Medical Conditions

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I-601A Waiver Approval Document for Mexican national




Our office is proud of our track record in helping our clients keep their families together through the I-601A Waiver process – including our latest success story – approval in 3 months!

Our client is the husband of a U.S. citizen and father to two U.S. citizen children.

Working with The Ranchod Law Group, we were able to identify numerous exceptional hardships to USCIS to help win the Waivers.

A deep dive into the citizen spouse’s medical history revealed a rare condition and our office researched Mexico’s medical system to show that this condition would not be covered by foreign health insurance.
The citizen spouse, also known as the qualifying relative:

  • has good employment;
  • has a significant student loan debt;
  • depends on our client’s joint income to repay this debt.

Among other hardships, we further highlighted the citizen spouse’s psychological impacts of not just being separated from our client, but also raising 2 children in the U.S. as a single mother.

Because of our dedicated team of attorneys and professionals, we were able to show enough evidence of extreme hardships to secure a successful outcome in under three and a half months, at a time when immigration is averaging five to seven months for these waivers!

Call our office at (916) 613-3553 or fill in the form if you have questions regarding your case.

A Detailed list of other information on I-601A Waivers

I-601A Waiver for National from Guatemala

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I-601A waiver Approval Document for Mexican national

I-601A Waivers Approval Document for national from Guatemala



Here at The Ranchod Law Group, we take great care to ensure that we put forth the very best case possible we can prepare for each and every one of our clients. This is evident by our high approval rating for I-601a waivers.

Recent Success Story for a Guatemalan national

A recent I-601a success story can be found with a Guatemalan national who is married to a United States citizen, and who has two U.S. citizen children.

By employing our Hardship Matrix, we were able to prepare a strong case for this family.

  • Our client is the main provider for his family, and his absence would have caused certain financial trouble and exceptional hardship for his wife and children.
  • His wife, the qualifying relative, has medical bills due to ongoing medical issues.
  • Additionally, an evaluation of his wife’s mental health revealed that she suffered from depression and psychosomatic symptoms—largely stemming from our client’s lack of status1 in the United States.

We worked closely with this family to gather compelling evidence to demonstrate exactly why our client’s absence from his family would result in exceptional hardship. Our Legal Team worked to ensure the client’s case was filed with no stone unturned. Our hard work and dedication resulted in an approval for this client, and they are one step closer to their green card!

If you would like to find out more about extreme hardship waivers, and if you would qualify, please contact our office today at (916) 613-3553.

definition of “lack of status”:
Lack of status refers to persons who:

  1. Have overstayed a visa for work, visit or study.
  2. Have worked or studied in the United States without authorization
  3. Have entered the United States without a valid passport or travel document

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A Detailed list of other information on I-601A Waivers

About the Government Shutdown and Filing I-601A Waivers

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod from The Ranchod Law Group here with Brian and today we are going to talk about hot topics:

  • The government government shutdown
  • How to prepare an I-601A waiver

So we have been getting a lot of calls about how this government government shutdown is going to affect or is it going to affect filings with the USCIS. So great news, the United States CIS and the department of state are funded with filing fees. So since they are self-funded the government government shutdown does not affect your filings with the USCIS or your United States embassy interviews.Alright now onto our next topic we recently received an I-601 “>I-601 A Waiver.So I wanted to share with you how to file an I-601A waiver it’s really important to demonstrate that there is exceptional hardship to the United States citizen it’s not enough to just show that there is going to be separation. Now you might be thinking, well being separated from my children, from my spouse that’s exceptional hardship to me, but unfortunately what the law states is that mere separation is not enough, but how we build the case is by looking at what the hardship factors would be to your United States citizen spouse.We file many spousal cases, it could also be to your United States citizen parent as well. So for instance in the case that we just got approved they had a United States citizen spouse, United States citizen husband, and they also have two children and what we talked about is:

We were able to do that through extensive documentation, providing economic surveys for instance, and we also like to explain this in detail through a legal brief, which is really important in demonstrating the exceptional hardship.With the health issues it’s really important that you document with actual evidence. You want to make sure you have, for instance, medical records because you can’t just make it up and say “Oh I have issues with my heart” they want to see an actual medical record.Alright, so moving on to the next type of hardship, you could also look at for instance psychological hardship. I mentioned mere separation is not enough however for instance:

  • if you have a history of depression then looking at the psychological evaluation;
  • having a psychological evaluation done, looking at the history of therapy that you might have had and providing that documentation as well demonstrating how that depression could be affected by the separation of you and your spouse.

You also want to document the country condition.How we do that is by providing extensive documentation and research on the country conditions with statistics from a reputable organisation. We also like to refer to what the department of state has put out as well. Additionally we like to look at career disruption and also financial aspects as well because in that situation we are able to show that perhaps you wouldn’t be able to get the same career if you had to go to your spouse’s home country or you would face adverse financial conditions and we back this up with economic surveys and other forms of documentation as well.Alright, we just got a question(I believe it’s Maleek from Los Angeles asking us):

What do I do if I’ve received a denial?

We like to see what the reason of the denial was: was it because the case wasn’t prepared well? We see that a lot of times happening in the situation with a notario or immigration attorneys who just didn’t do a good job if the case wan’t prepared thoroughly then it may warrant re-filing or if there’s some kind of new factor or something that happened in your life that has changed since the filing, then it may warrant a new filing as well. So it is very case specific and we need to look at the individual factors, so in these situations what I would advise is to call us for a consultation because we need to look at all of the factors to determine wether or not it makes sense to re-file or to take it a step further as well or to just not do anything.

We are going to call a wrap for today, so we’ll see you next week again. You can ask your questions and we do respond throughout the week – thank you and have an awesome day!

Related Information on I-601A hardship waiver cases and success stories

I-601A Waivers: Children Cannot Petition For Parents

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod from the The Ranchod Law Group with Brian – we’re here doing our weekly immigration show.
Today we’re going to talk about a frequently asked question on a top waiver: I601a.

Children filing I-601A Waivers for their parents

Can Children file for an I-601A Waiver?

One question that I get asked frequently is: can a child file an I601a waiver for a parent?

I actually had a consultation today with someone who had this situation – they didn’t hire an attorney, they filed the case and got it denied because she was a child filing for the father, wasting a whole year unfortunately. Children are not eligible for the I-601a Waiver because the child-parent relationship is something that does not qualify. If the child is a U.S. Citizen, this doesn’t allow the father to qualify for the I601a Waiver.

However, you can qualify if you’re a spouse or a parent U.S. citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident: in those situations, that relationship could qualify for an I-601a Waiver.

So Brian, what other questions have we been getting? Well you’re talking about the I-601A, client’s get impatient and want to know exactly if we have a way to determine how much time does it take for an I-601A Waivers to get approved.

I-601A Approval Times

How long doies it take for an I-601A Waiver to get approved?

That’s a great question Brian! Unfortunately we don’t have a crystal ball, but what we do have is experience – what I could tell you for the I-601A is it’s taking about six to eight months right now and the times are just slowing down. I expect that time to slow down. We’re also getting questions about how long it will take once the I-601A is approved and that can be anywhere from two to four months all the way up to six or even seven months.

Alright well that is all that we have today. I am going to be out of the office next week so we will resume this two weeks from now. I want to thank you for tuning in again you can ask your questions below and we will be happy to respond or you can call us at (916) 613-3553 have an awesome day.