waiver

In the attached file are the most recent approval statistics for USCIS offices within the Rome District.  Noteworthy is the wide disparity in I-601 approval rates: for example, the Rome office approves only 25% of the applications while Frankfurt approves 76% (presumably, this is associated with the large number of US military personnel stationed in Germany). The Accra, Ghana field office, which has jurisdiction over Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo, has an approval rate of 22%. The Nairobi, Kenya office, on the other hand, which accepts applications from Burundi, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles Islands, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, has an approval rate of 70%.  The Johannesburg, South Africa office (Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe,…

People do stupid things.   Sometimes, for no reason at all, sometimes, for reasons that are entirely understandable. That doesn’t mean you or I would do it, but… Yesterday a couple from the Ukraine contacted me about their situation.  About nine months after “Ivan” received his green card, he married “Lena”.  They love each other, grew up together, and had spent a lot of time together.  But now Ivan lives in the US as a permanent resident and has a good job; Lena lives in the Ukraine.  US law on family immigration subjects spouses and children of green card holders to quotas.  The current wait for spouses located overseas to be unified with their loved ones in the US is nearly four years.  Because of this long wait, Lena and Ivan started to explore other options to speed up their reunification. First, Lena tried to obtain a tourist visa from the…