By Alicia Atteberry This Valentine’s Day, Eagan Immigration wants to remind you that where there is love, there is a way! There are several ways to obtain legal status based on your marriage to a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, even if you have accumulated unlawful presence in the United States. Eagan has successfully secured permanent residence for many clients using the I-601A Application for Provisional Removal of Illegal Presence. Now, I’m going to tell you about one of those Eagan clients who has a green card in their hands TODAY.

Our story begins...

Tomás* came to the United States from El Salvador in 2005, seeking a better life. He began working, making friends, and building a life for himself. He met his wife, Linda*, at church. Tomás and Linda began dating and quickly fell in love. Linda had a difficult upbringing, so she found comfort in Tomás’s reliability and calm nature. Tomás admired Linda’s strength, perseverance, and beauty. They soon got married and, in 2019, they had two children. When their second child was born, Linda needed special surgery and the complications left her with mobility problems and chronic pain. Tomás took on the sole responsibility of supporting his family financially and also took a step forward and made sure Linda didn’t overwork and had all the resources she needed to heal. Despite the challenges life presented them, Tomás and Linda found each other, chose to love each other, and made it work. In a chaotic world, they built a safe and stable family life for themselves and their children.

So, what is the problem?

Tomás and Linda face an important problem. Tomás was undocumented. Like many people fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries, he had entered the United States and accumulated what is known as illegal presence: time spent in the United States without proper documentation. This meant that, although he could apply for status based on his marriage to a U.S. citizen, returning to his home country for the required consular processing interview could result in him being barred from entering the United States for 10 years due to his previous illegal presence. Every day, Tomás and Linda lived with the fear that the life they built together could be taken away if Tomás were deported. The family was now completely dependent on Tomás financially, but his lack of legal status made it difficult for him to find a well-paying job or anything that would provide him with medical benefits. Now that Linda was facing chronic medical problems and had young children, these problems became even more pressing. That was when Tomás and Linda contacted Eagan Immigration. We got to work to gather information, evidence, and, most importantly, the story of Tomás and Linda. We determined that the best course of action was to apply for an exemption for their illegal presence with the I-601A.

What is the I-601A? What made our client qualify?

An I-601A waiver requires that the applicant and the beneficiary already have an approved I-130 petition for a foreign relative, establishing that there is a qualifying relationship between the applicant and the beneficiary. The I-601A waiver will forgive the illegal presence of a qualifying beneficiary/relative (in this case, Tomás) if their removal from the United States would create “extreme hardship” for the applicant (in this case, Linda). The waiver also allows the beneficiary to travel to their home country and interview for the normal consular process, without fear of being denied entry upon returning to the United States. Now, to qualify, we needed to demonstrate that Linda, the U.S. citizen, would suffer extreme psychological, medical, and/or financial difficulties if she separated from her husband, Tomás. Because Linda was so dependent on Tomás, we believed she would easily qualify for the I-601A waiver and become a permanent resident. To determine “extreme difficulties,” the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service considers the following factors:

• The presence of a spouse or legal permanent resident or U.S. citizen parent in the United States.
• Tomas had Linda, his American citizen wife, in the United States. This is established by the I-130.
• Family ties of a qualified relative outside the United States.
• Tomás hadn't lived in his native country, El Salvador, for more than ten years. Now he was building his own family with Linda.
• The conditions in the country to which the qualified relative would be transferred.
• Tomás's hometown in El Salvador is considered a dangerous area by the U.S. State Department. He also knew from friends who had returned there that there were active gangs that attacked anyone who came from the United States because of their perceived wealth.
• Linda and her children were unable to move to El Salvador because they did not have legal status or connections there.
• The financial impact of this country leaving.
• Tomás was the sole financial support for his wife and children who were U.S. citizens. It is unlikely that Tomás could have earned wages comparable to his American income in El Salvador, let alone enough to support himself, Linda, and his children.
• Without the financial support of Tomás, Linda would be forced to rely on abusive members of her family.
• Significant health conditions, particularly when they are linked to the lack of availability of adequate medical care in the country to which the qualified family member would be transferred.
• Tomás and Linda had two very young children who required regular medical check-ups that they would not have been able to afford in El Salvador.
• Linda was experiencing chronic pain and back problems for which she was still receiving treatment. It would be difficult to access specialists, let alone pay for them, in El Salvador.
• Linda's ongoing medical problems made it almost impossible for her to care for both children on her own, which made her even more dependent on Tomás.
• Being separated from Tomás would probably have caused Linda unusual psychological distress due to her childhood and the likelihood that she would have to return to live with abusive family members.

Because Tomás and Linda were able to demonstrate these problems and prove that Linda would suffer without her husband, they were able to successfully apply for the I-601A. Tomás was able to leave the United States for his consular interview, knowing that he would be allowed to reenter the United States with the permission of the U.S. government a few weeks later. Eagan helped prepare Tomás for his successful interview in El Salvador, and returned to the United States without any problems. He is a legal permanent resident since 2022. We are very happy that Tomás and Linda were able to remain together and support each other, and we are proud to have been part of that story. Eagan Immigration wants to play a role in their love story!

If you believe that you or someone you know could benefit from adding Eagan Immigration to your story, call us at 202-709-6439 o click here for a consultation directly with attorney Lauren Eagan.

 . *Although this story is based on a real client of Eagan's, the names and details have been changed to protect the privacy of our client.