I shipped my passport with the I-130. Couldn't leave the US.

[Darknisher]

Hello there,

I have a question.
My mother (permanent resident) submitted a petition (I-130) for me in 2016. I was over 21 years old so my category is F2B.

We included all the documents required and shipped it to the USCIS. We also included my passport (not a copy, the original one) in the package because I didn't know it wasn't required.

As you probably know, they don't review those documents right away. They just sent us a receipt saying that they received the package.
The petition hasn't been approved yet because they're still going through the petitions filed on or before July 15, 2014.

The thing is that we thought that this process was going to be processed pretty fast so I never left the country (I wanted to Adjust Status).
I also couldn't leave the country because I didn't have my passport.

It was my fault for including my passport in the package when I shouldn't, but I think it's also the USCIS' fault for not reviewing the documents fast enough. If they had done that, they would've shipped my passport back.

My question is: Will the 10 year (unlawful presence) bar apply to me because of this?
I've read that when the USCIS has some kind of fault in the process, the unlawful presence doesn't apply. Is that true?

For the record, my priority date is still not current.
F2B date is currently January 2014 and my priority date is October 2016.

Thanks in advance!

[newacct]

If you send in an original document with your application, you are never getting it back. Just apply for a new passport from the consulate of your country of nationality. USCIS has no "fault" in you staying in the US.

To determine whether you have "unlawful presence", you need to tell us what status you had and what date it says on your I-94.

[Darknisher]

I have a B1/B2 visa. The date on my i-94 is September 4, 2016.

It was a 10 year visa that expired on February 2019. Although I'm pretty sure that as soon as you overstay, the visa gets canceled.

[yko]

USCIS specifically says not to send original documents unless asked. "Original documents submitted when not required will remain a part of the record. If you decided at a later time that you want your original returned, please file Form G-884 with the office where you submitted the original document(s). The Form G-884 is available for those in the U.S. through Forms by Mail but is not available on this website."

[Darknisher]

USCIS specifically says not to send original documents unless asked. "Original documents submitted when not required will remain a part of the record. If you decided at a later time that you want your original returned, please file Form G-884 with the office where you submitted the original document(s). The Form G-884 is available for those in the U.S. through Forms by Mail but is not available on this website."

Yeah, I will try to use that form but I think it would be better if I wait until the I-130 gets approved.

[newacct]

I have a B1/B2 visa. The date on my i-94 is September 4, 2016.

It was a 10 year visa that expired on February 2019. Although I'm pretty sure that as soon as you overstay, the visa gets canceled.

You are kind of screwed. You have accrued more than a year of unlawful presence, so if you leave the US you will trigger a 10-year ban. You do not qualify for AOS based on your mother's petition because you are in a non-Immediate-Relative category and you have been out of status.

[Darknisher]

You are kind of screwed. You have accrued more than a year of unlawful presence, so if you leave the US you will trigger a 10-year ban. You do not qualify for AOS based on your mother's petition because you are in a non-Immediate-Relative category and you have been out of status.

Oh my God.
How hard would it be to get an i-601a approved so I can get a waiver for the 10 year ban?

I've seen a few lawyers online that promise an "almost guaranteed" approval. Are those claims true or is it worth it to use a lawyer for this? I know they're quite expensive. And not only that, but I've read that "extreme hardship" is really hard to prove.

[newacct]

Oh my God.
How hard would it be to get an i-601a approved so I can get a waiver for the 10 year ban?

I've seen a few lawyers online that promise an "almost guaranteed" approval. Are those claims true or is it worth it to use a lawyer for this? I know they're quite expensive. And not only that, but I've read that "extreme hardship" is really hard to prove.

You could try. But first note that the wait for visa numbers in F2B is 5-6 years (assuming you were not born in Mexico or the Philippines; if you were it would be longer). So you would have to wait a few more years (either in the US illegally or abroad) before you can even proceed to the next step. A waiver for this ban is possible if you could show your permanent resident mother would suffer "extreme hardship" if you can't be in the US. Yes, it is hard to prove. If you are still in the US in a few years, I believe you have to first pay the fees for Consular Processing, before you can file I-601A for the provisional waiver.

By the way, were you or your parent the beneficiary of an immigrant petition filed before 2001?

[Darknisher]

You could try. But first note that the wait for visa numbers in F2B is 5-6 years (assuming you were not born in Mexico or the Philippines; if you were it would be longer). So you would have to wait a few more years (either in the US illegally or abroad) before you can even proceed to the next step. A waiver for this ban is possible if you could show your permanent resident mother would suffer "extreme hardship" if you can't be in the US. Yes, it is hard to prove. If you are still in the US in a few years, I believe you have to first pay the fees for Consular Processing, before you can file I-601A for the provisional waiver.

By the way, were you or your parent the beneficiary of an immigrant petition filed before 2001?

I'm not from any of those countries. I'm from the Dominican Republic. I still have to wait about 2 or 3 years, maybe less since in the last 6 months, F2B has been moving forward about 3 months every month.

If I'm gonna file the I-601A waiver I must stay in the US. That's one of the requirements. I can't if I leave or get caught and deported. That's why I was asking if it was a good idea to get an attorney to file it since they "almost guarantee" an approval. But I don't know if that is true or not.

Sadly I don't have any petition filed on my behalf from before 2001.

My grandmother filed a petition for my parents (F3) when I was 14 in 2005. I was a derivative beneficiary. It was approved by the USCIS within a month, so no CSPA for me.

We waited like 7 years but our priority date was still pretty far away so I "aged out". So my brother came to the US with a B1/B2 visa. After 4 months he met his now wife, an US Citizen. They got married about a year later and was able to adjust status even though he had the 10 year bar as well. Through marriage, you can avoid that bar.

Fast forward to 2014, he got his Citizenship through naturalization and filed a new petition for my parents because the first petition (F3) that my grandmother filed was still like 3 years away. His petition was approved and my parents entered the US as Permanent Residents in 2016.

Since I already had a 10 year visa, I entered the US a few months later to attend a business meeting in NY. After the meeting I went to my parents house to stay for a few days before leaving back to my home country. But my mother was really worried about the violence and criminality in our home country and filed a petition for me in 2016 (the one I mentioned in the OP). She didn't want me to go back so I stayed and we filed the I-130 that I mentioned in the OP.

She wanted me to keep the previous priority date from the F3 petition my grandmother filed back in 2005 but that wasn't possible for two reasons: 1) they (my parents) didn't get their green card through that case/petition and 2) the Supreme Court in Mayorkas vs Cuellar de Osorio ruled that derivative beneficiaries can't inherit the priority date from the principal beneficiary under the CSPA unless the original petitioner (my grandmother) can file a new petition for the derivative beneficiary (me). Since a category for a grandmother to file a petition for a grandson doesn't exist, I got screwed.

Basically I got screwed twice. I've been waiting since 2005 when I was 14 and still don't have a green card.

I've been taking care of my parents ever since. I haven't done anything illegal. In fact, I haven't even worked here since I'm not allowed to do that legally. I can't drive either since the driver's license from my home country expired. I don't want them to have any reason to deny a possible future green card. The only illegal thing I've done is overstay my visa.

[Chase2019]

I wouldn’t believe any attorney where is giving me a guarantee to win my case. My case was very easy, German, never crime or drugs and so one. And even my attorney says “all what he can guarantee for is to make it smooth, means that all the paper stuff would be together and it will not give an RFE”. If you want, I can give you the name in private from my attorney. Btw PD was March first and I am waiting now for my GC. So for me I can say everything was for real smooth.

[newacct]

If I'm gonna file the I-601A waiver I must stay in the US. That's one of the requirements. I can't if I leave or get caught and deported. That's why I was asking if it was a good idea to get an attorney to file it since they "almost guarantee" an approval. But I don't know if that is true or not.

Well if you leave the US, you would apply for a regular waiver with I-601 when applying for your immigrant visa at the consulate. The advantage of I-601A in the US is that you know whether you get approved or denied before you leave the US, so it's unlikely you will be stuck abroad with an unexpected denial.

We waited like 7 years but our priority date was still pretty far away so I "aged out". So my brother came to the US with a B1/B2 visa. After 4 months he met his now wife, an US Citizen. They got married about a year later and was able to adjust status even though he had the 10 year bar as well. Through marriage, you can avoid that bar.

Just a nitpick -- he didn't have a ban since he didn't leave the US. You only get the 3-year/10-year ban if you accrue 180 days/1 year of unlawful presence and then leave the US. If he had a ban he would have had to waive it to do AOS; but he didn't have a ban. Marriage doesn't let you avoid any bans; rather, being in the Immediate Relative category allowed him to do AOS when he is overstaying, which is something that cannot be done in most other categories.

Since I already had a 10 year visa, I entered the US a few months later to attend a business meeting in NY. After the meeting I went to my parents house to stay for a few days before leaving back to my home country. But my mother was really worried about the violence and criminality in our home country and filed a petition for me in 2016 (the one I mentioned in the OP). She didn't want me to go back so I stayed and we filed the I-130 that I mentioned in the OP.

But I am not sure what your plan was, as you guys should have known that overstaying in the US will not allow you to immigrate on that petition easily -- in your category you cannot AOS from being out of status, and if you leave the US to do Consular Processing you would trigger a ban.

[Darknisher]

But I am not sure what your plan was, as you guys should have known that overstaying in the US will not allow you to immigrate on that petition easily -- in your category you cannot AOS from being out of status, and if you leave the US to do Consular Processing you would trigger a ban.

The thing is that we saw some posts online of people that were in the F2B category and were able to adjust status.
We got confused there and thought that I was going to be able to do that.

[azblk]

The thing is that we saw some posts online of people that were in the F2B category and were able to adjust status.
We got confused there and thought that I was going to be able to do that.

Nothing you can do about the mistakes you made in the past. At this point you either do what your brother did fall in love get married and your spouse sponsors you or you return to the Dominican republic and wait out your ban.

[Darknisher]

Just an update with this case.
I got my passport back from the USCIS. It was expired when I got it but I was able to renew it locally.

The original case is still not current. But it doesn't matter anymore because I got married last year to an US Citizen. We filed a new case this month: I-130, I-130A, I-485, I-765, I-864 and I-693. All of it together. We got our receipts today.

So a new journey begins...