Cuban Adjustment Act Case (under Matter of Vasquez)

[mnemonick38]

Hello everyone! Hope y'all doing great today.

I'm looking for someone who passed the same way as me.
Basically, USCIS doing strange things with my case and I don't know should I hire a lawyer or everything is in good shape.

I have a complex case so let me walk you through all of it.

I was born in Russia from a Cuban parent. I never got Cuban passport.
One day in Russia (2015) I figured the paper called "Matter of Vasquez".
It was saying:

Applicants born in a country other than the Republic of Cuba and who hold the citizenship of that country may still establish Cuban citizenship for the purposes of adjustment under section 1 of Pub. L. 89-732 (November 2, 1966), as amended, the Cuban Adjustment Act, if they document their birth to a Cuban father or mother outside Cuba, as required by Article 29(c) of the Cuban Constitution. Individuals born outside Cuba whose Cuban citizenship is not documented with a Cuban passport, may establish Cuban citizenship for the purposes of adjustment under the Cuban Adjustment Act through the submission of a Cuban birth certificate issued by the Civil Registry of Cuba in Havana, or a Cuban consular certificate documenting their birth to at least one Cuban parent within the consular district served by the consulate.

Link: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/...quez073107.pdf

So long story short - 2016, I flew to Cuba by using my Russian passport.
Picked up my Cuban birth certificate from Cuba (stating I was born in Russia, from Cuban parent) and flew to the United States (by using US visa in my Russian passport).
At the border control, I showed my Cuban papers and said - "I'm Cuban, I want to apply for Cuban Adjustment Act".
After giving me a hard time in airport "secured" room they gave me parole and let me in under CAA.
I received SSN and EAD very fast and found a really good and official job in my area of knowledge (IT).

At the beginning of 2017, after 1 year and 1 day passed - I sent to USCIS my i485 application under CAA.
I attached all the papers/evidence I ever had and submit. Then I got Request for Initial evidence. On April 2017 I submitted it back and they received it.
In April 2019 I received the invitation to the interview and everything was fine (I went to the interview on April). I brought up to date criminal records (clear) and fresh medical records (good).
Officer said everything is good but they need more time to figure my case out.

Yesterday I got another RFE asking for more evidence about Cuban citizenship.
I'm not sure what else to submit. My case is out of normal processing time (USCIS told me that).
Also I submitted service requests etc., and also I contact congress rep. in my neighborhood. Nothing really helped about it...still so long.
And one more important thing - after I sent initial evidence and they received it - all the CAA and related laws were "closed". So no more Cubans can use those benefits anymore.

Can anyone suggest me something?
Does anyone know - if I applied BEFORE all the new laws - are they gonna treat me as a person without official evidence?

[hjdiazesq]

Not the same, in my case the adjustment was granted and obtained green card relying on "matter of Vazquez" in 2015 dated 2014 (registration of birth from consulate outside of Cuban) but now for naturalization in 2019 they are telling me that is not enough. They seem to be applying the rescission of "matter of Vazquez" retroactively, which seems unfair.

[newacct]

Congress has not changed the Cuban Adjustment Act, and its benefits remain available the same as before. What did change a few years ago was they stopped automatically paroling Cubans who made it onto US soil (the wet foot/dry foot policy), and since you need to be admitted or paroled for the CAA, Cubans who entered illegally could no longer avail themselves of CAA. But Cubans who entered the US legally, i.e. were admitted or paroled, remain eligible to adjust status under CAA 1 year after entering even if they have gone out of status before applying. Since you were paroled, you are eligible for CAA. Another recent development was a USCIS guidance regarding proof of Cuban citizenship for CAA cases, where they stopped accepting "a Cuban Civil Registry document issued in Havana"; I am not sure if that affects your case.

[hjdiazesq]

while the drafting is not great (in my opinion), what the guidance clarifies is adding passports and excluding "a birth certificate issued by the Civil Registry or a Cuban consular certificate documenting an individual’s birth outside of Cuba to at least one Cuban parent is not sufficient to establish Cuban citizenship".
It is not entirely clear that the foregoing also excludes "a Cuban Civil Registry document issued in Havana". I seems that UCSIS itself is not clear.
Plus, they should not revisit the issue retroactively at the time of naturalization if someone already adjusted status under documents legally accepted at the time.

[fer777777]

I have a question, and I know the answer to your problem but first, did I take 2 years just for the interview?? why? how it went from 2017 to 2019 to get your interview? and basically you need to show them your Cuban passport, that will satisfy the criteria, I'm assuming you know how to get the Cuban passport.

[mnemonick38]

I have a question, and I know the answer to your problem but first, did I take 2 years just for the interview?? why? how it went from 2017 to 2019 to get your interview? and basically you need to show them your Cuban passport, that will satisfy the criteria, I'm assuming you know how to get the Cuban passport.

I'm not really sure. They sayin' it's because of a long line of petitioners. These years were good. I was able to renew my EAD two times during this time period.

[Miguel9797]

Hi all,

I came across this page while doing a little research about this CAA drama that I went thru once.

My story is very similar:
Born in Mexico, from Cuban father, but I didn’t have a visa. I went thru the border in 2015 and surrendered myself to border patrol. Long story short they put me in prison for almost 6 months while they tried to figure out if I was indeed Cuban. Got my Cuban certificate from Havana and let me free. I’m a permanent resident now but I have to say, during my interview for green card they said they couldn’t adjudicate my case since I had immigration court still going on, which is common sense, being a parolee you get to stand in front of a judge every now and then. I had to make an info pass appointment and literally brought the matter of Vasquez and showed it to the supervisor, she then went to consult with their own attorney and she came back to the room saying your getting your green card in 2 weeks max in the mail. I was the happiest in the world.
Now, I’m applying for citizenship on October this year, hopefully they don’t give me a pain again.
My advice is to stand for your own against them, I’m not talking bad about anybody I know they are busy people but most of the times our cases are the least important to them since, we have to face it, we are very lucky people.
let me know if I can help you all with any other question I may have the answer.

[mcano1]

Hi all,

I came across this page while doing a little research about this CAA drama that I went thru once.

My story is very similar:
Born in Mexico, from Cuban father, but I didn’t have a visa. I went thru the border in 2015 and surrendered myself to border patrol. Long story short they put me in prison for almost 6 months while they tried to figure out if I was indeed Cuban. Got my Cuban certificate from Havana and let me free. I’m a permanent resident now but I have to say, during my interview for green card they said they couldn’t adjudicate my case since I had immigration court still going on, which is common sense, being a parolee you get to stand in front of a judge every now and then. I had to make an info pass appointment and literally brought the matter of Vasquez and showed it to the supervisor, she then went to consult with their own attorney and she came back to the room saying your getting your green card in 2 weeks max in the mail. I was the happiest in the world.
Now, I’m applying for citizenship on October this year, hopefully they don’t give me a pain again.
My advice is to stand for your own against them, I’m not talking bad about anybody I know they are busy people but most of the times our cases are the least important to them since, we have to face it, we are very lucky people.
let me know if I can help you all with any other question I may have the answer.

Did you get your citizenship?? Im in the same boat, I have the green card, my 5 years are coming up and I want to become a U.S Citizen, sis you have to get anything else? Let me know about your experiences? Got my Greencard in April 2018 with a backdate of Jan 1 2017, So almost ready for application for citizenship but have been seeing the retroactivity of this new guidance, it is even listed on the technical instrucitions of the requirements to become a citizen: "if admitted with a consular letter, this will not be sufficient to prove cuban citizenship, the agent MAY request further evidence"


Let me know