June 28, 2012 – Appeal of USCIS marriage fraud decision

Facts: A citizen of Ghana came to the United States and got married to a United States citizen. The citizen wife filed a I-130 relative petition on behalf of the Ghanaian non-citizen. At the marriage interview, the citizen wife had an emergency and could not attend the interview. USCIS issued a decision which said the I-130 was abandoned and slipped in a fraud allegation, but never offered an opportunity to rebut the fraud allegation. The non-citizen came to us for help.

The firm’s representation: The firm took our client’s case and immediately filed an appeal of the USCIS decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals. The firm believed that USCIS had violated our clients’ due process rights.

Case status: The appeal was filed on September 8, 2011. On June 28, 2012, as expected, the BIA denied the appeal, but recognized the fact that our client did not have an opportunity to rebut the derogatory information in the USCIS denial letters. Based on the appeal, our client was able to preserve his ability to file another I-130 petition at a later date.