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jason
05-24-2008, 12:20 AM
my wife had her appointment for I-601 on May, 19 2008. she was told that they needed to review it more because it was lacking evidence, this is a copy of the hsl that we summited along with evidance. they said i have 30 days to summit additional evidence, please give me advise on what to summit.


Dear Sir or Madam,

My name is xxxx a United States citizen and disabled veteran, I am writing this letter in support of the I-601 petition that I have filed for the waiver of excludability of my wife xxxxxx. I plead that you take in to consideration the extreme hardship that I have been dealing with for the past 2 years. It has been and will continue to be an extreme hardship and create much more stress in my life if my wife xxxxx is not able to obtain an immigration visa. In order for me to be with xxxxx I have had to relocate and completely change my life which has created an extreme hardship. I love xxxxxx with all my heart and I need to be with her, which is why I have relocated so that I can be with her. However I do not know how much longer we can continue living our lives in this situation, every area of my life has been drastically changed and has suffered by me living in Juarez. If xxxxxx is denied an Immigration visa we will have to live our lives separated, I will have to move to El Paso and xxxxxx will have to return to Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua (which is over 300 miles away from El Paso and close to a 7 hour drive #A).
I met xxxxx in Albuquerque in 2005 while she was visiting a cousin of hers that worked with me, we went out on a few dates and enjoyed our time together and fell in love with each other. xxxxx and I went to her hometown in Cuauhtémoc for her brothers wedding in February of 2006, I met her family and our relationship grew stronger. I knew that I wanted xxxxx in my life for ever; however when we were returning xxxxx was not allowed to receive a permit to go back to Albuquerque and that devastated me. I finally found that one special person that I wanted to spend the rest of my life but she was unable to return back to the United States. xxxxxx returned to her hometown in Cuactamoc and every Friday I would drive from Albuquerque to Juarez and xxxxxx would take a bus from Cuauhtémoc to Juarez so that we could spend time together.
I am a United States citizen forced to live in Mexico in order to be with my wife. xxxxxx and I have been married for two years and I have relocated so that we can be together. My relationship with my children has suffered since I have relocated, my financial situation and life style has declined and I live in fear. xxxxxx and I want to have a baby together but we can not do that with our current situation, the only way that this will be possible is if we are able to be living in the United States. If we are able to live in the United States I know that my relationship with my children will greatly improve, I will be able to recoup the financial losses and I will be able to have peace in my life. I hope that we do not loose out on our chance to have a family together, xxxxx is 35 years old and I am 34 years old so our window of opportunity of having a baby will not be open much longer. Also xxxxxx parents are permanent residents and live in Arizona, her father xxxxxxx is 72 and her mother xxxxxxx is 68. Both of her parents have diabetes and traveling is very hard on them, but it is the only way they can see xxxxxx.

Children that are U S citizens

I have two children from a previous marriage that are U S citizens and live in Albuquerque, NM. xxxxxxx born July 12, 1995 and xxxxxxx born January 27, 1999. Since I have relocated on July 1, 2006 in order to be with xxxxx I have not been able to see my children the way a parent should. I am torn between my moral obligation to my children and my obligation to my wife, I am sadden by the fact that I want my children in my life but they are not. When I was living in Albuquerque xxxxx and xxxxx would stay with me on weekends and I was very active in their lives. My ex wife will not allow me to bring my kids to Juarez because it is such a dangerous city, which creates emotional stress to me not being able to spend time with my children.
Since I have relocated to be with my wife I have only been able to see my children a few times and I must drive to Albuquerque which is a 5 hour trip one way spend the day with them and drive 5 more hours back to Juarez that night. The drive back after seeing my children is very hard and emotional and making the trip creates financial stress. I grew up with out a father in my life and now I hate the fact that I am doing the same thing to my children, I do not want my kids to grow up with the emptiness that I felt growing up. My children mean a lot to me and I want to be involved in their lives as much as possible, I want to be able to see them grow up I am really missing out on a lot of things in their lives. I also have family in Ohio that I have not seen in a long time and my wife has never met any one from my family. I can not go to Ohio to visit my family alone with out xxxxxx, xxxxx or my children, and it is impossible for all of my family to come to Juarez to visit us.

Fear

Living in Juarez has been the hardest and scariest thing that I have had to do in my life; they have been killing and kidnapping people on a daily basic. Every morning I leave for work at 6 am, it is dark and dangerous. I have seen a tied up body lying in the middle of the street not knowing if the body was dead or alive and too scared to stop and help. My greatest fear is that something may happen to xxxxxx because of all the violence in Juarez.(#B)
xxxxx works at a clothing store and she is alone 90% of the time, I am scared of my wife being alone in Juarez. Neither xxxxxx or I are from Juarez or El Paso, we are alone here with no family. One day xxxxx called me crying and told me that someone had stolen our car (#C) while she was at school for English, I thank God that nothing happened to her. Even in this emergency situation it still took me over an hour to get from my job to where xxxxx was, the whole time I was trying to get her I felt helpless because I could not do any thing to help xxxxx. xxxxxx was scared and crying but I could not explain the situation to the police or do any thing to help. The situation was very stressful and I had to figure out how I was going to be able to replace a car making half the money I was used to making in Albuquerque.
I do not speak a lot Spanish so most of the time I do not exactly what is going on around me or what people are saying to me. That is a scary situation to be in on a daily basis, and causes extra stress. I really like the city of El Paso, and that is were I want to make a life with xxxxx and xxxxx. I recently started my own business in El Paso and I need my wife to be with me in order for the business to grow and reach its potential. I can not live a comfortable life with the violence that is happening on a daily basis and worrying for the safety of xxxxxx.
I am a United States citizen and a disabled veteran (#D) which requires periodical medical attention. All I want is to be able to live my life with out worrying that my car may get stolen, someone may rob me or that someone may hurt xxxxx and xxxxx. I try not to put myself in any situation may be dangerous but in Juarez it does not matter how careful you are, all it takes is being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Financial

I have taken a very large decrease in pay since I have relocated to be with my wife; I was making $750.00 per week while living in Albuquerque but only $400.00 per week working in El Paso. Not only has my standard of living declined but I can not pay all of my bills when they need to be paid. As I stated before I have started my own business in order to try in improve our standard of living but I am losing out on potential jobs for the business because I am not fluent enough in Spanish, This is another reason why I need xxxxxx with me in El Paso. I am using more gas because I have to commute back and forth from Juarez to El Paso six days a week, and I am spending over $25.00 a week to pay the fees at the Zaragoza Bridge. I know that if xxxxxxx was with me and helping me in El Paso my business would be far more successful.
Ever since I have relocated I have struggled to pay my bills and my child support, I know that the only way to improve our financial situation was to start the business. No company in El Paso was willing to pay me what I was earning in Albuquerque; the most they were willing to pay was $10.00 per hour with no overtime. Even after 15 months with the same company I was not able to get a pay raise and I have a lot of stress due to my financial situation. Now that I have started my business I can control how much I earn, however not living in El Paso is making it more difficult. There are times when I get phone calls in the evenings and on Sundays from clients who need emergency service and I when I tell them that I can be at their home in two hours they tell me that they will call another company. I do not have my work van with me in Juarez due to insurance and the chance that it may get stolen, I have to park it at a friends house in Horizon. So as you can see every day I have to wait to cross the bridge drive to Horizon to pick up my work van and then drive to my job sites or to where I am marketing my company to, from the time I leave my house until I pick up my van in one hour and 15 minutes. I am losing money because I am not living in El Paso with my work van park out side of my house and able to respond quickly.

Cultural, Language and Lifestyle

I was born and raised in Toledo, OH and have experienced a huge cultural shock. A lot of times people view me as rude or selfish because I do not speak much Spanish and there is a culture difference then I grew up with, I am learning more about the culture in Mexico but the language difference makes it almost impossible. I not being able to communicate is making my life very difficult, and there is valid fear. It is like I am living two total different lives on a daily basis, I have my life always alone in El Paso with my business and then I have my life in Juarez with my xxxxxx and xxxxxxx.
It is very difficult trying to start and run a business in a different country then you live in and your family not being able to be involved or help the business. xxxxxx has not been able to help the business grow and prosper, the business is our future and how we pay our bills, eat and survive. I leave for work at 6 AM every day Monday thru Saturday and go to El Paso to make my business grow and prosper leaving my wife in Juarez. I am alone all day long until I get home after 6 PM, everything that I see and do on a daily basis I can not share with my wife. With out xxxxx being able to enter the United States she really can not have much involvement with the business or understand the business. This is creating a lot of stress upon me not being to have my wife with me helping to make our future, I need her with me so she can help the business and so I am not losing potential clients that do not speak English. The language is a major problem and very stressful, I can not communicate with the people in Juarez. xxxxxx has to order my food for me, purchase movie tickets, tell me where they want me to park and much more. If something happened to my wife and I had to rush her to the hospital I would not be able to tell the doctors and nurses what happened and what is wrong.

Summary

I hope that this letter has shown details of the extreme hardships that have occurred since I have relocated to be with my wife. My desire is to be able to move to El Paso with my wife xxxxxx and xxxx, however if their immigration visas are denied we are going to have to make changes. We will not be able to continue living together in Juarez and we will have to continue our marriage living separated. I absolutely must live my life in El Paso for many reasons that I have explained previously in this letter. I need to be able to have a relationship with my children, I need to be able to live in the city which my business is in and I can not live in a city with fear and not be able to communicate. If I have to move to El Paso alone with out xxxxx and xxxx they will move back to Cuauhtemoc so they can at least be with their family. This will create more stress in our lives because I will only be able to travel to Cuauhtémoc to spend time with my wife one week end a month. xxxxx has been going to school to learn English, she has no police record in either the United States or Mexico and has great moral and character and will be no danger to the United States if her visa is granted.



#A mapquest showing location and travel time
#B copies of juarez violance from the el paso times web site
#C proof of vehical theft report from juarez police
#D copy of dd-214 (military discharge and us army disabilaty rating


my ex wife has since moved and i have no way of contacting her, she has no phone and i dont have any contact with her family, i have not seen my children in 4 months.


please any advice is gratefully appreciated.

Luckysprite
05-24-2008, 11:51 PM
Jason - you have some good starting arguments. The key in this though is getting evidence that supports those hardships. Your evidence list is very very small.

Since you are already living in CDJ with your wife - you need to focus you letter on why you can not continue to live there, which is a good angle that you already started taking.

Just breifly though - since you do not have contact with your ex right now - is the custody arrangement that you have mentioned anywhere in your divorce documents? Do you have anything that shows she has custody - but you have legal visitation rights that you are not getting right now due to your living in Mexico? Anything regarding that hardship would be excellent evidence to have.

You mention that you are a disabled vet ... but you go into NO detail about this. Medical hardships sometimes can be some of the strongest. I definately think that your disability (no matter the severity of it) needs to be explained in detail and it needs to be stated what medical attention you need and why you need it in the US. I am assuming that you could receive care at a Veterans Hospital for significantly less than what you would pay for in any other setting in the US or in Mexico ... do you have any other medical conditions?

It is kind of emotional at times and it will be best if more factual and less of a story-telling angle.

Luckysprite
05-24-2008, 11:56 PM
For your financial situation - can you come up with anything to document the loss of income? Previous pay stubs indicating what you were earning versus your current income?

Can you also shopw proof of any bills you have to pay now and why you can not afford them on your current salary?

Just more thoughts ...

I hope others will offer their advice soon!

And to add - I am so sorry for the situation you are in - but I think you found a great place for help!!

1MessedUpSourPatchKid
05-25-2008, 12:09 AM
I would probably also talk about how dangerous CDJ is right now and how you live afraid for your life every day you spend down there.

Laura
05-25-2008, 12:35 AM
The disabled veteran comment stuck out to me too!

Do you require medical care? Did you serve in the armed forces? These are things you can turn into strong hardships. Even if you are no longer in the armed forces you can use the fact that What you used are the most common and generic hardships, and it sounds like you have more.

You should really go to the stickies area in I-601 Mexico and read some examples of approved letters. You really need to have a lot more evidence and work on strengthening your hardships.

jason
05-25-2008, 07:35 PM
I guess I received bad advice from the people helping us with the paperwork. I asked if I sould include additional evidence when we summited HSL but they told us the finanial hardship was proven by my tax filings, my relationship with my children was proven by my divorce papers and they already was summited.

Laura
05-25-2008, 10:04 PM
Yes, that was very bad advice. You are not proving relationship to your children, and financial hardships are one of the weakest arguments.

You need to consider all the things that will be affected in your life, the best arguments are more unusual or unique, and you need lots of documentation. You can still send in more evidence up until the time they adjudicate the waiver.

Luckysprite
05-25-2008, 10:28 PM
I agree that it was bad advice that you received.

And while financial arguments are one of the weaker arguements many people still use them and it can be used in conjunction with other arguements ... it just needs to be documented well.

Tax documents alone will not suffice. Again, if you can document somehow your loss of income since living in Mexico and prove how you can not not afford your bills if you continue to live there because your wife is not allowed back in the US - you have some ground to work with.

My opinion - I would still try to include much more information about your medical situation.

jason
05-26-2008, 12:30 AM
since my wives parents are legal residence would that help anything and can they summit anything

perez782
05-26-2008, 12:37 AM
In my opinion I would write another letter in more detail and evidence. I mean you can talk about your disability and how hard is to live in Mexico. You you have any debt? What about your parents are they ill?

perez782
05-26-2008, 12:39 AM
Sorry what about court documents about your kids?

Luckysprite
05-26-2008, 01:30 AM
Jason - I am not sure that getting your wifes parents to submit anything would be beneficial ...unless it pertains to YOUR hardships.

Laura
05-26-2008, 02:22 AM
Actually, since the parents are permanent residents, they are also "qualifying relatives" for the waiver. They should absolutely put together something (a letter and some evidence) that discusses the hardships they will suffer if she cannot come back. This can talk about any health problems they have, and whether her care or support would be required... It's harder for parents to argue that they will have to relocate without a child, but they can still argue different hardships.

jason
05-26-2008, 09:43 PM
i am working on a new letter and additional evidence, i will post it soon and let me know if it should be ok. i dont know how much longer we can continue living in juarez, my wives son will be finishing the school year soon and she does not want him growing up in juarez (he will be 14 in Sept).

Luckysprite
05-26-2008, 11:03 PM
Actually, since the parents are permanent residents, they are also "qualifying relatives" for the waiver. They should absolutely put together something (a letter and some evidence) that discusses the hardships they will suffer if she cannot come back. This can talk about any health problems they have, and whether her care or support would be required... It's harder for parents to argue that they will have to relocate without a child, but they can still argue different hardships.

I didnt look at it from that perspective - of them being qualifying relatives as well ... thanks for that thought Laura! :D

Murillo79
06-01-2008, 11:00 PM
I would definetely get letters from your wives parents. Get records of your diability. Get the court papers for your children (Having them with the seal or True copy) That is what I did. Do you go to church? Have your pastor write a letter. I see that you only included like 4 pieces of evidence I think the minimum is like 15 and people include up to about 30 pieces of evidence. I've been told your Waiver packet should be anywhere from 30-50 pages. I think you need to include more on the loss of income, the living conditions in Mexico. The travel warnings for US Citizens in Mexico. Mor along those lines should help you. I would also check the spelling in your letter, there is spelling and grammar errors. I know it might sound stupid but grammar and spelling is really important when you are dealing with the Governmant or anything in the Professional World. Kinda of think of it as your Resume for your job. You wouldn't have any grammar or spelling errors! Hope this ideas help you!