I 601 Guatemala

[SEG 79]

Does anyone know what the stats are about 1 601s from Guatemala. I filed mine back in Feb. The Embassy told us 6 months. That might mean late August.

My wife was illegally present, but has no criminal record. Any ideas to how likely my I 601 will be approved?

[egonzalez1975]

A girl from the same salon that I used just got her husband home after their approved I-601 from Guatemala. It took 8 months for her approval. Hope that helps. :)

[Pinkpig]

A girl from the same salon that I used just got her husband home after their approved I-601 from Guatemala. It took 8 months for her approval. Hope that helps. :)


Wow now that is a small world happening. You just never know where you will get the greatest information. :)

[SEG 79]

Well, I never thought I would recieve many replies, but this is my story.

July 18th 2005, I married my girlfriend who was illegally present in the US. Had I educated myself about the immigration laws of the United States first, I would have married her in Guatemala. Because she married me in the US, that automatically reveals that she was here without permission.

Anyway, I hired a lawyer to fill out the immigration paper work for the I 130 about a week later. That is when I found out that becuase she was illegally present, she cannot recieve a VISA to the US without returning to Guatemala and filing a Waiver of Hardship I 601 on my behalf.

We still filed the I 130 and waited about 8 to 9 months for our case to be approved. However, since she was here illegally, she was required to interview with me in Guatemala at the US Embassy.

We already knew that she was going to be subject to a 10 year ban from the United States. This allowed us to prepare the I 601 Waiver of Hardship ahead of time. (NOTE: I highly recommend an attorney for this) The attrorney helped us with many ideas to proove my hardship and it was less than 2000 dollars all the valuable advice we were given. Our final case was almost 2 inches thick with letters from me, my family, my friends, and my employer, hundreds of photos of me and my wife together with other family members, a letter about the violations of womens rights in Guatemala, and many other nick nacks that I thought would help proove our wonderful relationship and marriage-bank accounts, health insurance etc.

In October of 2006, I emailed the embassy and found out our interview was February 22nd, 2007. Of course, at our interview she was denied the VISA. However, we were able to file the waiver of hardship the following Monday. The counsoler infromed us that the wait would be no more, no less than SIX MONTHS-period.

Now we are just waiting for an answer from the Department of Homeland Security in the US Embassy in Guatemala. We should hear our decision in Late August or early September this year.

The total wait so far has been 2 years since we originally filed our I 130. However, my wife only left the country January 31st this year. I have been down there twice since then to visit my beloved wife. I am not able to move down there because of my career.

Hope this give you an idea about what your daughter and son in-law are going to experience.

Shawn

[kitkat1]

Shawn, I know I posted this to you on VJ but just to reiterate - the requirement is for the USC to prove extreme hardship in the event the visa is denied. Did you lawyer include information that constitutes extreme hardship? I'm concerned because proof of your relationship or marriage-bank accounts is not enough to prove this. If you look at the approved hardship letters here on I2us or on attorney Laurel Scott's waiver guideline memo, you'll see the kinds of things that are required and you may want to submit a supplement o your letter and evidence.


http://www.visacentral.net/I601Memo.pdf
Level 1 arguments:
Relative has a MAJOR medical condition

Level 2 arguments include:
Relative is the primary caregiver for his/her child(ren) from a prior relationship and the child(ren)'s other parent will not allow the children to be taken out of the country AND the child(ren) have formed an emotional attachment to Alien (b) Relative has a serious medical condition that makes it very difficult for Relative to move abroad and Relative needs Alien to provide help (e.g. Relative needs to have major surgery sometime in the next year, with an expected recovery time of several months), (c) Relative is caring for a moderately disabled relative who normally can care for him/herself but occasionally has episodes in which he/she needs a lot of help from Relative and during those times Relative, in turn, needs help from Alien,

Level 3 arguments include:
Relative is the non-custodial parent of a child from a prior relationship and has an actual relationship with that child and the child's other parent will not allow Relative to take the child out of the country but Alien does not have a relationship with the child at this time, (b) Relative a significant condition that makes it inconvenient to move out of the country, Relative and Alien have young children together or Relative has full custody of Relative's child and can bring him/her abroad and Alien's home country has bad public health conditions and bad public education, (e) Relative's job requires a license in both the US and abroad and it will be very difficult to get licensed abroad (e.g. attorney, medical doctor), (f) Relative has job skills that are very specific to the US (e.g. a tax accountant with extensive familiarity with US tax law), (g) Alien's country has a very bad economy, (h) Relative has a close relative who is partially dependent on Relative financially,

Level 4 arguments include: (a) Relative has debts they wouldn't be able to pay if they moved abroad, (b) Alien's country has a high unemployment rate, (c) Alien's country has a high crime rate, (d) Relative has been despondent due to the situation, but hasn't sought professional help, (e) Relative's parents are aging.

[Adriane]

... a letter about the violations of womens rights in Guatemala, and many other nick nacks that I thought would help proove our wonderful relationship and marriage-bank accounts, health insurance etc...

I just want to make sure you know that the letter is supposed to prove hardship to you, the USC. Women's rights violations would effect her, not you.

Also, financial hardships alone won't meet the burden of extreme hardship. I would suggest reading the sample approved HSLs and if you don't think your's is up to snuff, I would send in supplemental info.

Good luck!

[SEG 79]

Yeah, I didn't really say much about my letter. My letter focuses on my Hardship, not hers. Also, I focused my letter on my psycholocial stress and finanacial hardship. The human rights violations I wrote about were focused on the both of us.

[havefaith]

Thanks SEG 79, my husband and i will probably be filing soon through Guatemala so it's very helpful to hear your experience! Hopefully you will hear good news soon.
There is not much info on the stats of Guatemala. Laurel Scott just had her first case through there, which was an approval. Another couple from this forum had an approval a few years ago. I have also heard of approvals from other forums, I have not yet heard of a denial. Do you have any kids or major medical issues?
Have you found the consulate to be cooperative? Do they respond to your inquiries and have they been decent to deal with?

Egonzalez, do you know if your acquaintance had any kids or major issues??

[Pinkpig]

Seg 79,

Thanks for sharing all of your information. I know that many others will be so grateful for your help. Good luck with your waiver approval. I hope that you hear something very soon.:)

[Laura]

SEG - Welcome! It sounds like you found a pretty good lawyer. You wouldn't believe how many people land here and have been burned by bad lawyers and out $5000 to boot.

Many of us did not use lawyers to prepare our hardship letters, but it's possible that Mexico, where many of our spouses are from, has a somewhat more lax attitude on what constitutes extreme hardship. In any case, it's great to see more people on here filing through Guatemala. I'm surprised there are not more in fact, and it's great information to know.

[SEG 79]

Look: The attoney is not going to guarentee results. He simply led me through the process.

In my letter I focused mostly on my pschologial stress of not having my wife by my side.

I am an airline pilot for Continental. I taylored my letter to include the affects that depression can have on a pilot in a safety sensitive profession. This is serious stuff.

If that is not good enough for OUR own stinking Government, then I guess I will not be sucessful. I am considering sending a supplemental letter of Hardship to emphesis some other financial points. However, my main point in the first letter was how my depression affects my daily life, motivation to advance my career, and other aspects of my life.

[Laura]

Look: The attoney is not going to guarentee results. He simply led me through the process.

In my letter I focused mostly on my pschologial stress of not having my wife by my side.

I am an airline pilot for Continental. I taylored my letter to include the affects that depression can have on a pilot in a safety sensitive profession. This is serious stuff.

If that is not good enough for OUR own stinking Government, then I guess I will not be sucessful. I am considering sending a supplemental letter of Hardship to emphesis some other financial points. However, my main point in the first letter was how my depression affects my daily life, motivation to advance my career, and other aspects of my life.

I wasn't attacking your decision to use an attorney, just stating the fact that many of us have not. We all understand that this is serious stuff, in the sense that the government requires us to prove hardship, which seems blatantly obvious -- in what situation is being separated from one's spouse not hardship?

Many people have decided to supplement their hardship packets after they learned more info about the process, but it sounds like you hit on many good points.

Are there any other medical things you can include? Such as family history that might indicate future diseases that would be difficult to receive care for in Guatemala?

Good luck.

[SEG 79]

I'll also say that when I got married I was totally ignorant of the law. I believed at the time that once a US citizen married someone-they automatically were entitled to stay in the US. I found out soon afterwards that that was not the case. That is why I elected to hire an attorney for help. I was totally ignorant of the process. I did not have time to complete the process myself.

The attorney probably prevented me from falling into the same problems that so many people find themselves in.

When I submitted my package to the US embassy in Guatemala, I include about 18 different hardship letters in addition to mine. I had friends, family and, and coworkers document the depression and anxiety that I was and currently am experiencing. So, in addition to my letter, there are 17 other letters which support mine. Also, I include about 100 photos to proove that our relationship was very close and legitamate. I included articals about Guatemala and its problems with human rights abuses. And to top it all off, I included a letter from a psychologist for which I spent 250 dollars. The psychologist interviewed me and my wife the day before she returned to Guatemala. The psychologist wrote a letter backing up everything I wrote in my letter.

If that is not enough, than I don't know what to do. I don't have any health problems currently. But if my wife is not permitted to return, I WILL HAVE SERIOUS PROBLEMS.

Hope this explains the situation a little bit better.

[Laura]

I'll also say that when I got married I was totally ignorant of the law. I believed at the time that once a US citizen married someone-they automatically were entitled to stay in the US. I found out soon afterwards that that was not the case. That is why I elected to hire an attorney for help. I was totally ignorant of the process. I did not have time to complete the process myself.



Us too! Big time. I didn't think my husband became legal, but I never imagined that he would have to leave the U.S. for a year, or that it was possible he would not be re-admitted, or that, for example, people who have at some point lived in the U.S. illegally, left the U.S. (like for a family emergency as many immigrants from Mexico do) and then re-entered illegally are barred for 10 years with no waiver.

I really meant that it was great you found a good lawyer on the first try. There are a few lawyers recommended on this site, but a lot of people here have found this site because they have been burned by useless lawyers who didn't know any sort of waiver was available and simply took money from clients to file the petition and then didn't follow through with the rest.

If you are concerned about amending your packet, read some of the approved letters from the stickys in the I-601 forum. There aren't many (if any) posted from Guatemala, but I know Laurel Scott (the attorney who posts here) has mentioned she's had success with Guatemala and didn't think they were especially strict, so those might be a good guide. Generally, the more dire, the better. As you said, it would be extremely serious were she not allowed to return, and you want to explore all the negatives in the letter.

[egonzalez1975]

I know that they do not have any children and she didn't mention any health problems. She kind of told me a little about her waiver and she never mentioned health issues. Not sure. I am going to go back to the salon tomorrow or Wednesday and see if the girl there can get in tough with her. It is a very small town that this is in. So, hopefully I can get more information for you guys!!!

[djones9714]

Thanks so much for your help and there are a lot of people who are starting to get interested in Guatemala. This information is all so important. Thanks to everyone. We will keep together.

[SEG 79]

Thanks egonzales1975. Any information you could provide would be helpful. Just let me know if your friend has any advice.