New USCIS Policy Is TARGETING Family Green Cards!

According to a new USCIS policy, your case may be sent to court with a notice to appear even while you are still waiting for a decision upon your marriage or family-based adjustment of status case and this is not just for persons who have filed recently, even for persons whose case has been sitting on the back burner for months may be at risk. One small mistake that used to be fixable could now cause you to end up in court. So I'm going to walk you through exactly what has changed and what you need to do in order to protect yourself in the future.

Why This New Policy Is So Dangerous

Okay, so what is this new policy update and why is it so important for persons who have currently pending cases with USCIS for a green card? The biggest change is actually this: Having a currently pending marriage or family-based adjustment of status application no longer protects you from deportation. But USCIS has updated its policy manual to make this crystal clear. A family position does not give you status nor does it prevent you being placed into removal proceedings.

That means that USCIS is going to be a lot more aggressive. They won't hesitate to deny your case or to issue you a notice to appear during any point of your case. Even if your marriage is real, there were no issues with your case and you were moving forward with no issues.

So before this update, if anything was missing or incomplete in your application, USCIS would almost automatically give you a chance to fix that issue and give you a request for evidence. Now they might end up skipping this step completely.

So whether or not you make a mistake in your case, you may be at risk of having your case referred to immigration court. And especially if you do not have lawful status while your application is pending, you are at risk. Keep in mind, this is not just for new applications. Any marriage-based or family-based application that is pending will be subject to these rules, no matter when they were filed. It doesn't necessarily mean that USCIS is going to randomly start placing persons into removal proceedings just because they have filed an application. But it does mean that certain types of family applications may be more targeted, even if there is a strong marriage with evidence.

Persons who may be more at risk will include:

• Persons who have overstayed a visa especially if they have overstayed by more than 180 days
• Persons whose TPS has expired or has been revoked
• Asylum seekers with pending or denied cases
• Anyone already in deportation proceedings when filing for family or marriage-based applications
• People with an outstanding order of removal
• Applicants with any criminal convictions, including minor ones such as shoplifting
• People who have missed immigration court dates in the past

If you fall into any of these categories, there is an increased likelihood that you will be placed in proceedings and issued a notice to appear if, during an initial interview, an immigration officer determined that you are not eligible or deportable. On top of that, certain red flags and marriage-based green card cases have always been a risk, but now the stakes are even higher.

These include things such as:

• Your spouse living at separate addresses at the same time
• Having an age gap of more than 15 years
• Getting married soon after a visa has expired
• The U.S. citizen spouse having sponsored others in the past

These are not necessarily indicative of actual fraud, but they are warning signs that may trigger closer inspection by the immigration officer and ultimately lead to a possible placement into proceedings.

Officers are now being tasked to ask more aggressive questions and take a more aggressive stance on cases. And you would be questioned not just on daily routines, but also past relationships, future plans, and other details that may be related. I recently made another video detailing some of these newer, more aggressive style questions that officers are now using to try to catch inconsistencies. I'll include a link to that here because if you are filing for a marriage-based case, you'll want to watch it to make sure you don't get denied.

Now, USCIS claims that this new policy is all about stopping fraud. But the government numbers have actually shown that fraud in marriage-based cases have only been about 1 to 4% of all cases, lower than what the Trump administration would have you believe. They also claim that this is about reducing the backlog. But before Trump took office, USCIS completed a record 10 million cases in 2023, cutting the backlogged by 15% and speeding up processing time significantly.

How to Protect Your Case

So in light of these changes, what can you do to protect yourself against deportation? If you are filing now or have recently filed, the number one piece of advice that I can give is to build up your evidence. You need to approach your case as though USCIS has already found a reason to deny it.

You need to also build your case to answer any of the questions that USCIS is going to have before they can answer it. And here is how to do it.

First, over-prepare your evidence from day one. Don't give USCIS the chance to say that they don't have enough evidence. Include far more than the minimum. So make sure you include at least 12 months of financial statements, such as bank statements, leases, mortgages, or insurance policies. Photos with your spouse or your family from different times and places.

Affidavits from friends and family who can attest to the validity and good faith nature of your marriage, travel records, direct memberships, and anything else to help show that you have built a life together with your spouse.

If anything in your case could look unusual, such as a big age gap or differences in address history or not having a shared bank account, consider including a written statement to clearly explain the reason why and why your marriage is still a bona fide good faith marriage.

I did actually already make a video talking about the red flags that USCIS looks for in marriage-based cases.

Second, avoid new traps that allows USCIS to deny your case. These rules mean that you may never get a chance to fix your case, so make sure you pay attention. Double check your payments. Each form needs its own filing fee check or money order.

Right now, you have to submit an I-693 filled out medical exam that is properly filled out and signed by a USCIS civil surgeon. Make sure it is still valid by checking the edition date and making sure that it is properly dated by the surgeon. Next, make sure that you have all the correct form additions and that all the pages are complete. Mixing old and new versions can cause your case to get thrown out. And when it comes to filling out your forms, I recommend to not leave any field blank and to write down N slash A for any empty fields.

Next, prepare for a tougher interview. Do not expect a casual interview about your relationship. Officers are being trained to be more aggressive and to suspect more fraud. They are going to be comparing your answers and your spouse's answers and the information in front of them on your evidence and your forms to look out for inconsistencies. So make sure everything is on point. Make sure you know what you have filed. Make sure you know exactly what you're submitting to the officer on the day of the interview and make sure you prepare with your spouse for all possible questions. Be ready for personal questions about your daily habits, routines, choices, future plans, etc.

Lastly, get professional help early. Immigrants and couples who file on their own are more likely to encounter problems because they are not trained to spot the legal issues that may be present in the case. It is not as simple as just filling out a form. Without professional help, not only is it easy to miss a technical requirement, but it is easy to overlook the red flags and other issues that USCIS is looking for that you may not be aware of. So it's far more important than ever to work with an immigration attorney on your case.

And I'm pleased to announce that we are now accepting marriage-based green card cases. And also, don't underestimate the importance of having a lawyer with you during your interview. Having a lawyer next to you can make all the difference in your interview. Not only do they help keep immigration officers in check, they make sure to look out for errors of law made by the officer themselves. And not only that, we also keep officers from getting overly aggressive or being inappropriate.

My name is Moumita Rahman, and I have been an immigration attorney for the past 15 years. If you are concerned about making sure your case gets filed properly, we are here to help talk to you about your case. You can give our office a call at 212-248-7907. We are based in New York, and we work with clients all over the United States.

Now I'll let you know how much stricter USCIS is going to be. You need to be ready for what happens at your interview. They're asking brand new questions, tougher questions, and your inconsistent answer can trigger a denial. In my next video, I walk you through all of these questions so you know exactly what to expect. Click now and I'll see you there.