[Please note: The Client’s name and case key details may have been altered to preserve the identity of the client. This Success Story is not intended to be an offer of service or case plan. Every case is unique. The Success Story is presented for information purposes only.]
From the latter part of 2016 to the early part of 2021, the Margaret W. Wong team in Nashville worked with Abbud and Gamila, a couple from Iraq, to help them secure legal permanent residency for Gamila’s younger sister, Clemira, who had been living in the United States since 2012 since she was twelve years old and legally adopted by Abbud and Gamila only a few months earlier in May of 2016.
Accordingly, we filed a package for Clemira that included an I-130 (Petition for Alien Relative) and an I-485 (Application for Legal Permanent Residency) which were both ultimately denied in March of 2018 because the materials from Iraq that Clemira’s birth parents provided us with were determined to be insufficient by USCIS.
Therefore, we had to wait two years after the adoption became final before we could file the paperwork again which we were able to do in July of 2018. By this time, we were able to secure such necessary items from Iraq as a corrected copy of Clemira’s birth certificate (i.e. the one submitted to us previously had her birthdate wrong) and a certified copy of the entire agreement wherein the birth parents awarded custody of Clemira to Gamila.
To be sure, USCIS wanted additional articles such as Clemira’s school records and insurance policies issued to Abbud and Gamila showing the young lady as a dependent, but these were easily attainable and posed no stumbling block.
In fact, at this point, the gainsay was obtaining a letter from Clemira’s mother, still in Iraq, supporting Gamila’s contention that when she stayed with them briefly for a two-month period, Gamila and Abbud had parental control.
In the end, though, everything worked out because the I-130 was approved in November and early April of 2021, our legal representative accompanied Abbud, Gamila, and, of course, Clemira to the latter’s USCIS interview wherein all of them did quite well, especially quite who had beautifully mastered English.
A day or two latter, we received word that Clemira’s green card had been approved and our message to the family begin with the words, “awesome news!”
