[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.]
In 2020 our Atlanta team got to work with a delightfully eccentric but outgoing woman named Alessandra who was in her late 20’s and here from Peru by way of a B-2 visa.
A dedicated attendee of what seemed all kinds of social gatherings, Alessandra brought with her to her initial interview with our team, a likable but odd guy, in our opinion, named Fred who she recently met, dated, and married within a very short period of time claiming that he was “perfect” for her which prompted Fred to slowly nod his head while managing a smile that some might interpret as a grimace.
Characteristically, Alessandra stated that she believed that every moment should be lived to its fullest and all opportunities should be utilized so she sought to “make use” of her marriage to Fred to secure a green card since, as of late, she had spent most of her time in the United States, a country that she really loved just as she really loved Fred who once again shared with us his “smile”.
Ordinarily our team would have been hesitant to move ahead with this arrangement because we would have doubted if USCIS would accept these people as a couple but after listening to Alessandra and Fred bicker for a few minutes, we sensed genuine compatibility if not genuine love, so we filed a package on Alessandra’s behalf that included an I-130 (Petition for Alien Relative) and an I-485 (Application for Permanent Green Card).
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a USCIS interview could not be booked until the first week of December which was fine by Alessandra who simply said that “it happens when it happens, sweetheart!”
To be sure, however, she was very grateful when we were able to secure for her an employment authorization document so that she could consistently work with a staffing agency which was never short of assignments because she was bilingual, she was a computer whiz who could operate all kinds of technological devices, and she was equally comfortable working with both men and women.
As for Fred, he proved to be a strangely laid-back kind of person who finally found his niche by working for DoorDash and Amazon (i.e. when he wanted to) making all kinds of deliveries to all sorts of places throughout the region. Fred believed such labors to be “fascinating.”
When the interview date finally arrived, a legal representative from our team accompanied the couple to consultation which proved to be quite lively. For sure, we respected Alessandra who told us that she believed that honesty was always the best policy and that it had always worked for her.
Therefore, she freely admitted to the ISO that throughout her teens she had back and forth from Peru to the United States on B-2 visas which were sometimes overstayed for significant periods and even had documentation to prove it. The ISO was understanding and said that he would not hold this against her because she was a minor at the time.
The ISO was a bit taken back, though, when Alessandra told him that she spent half of the week living with Fred and the other half living with his mom, Marian, because she and Fred had a “very intense relationship” which required a lot of breathing room.
Alessandra went on to say that she also really liked Marian and got along with her better than Fred did which earned her a grumble and a dirty glance from Fred; in fact, for a one or two seconds, we worried that Alessandra, as a rebuttal, might extend to Fred a dubious motion involving her fingers as but, thankfully, Alessandra demurely restrained herself.
When questioned by the ISO about their lifestyles and life histories, Alessandra and Fred got a near-perfect score on such minor matters as what color tooth brush the other one used and what were the components of the last meal that Fred cooked for his wife. On this latter point, let it be recorded meal preparation was one area where Fred bested Alessandra; they both agreed that Fred was an excellent chef whereas Alessandra had problems boiling water.
But they went on to mess-up when queried on relatively simple matters as the address of the house where they lived when they first got married, what month did they first meet, how many siblings the other one had and, most importantly, Fred said that Alessandra’s parents were divorced when, in truth, they had been happily married to each other for over thirty years.
For sure, Alessandra socked the table and chewed Fred out for thirty seconds in her native tongue for making such a stupid remark about her family by confusing her parents with her sister who had been divorced twice to which Fred defensively retorted that it was “unreasonable” for him to remember such details about people he had never met and only talked to once or twice over the phone.
Our legal representative was relieved, however, when he glanced at the ISO who was struggling to keep a straight face throughout the confrontation.
Undoubtedly, the interview didn’t fit the conventional definition of “smooth” but from what we had learned about the couple over the year it was typical “Alessandra/Fred” adoration all the way, and our hunch that the ISO, an experienced veteran who had witnessed all kinds of relationships during his tenure with USCIS, realized this proved to be correct when he approved Alessandra for a marriage-based-two-year green card at the end of the interview.
Of course, Alessandra immediately booked an appointment for an I-751 consultation in eighteen months. She then declared in a voice so loud that all surrounding parties couldn’t help to hear her that “I just love working with you guys” before giving the [nap_names id=”FIRM-NAME-1″] team several glowing write-ups on various social media platforms.
Alessandra even got Fred to participate with one of them by securing a quote from him that in part read, “yeah, they were good….” which, coming from Fred, was a fine compliment indeed.
