It is possible to produce the best results for an I-601 waiver application when we combine immigration legal experience with your personal facts, arguments, and documentation.
If your family member is considered inadmissible, he or she must obtain a waiver to overcome that bar to achieve lawful permanent resident status. This means filing a I-601 waiver which will describe and document the “extreme hardship” to the applicant’s relative who is a US citizen. This showing of hardship will be combined with “mitigating and aggravating” factors which describe the particulars which weigh the strength or weakness of your argument for a waiver.
Together – the showing of extreme hardship for a qualifying US relative and the presence/absence of mitigation factors, will determine whether the I-601, Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility, is approved.
Therefore, the ability to set forth compelling evidence of “extreme hardship” is the first step in completing the immigration process to re-unite your family.
First Step: Understanding What USCIS Means by “Extreme Hardship”
Extreme hardship means “greater than the normal hardship” that anyone would expect the relative to suffer if applicant is not given a visa. There is an important distinction between “Extreme” and “Normal” hardships. To get a basic understanding of circumstances that may go from the category of normal to extreme please review the factors below:
- Prolonged experience of separation anxiety;
- Loss of job/income/education opportunities; or
- Difficulty for US citizen to move to the applicant’s home country due to financial constraints, dangerous political conditions, or cultural differences.
Taking these factors separately, by themselves, may mean “no extreme hardship finding.” But in combination with and clarified by other well-documented circumstances, it is possible to obtain a waiver of inadmissibility due to the extreme hardship caused to a US citizen.