Update on Representative Immigration Cases

September 8, 2014

Types : Alerts

Montgomery McCracken is pleased to share examples of recent success stories from our Immigration practice group. One involves a family-based application for U.S. citizenship with a complicated fact pattern. The other describes the employment-based intracompany transfer of an executive whose child was about to turn 21 and lose eligibility for a green card.

Five-Year-Old Child Gains U.S. Citizenship

The client is a five-year-old child born in the U.K. to a German mother. The birth mother is in a civil union with an American woman. The American parent legally adopted the child and both parents share legal and physical custody of the child in their home in the U.K.

Because she is not the birth mother, the American parent could not automatically transmit U.S. citizenship to the child. But there exists a mechanism under the law where she could apply on behalf of the child for U.S. citizenship based on her meeting certain requirements for physical residence in the U.S. prior to the child’s birth. Then the child would have to travel to the U.S. to be interviewed, and if successful would become a U.S. citizen. In this case the American mother was too ill to travel to the U.S., so only the German parent accompanied the child. Immigration attorney, Ralf D. Wiedemann, prepared them for the interview and accompanied them to the Philadelphia immigration office on the appointed day.

Following an in-depth review of all the evidence of the U.S. parent’s earlier physical presence in the United States, and of the legal and physical custody of the child (and some discussion as to who could sign the forms in place of the absent parent), the child’s application was approved. The certificate of citizenship was issued while the family and Mr. Wiedemann waited, and they were allowed to take pictures in the empty ceremonial room used to conduct the large-scale naturalization oath ceremonies. The next day the child and his mother flew back to the U.K. where they will apply for a U.S. passport for the child in advance of his next visit to the States.

Prompt Action Required for Multinational Executive to Preserve Daughter’s Green Card Eligibility

Our client had acquired a Spanish company and wanted to employ a high-ranking executive from the Spanish company in its U.S. headquarters and sponsor him for permanent United States residence status. The conventional approach would have been to first qualify the executive for an L-1A intercompany transferee visa giving him the right to live and work in the United States temporarily and, once qualified and working in the U.S., file a green card petition.

Immigration attorney, Ralf D. Wiedemann, immediately identified a complicating factor that made following the conventional path unworkable. The oldest of the executive’s three children was about to turn 21 and would lose her opportunity to immigrate to the United States once she reached her 21st birthday. To solve this problem, we took the unusual step of filing the executive’s temporary work visa and green card petitions simultaneously. This would “freeze” the oldest child at age 20 for green card purposes. We prepared and submitted the L-1A and green card petitions to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) in a narrow and closing time frame in order to execute this plan.

USCIS approved the executive’s L-1A and green card petitions in short order without requests for additional evidence, a testament to the careful and thorough preparation of the petitions. The approval of the principal’s green card petition paved the way for filing adjustment of status applications for the executive and his spouse and three children. Recently, USCIS approved the green card petition for the executive’s now 21-year-old daughter. (The green cards for the executive and his spouse and other two children were approved separately.) Prompt and thorough action on the part of MMWR’s immigration practice enabled our client to keep a key executive’s family intact and thus ensure his services in the U.S. indefinitely.

Please contact Ralf D. Wiedemann at (215) 772-7363 or rwiedemann@mmwr.com with any questions about immigration or nationality matters and to learn how MMWR’s Immigration and Nationality Practice can be of assistance to you.