If you are an active reader of ours, you know that we love to file lawsuits on delayed visas.
Most of the time, they are a married spouse that has filed an I-130 to come live with their husband or wife in the U.S. and their visa is being delayed.
But we do more than just delayed spouse visas. We also help families reunite.
In 2002, a gentleman named Rafiq filed an I-130 application for his brother to come to the U.S. and live with him.
His brother, Yousef, was from Jordan.
Rafiq wanted to live closer to his brother, not separated by oceans.
So Rafiq filed a petition for Yousef, his wife, and two sons to come to the U.S.
And he waited. Yousef waited. Yousef's wife and children waited.
And they kept waiting for 7 years.
Then they got a notice. USCIS had approved their visa!
Their case was sent to the National Visa Center to be processed.
Yousef and Rafiq finally had hope that they would soon be able to see each other again.
So they waited for their interview notice.
And waited.
In 2016, 14 years after originally filing their application, Yousef and his family were given an interview.
Everything went great. They paid their application fees, went to their medical appointments. They did everything that USCIS asked them to do.
And then they waited some more.
Rafiq began to get upset. He had been waiting for his brother and his family to come to the U.S. for over 14 years now.
So Rafiq reached out to USCIS to try to get an update on the case, nothing.
He reached out to his local politicians to try to get them to help, nothing.
Rafiq tried everything he could to get some kind of update or movement on the case, but nothing was working.
He got the same general answers, "It's in Administrative Processing". "We are conducting background checks".
But no one could tell him when his brother would be able to come.
He was just told to wait some more.
So he did. And nothing happened.
Until one day in February, he heard about us being able to file a lawsuit that made the process faster.
So he reached out to us, scheduled a consultation, and met with Attorney Jim Hacking.
He explained how he has been waiting for USCIS to approve his brother for 17 years.
We filed his lawsuit right away.
We sued USCIS, The Department of Homeland Security, The Department of State, The U.S. Consulate in Jordan, and every single person in charge of these places that has touched his case.
We asked the court to make a decision and end Rafiq and Yousef's wait, to unite their family, and make a decision on their visa.
And they did.
After years and years of waiting, Yousef's case was moving.
Soon, Yousef and his family received their immigrant visas and were able to come to the U.S.!
Yousef and Rafiq now have been reunited after fighting USCIS for 17 years.
Although most of our lawsuit clients are spouses, our lawsuits can help everyone; parents, children, spouses, and even brothers like Yousef and Rafiq.
