Approximately one and a half years ago, we were contacted by Ahmed (* not his real name) and asked to assist him in obtaining lawful permanent resident status. Ahmed had served in Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party in Iraq during that country’s invasion of Kuwait. Ahmed had defected during that war and eventually sought asylum in the United States.
Ahmed’s asylum application was approved and he lived in the United States for many years. When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, Ahmed returned to his home country and served as a translator for U.S. forces and private military contractors in the second Iraq war.
After his service ended, he returned to St. Louis, working in a variety of jobs. Ahmed applied for lawful permanent resident status based on his prior grant of asylum. Ahmed had two interviews but waited for years for his green card application to be approved.
When Ahmed came to see us, he was at his wit’s end and was sick of getting the runaround from the St. Louis of USCIS. Ahmed had made numerous InfoPass appointments, made numerous phone calls to the USCIS toll free number and had even contacted members of Congress. None of these efforts helped. Instead of approving or denying the case, USCIS simply refused to decide the case. This is not aninfrequent occurrence at our local office.
We entered our appearance on Ahmed’s behalf at USCIS and notified the assistant US attorney who represents USCIS locally that we planned on filing suit if the local office continued to sit on the case. Shortly thereafter,, Ahmed was scheduled for a special interview with a USCIS specialist from Detroit. The interview was videotaped and Ahmed answered questions for over two hours. The questions focused upon his activities as a member of Saddam Hussein’s military. We attended the interview, which went well.
Last week, Ahmed received his green card in the mail, after a wait of over seven years. Wewere very happy to help him get his case resolved.
