Is it better to withdraw my case or to wait for an actual denial?
Hi, I'm Jim Hacking, immigration lawyer practicing law throughout the United States out of our office here in St. Louis, Missouri. Sometimes I have consults with people and they come to me with a jacked up, messed up, screwed up immigration case, and the case has been pending for a long time.
A lot of times, they contact me because they're thinking about suing us a CIS. But when we sit down and analyze the case, sometimes we look at the paperwork and talk it through with the client, we realize that there's a fundamental defect with the client's case or the potential client's case.
So, I was on the phone the other day with a young man who had a spouse-based case and there was a fundamental flaw. In his case, it seems that the divorce decree that he had received from his prior spouse back in his home country in Africa was either not valid or actually happened after he got married to the US citizen.
So, there's a fundamental defect with that case, and he was contacting me because he's been waiting for a really long time for decision on his green card. And when we talked it all through, I realized that this case was not approvable, could not be approved and was not going to be approved.
So, he said, "Well, should I withdraw the case or should I let the case just play itself out?" And I said that there were several reasons why he wants to withdraw it. Number one, if there's a fundamental defect in your case, it's better to withdraw it than it is to have an actual determination that you did something wrong.
So, I believe that once you realize there's a mistake in your case or once you realize that maybe something that you submitted wasn't accurate or correct, that it's better to withdraw it if you can't fix it than to wait for the denial.
Another reason you don't want to wait for the denial is because the denial might take seven, eight or nine or 10 or 12 more months. So, if you're going to refile, it's better to withdraw it and get started again.
So, a lot of times, what we'll do is when we realized there's a flaw, we'll get working on the new case, get that all ready to go so that there's not a big gap between when we dismiss and when we filed the new one. You might be able to avoid a referral to the immigration court if you do it that way. This is not a simple matter.
It's not a one size fits all matter. We do these on a case by case basis. So, don't just take my word for it and go off and do that. Of course, that's true with all these videos.
These videos are not meant for individual advice and individual cases. These are general principles that I just like to explain to our viewers. So, don't just run off and dismiss the case if you think there's a problem with it. You probably want to talk to us or some other experienced immigration lawyer so that you make a good decision in your case.
So, in most situations, I think you're going to want to withdraw the case and not wait for an outright denial. When you start getting multiple denials, it makes you look like you are a flaky immigrant who is filing different applications here and there with just taking a shotgun approach without sort of a laser-like approach.
And making sure that you know that what you're filing is accurate and that you're eligible.
If you have questions about a problem in one of your cases, or if you're thinking about withdrawing your case and you want our help, give us a call, (314) 961-8200.
You can email us [email protected]. Be sure to join us in our Facebook group, which is called Immigrant Home. And if you liked this video, we ask that you please subscribe to our YouTube channel so that you get updates whenever we make videos just like this one, and share it out on social so that your friends and family can learn about US immigration laws as well.
Thanks a lot. Have a great day.
