Can I just let my immigration case die or should I withdraw it?
Hi. I'm Jim Hacking, immigration lawyer, practicing law throughout the United States at our office, here in St. Louis, Missouri.
I wanted to shoot today's video because I've been seeing a trend with some people that we interact with and that we consulted with on how they handled their case and specifically, these are situations where they had a prior case on file.
And instead of formally withdrawing that case, they in response to a request for evidence, just never replied or if the case was pending at the embassy, they just sort of let it die. You don't ever want to do that.
I can't think of a scenario where you would want to just let a case die, unless there's things in there that are fraudulent and you don't want to continue the fraudulent narrative or the fraudulent facts that you've told them. But generally, you're going to want to withdraw a case.
So what's an example of that?
Well, I was speaking to a young man who had a fiancee case and it's been pending for two years and he was really surprised it was taking so long.
But then when we talked things through, it turned out that he had sponsored someone else for a fiancee visa, back in the day and the case had been pending for a while and he received a request for evidence and by that point, the relationship had broken apart.
And instead of formally withdrawing it and saying, "Hey. I don't want to sponsor this lady anymore," he just left it on file.
And then when he filed the new case, I think that they're probably confused if they matched up the names and said, "Hey, this guy already sponsored somebody before. What ever happened to that case?"
So there are lots of reasons why you want to withdraw it.
You also want to make sure that when you withdraw a case, that you do so formally, in writing, and that you notify them that you want to withdraw the case and that you send it by certified mail or Federal Express so that you can get proof that USCIS has been advised that you withdrew the case.
So you never want to let something just hang out there on the vine.
You always want to make sure that you have formally withdrawn it, that you have proof of that so that if anybody ever asks or if you ever want to sponsor someone else for an immigration benefit, the record is clear that you followed the rules and that you're not one of these people that just lets cases die or file them and don't really follow up with them. That's a bad thing.
If you have questions about how to withdraw a case, let me tell you just real quickly, you're going to want to send a letter to the office where the case is pending.
You're going to want to send it by certified mail. You're going to want to make sure that you keep proof that it was delivered. And you don't want there to ever be a question as to whether or not you formally withdrew it.
If you have more questions, give us a call, 314-961-8200. You can email us at [email protected]. We have this great Facebook group. It's called Immigrant Home. We'd love to have you join us there.
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