It’s not the first time I thought I was losing my mind, but it was about the most annoyed I had been with myself about it. I’ve been working immigration cases for some time, and I am used to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (“USCIS”) returning filings or asking for unreasonable evidence. But in this case it really made me wonder.
I had another case in which a filing had been illegitimately denied FOUR TIMES, in which case both marriage partners are persons of color. Another case, in which the couple lived literally blocks from M. and S. and that wife was also a nurse, just like M., had been accepted the very first time. Both spouses are white. I personally examine and verify every form we file, so it wasn’t a question of incorrect form completion in either rejected case. At this point I gave in to my bizarre suspicions of racism and decided to do a factual analysis comparing cases.
The spreadsheet told me what I had been so loathe to believe: statistically, race did matter. I could predict which filings would be rejected based upon the amount of melanin in a person’s skin in his/her passport photos.
I cannot even express how angry the racial profiling of my clients makes me. My clients who lived right near their neighbor and got through USCIS with no issues are white (Couple A). My clients who had to send in their filing four times are people of color (Couple B). (Both women are registered nurses.) But it’s even worse than that. The foreign- born husband in Couple A is a delightful person, but was a trained soldier. We revealed that on his forms. No problems. The foreign-born husband of Couple B is also a terrific person, and was in legal status at the time we filed his forms. The USCIS chose to reject and/or question Couple B’s filing FOUR times! Here is our exact scenario:
- 1st filing: USCIS rejected it, falsely claiming that there was no form I-485.
- 2nd filing: IUSCIS sent a Request For Evidence (“RFE”), asking for the USC wife’s forms W-2 for the most recent year
- This was an unlawful request: “The form instructions have the same force as a regulation . . . .” USCIS Policy Manual, 7, A, 3. However, the instructions for form I-864EZ do not require the filer to submit “W-2s and/or 1099-Rs submitted to the Internal Revenue Service”. Contra instructions for form I-864EZ. In fact, the form states that “You must provide either an IRS transcript or a photocopy from your own records of your Federal individual income tax return for the most recent tax year,” which we had already done. (No mention is made of forms W-2 or 1099 in the instructions.)
- 3rd filing: USCIS rejected the filing again, stating that the payment amount did not match the required amount and that the application type was not chosen in for I-485. In fact, UCSIS issued receipts for forms I-130 and I-485 and withdrew funds for the filing of forms from the couple’s Credit Union Account on January 17th. And of course the form was properly filled in! I’ve done this a few times before . . .
- 4th filing – no way were my clients going to pay for their filing a second time! At last the USCIS sent them a notice to appear at an application service center in California on May 27, 2027.
This was our first interview following the disastrous USCIS policy memorandum issued on May 22, 2026, in which the USCIS stated that persons pursuing adjustment of status within the United States must instead seek adjustment of status through Consular Processing in their countries of origin in almost all circumstances. (https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/news-releases/us-citizenship-and-immigration-services-will-grant-adjustment-of-status-only-in-extraordinary.) The USCIS policy memorandum declared Adjustment of Status within the United States to be an “extraordinary form of relief.”
At their interview on May 27th, the couple knew the moment that they entered the interview room that there was going to be a problem. Their interviewer was a new American himself, yet he told this couple that they should have brought their own interpreter or translator. The wife is a United States citizen registered nurse and speaks perfect English in every way, as well as speaking the first language of her husband. Additionally, her husband speaks perfectly adequate English. Both members of the couple believed that the interviewer was spoiling for a fight before anyone said a word. The couple were required to bring copies of all of the documents that they had filed with their petitions as evidence, but the interviewer would not review any of them (all were in his possession in the first place).
The wife explained that they had been forced to file four times, and this interviewer called her a ‘liar.’ In fact, we have proof that the couple had to file four times to get this interview.
After an extremely unpleasant interview, the interviewer gave the couple a ‘Notice of Interview Results’, which said that USCIS was unable to complete their case at that time, and that it was being continued/held for review. This news was very distressing to my clients after all that they had been through!
The husband telephoned me and asked if I could appear at their next interview as the token white person. I would gladly have done so, but I am quite distant from California. Also, had I been there, I would have been bellowing for a supervisor and worked very hard to be sure that this person lost his job, for which he was obviously unqualified and unsuited.
Fortunately, their interviewer must have reconsidered his decision, because the wife found a notice of approval for form I-485 in her USCIS account on the evening of May 30th. The husband will get his green card by mail shortly thereafter!
The moral of this story? Persistence pays off in immigration cases.
No matter how many times it takes, we will keep insisting that the USCIS gives you benefits to which you are entitled.