By Alicia Atteberry 

This Valentine’s Day, Eagan Immigration wants to remind you that where there’s love, there’s a way! There are multiple ways to apply for legal status based on your marriage to a U.S. citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident, even if you’ve accumulated unlawful presence in the United States. Eagan has successfully secured many clients their permanent residency using the I-601A Application for Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver. Now, I’m going to tell you about one such Eagan client who has a green card in his hands TODAY.  

Our Story Begins… 

Tomás* came to the United States from El Salvador in 2005, seeking a better life. He began working, making friends, and building a life for himself. He met his wife, Linda*, in church. Tomás and Linda began dating and quickly fell in love. Linda had a difficult upbringing, so she took comfort in Tomás’ reliability and calm nature. Tomás admired Linda’s strength, perseverance, and beauty. They soon married, and by 2019, had two children.  

When their second child was born, Linda needed special surgery and the complications left her with mobility issues and chronic pain. Tomás took over sole responsibility for supporting their family financially and also stepped up and made sure that Linda was not overexerting herself and had all the resources she needed to heal. Despite the challenges life threw at them, Tomás and Linda found each other, chose to love each other, and made it work. In a chaotic world, they built a safe, stable family life for themselves and their children.  

So, What’s the Problem? 

Tomás and Linda face one major issue. Tomás was undocumented. Like many people fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries, he had entered the United States and accumulated what is known as unlawful presence: time spent in the United States without proper documentation. This meant that even though he could apply for status based on his marriage to a U.S. citizen, returning to his home country for the required consular processing interview could result in him triggering a 10-year bar from entering the United States due to his prior unlawful presence.  Every day, Tomás and Linda lived in fear that the life they built together could be ripped away from them if Tomás was deported. The family was now completely dependent on Tomás financially, but his lack of legal status made it more difficult for him to find well-paying work or anything that would provide him medical benefits. Now that Linda was facing chronic medical issues and they had young children, these problems became even more pressing. 

That’s when Tomás and Linda reached out to Eagan Immigration. We got right to work collecting information, evidence, and most importantly – Tomás and Linda’s story. We determined that the best course of action was to apply for a waiver for his Unlawful Presence with the I-601A.  

What is the I-601A? What made our client qualify? 

An I-601A waiver requires that the applicant and beneficiary already have an approved I-130 Petition for an Alien Relative, establishing that a qualifying relationship exists between the applicant and beneficiary. The I-601A waiver will forgive the unlawful presence of a beneficiary/qualifying relative (in this case, Tomás) if their removal from the United States would create “extreme hardship” for the applicant (in this case, Linda). The waiver also allows the beneficiary to travel to their home country and interview for normal consular processing, without fear of being refused entry when they come back to the United States. Now, in order to qualify, we needed to demonstrate that Linda, the U.S. citizen, would suffer extreme psychological, medical, and/or financial hardship if separated from her husband, Tomás. Because Linda relied on Tomás so much, we believed he would easily qualify for the I-601A waiver and be able to become a permanent resident.  

To determine “extreme hardship,” U.S. Customs and Immigration Services considers the following factors:  

• The presence of a lawful permanent resident or U.S. citizen spouse or parent in the U.S.  

• Tomás had Linda, his U.S. citizen spouse, in the United States. This is established by the I-130. 

• Qualifying relative’s family ties outside the United States. 

• Tomás had not lived in his home country, El Salvador, for more than ten years. He was now building his own family with Linda. 

• The conditions in the country to which the qualifying relative would relocate. 

• Tomás’ hometown in El Salvador is considered a dangerous area by the U.S. Department of State. He also knew from friends who returned there that there were active gangs who targeted anyone coming from the United States due to their perceived wealth.  
• Linda and their children could not relocate to El Salvador because they had no legal status or connections there. 

• The financial impact of departure from this country. 

• Tomás was the sole financial support for his U.S. citizen wife and children. It is unlikely Tomás could have earned wages comparable to his U.S. income in El Salvador, let alone enough to support himself, Linda and their children. 
• Without Tomás supporting her financially, Linda would be forced to rely on abusive family members. 

• Significant conditions of health, particularly when tied to an unavailability of suitable medical care in the country to which the qualifying relative would relocate.  

• Tomás and Linda had two very young children who required regular medical checkups that they would not have been able to afford in El Salvador. 
• Linda was experiencing chronic pain and back issues that she was still in treatment for. It would be difficult to access specialists, let alone pay them, in El Salvador. 
• Linda’s ongoing medical issues made it almost impossible for her to care for both children on her own – making her even more dependent on Tomás. 
• Being separated from Tomás would have likely caused Linda unusual psychological distress because of her childhood and the likelihood that she would have to return to live with abusive family members.  

Because Tomás and Linda could demonstrate these issues and show that Linda would suffer without her husband, they were able to successfully apply for the I-601A. Tomás was able to leave the U.S. for his consular interview, knowing he would be allowed to re-enter the U.S. with the permission of the U.S. government a few weeks later. Eagan helped prepare Tomás for his successful interview in El Salvador, and he returned to the United States with no issues. He has been a Lawful Permanent Resident since 2022. We are so glad that Tomás and Linda were able to stay together and support each other, and we are proud to have been a part of that story.  

Eagan Immigration Wants to Play a Role in Your Love Story!  

If you think you or someone you know could benefit from adding Eagan Immigration to their story – reach out today at 202-709-6439 or schedule your free evaluation here: Schedule Appointment with Eagan Immigration (as.me).  

*Although this story is based on a real Eagan client, names and details have been changed to protect our client’s privacy.