We recently received an approval for our client who was applying for a green card based on his Haitian nationality. Presently, not everyone with Haitian origin is eligible for this process under the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act (HRIFA). This is because the applicant must present certain eligibility criteria, including time continuously present in the United States. Furthermore, US immigration service only receive cases with applicants who have parents who obtained a green card through HRIFA. In our case, USCIS initially did not want to believe our client qualified, since he was applying after the filing cutoff date set in the year 2000, and because his mother became a US citizen. However, we were able to convey our client’s continued qualification based on his relationship with his mother, who had received her green card through the same HRIFA act. As well as the fact that the statute did not require his mother to maintain status as a legal permanent resident.
