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May 11, 2011

WAIVER OF MISREPRESENTATION OR FRAUD

Posted by:  NORKA M. SCHELL

Under section 212(a)(6)(C)(i) of the INA, and alien who, by fraud or willful misrepresentation of a material fact, seeks to procure, has sought to procure, or has procured a visa, other documentation, or admission into he United States or other benefit provided under the Act, is inadmissible. However, the Attorney General may, in his discretion, waive the application of section 212(a)(6)(C)(i) of the Act in the case of an immigrant who is the spouse, son, or daughter of a United States citizen or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence if it is established to the satisfaction of the Attorney General that refusal of admission to the United States of the alien would result in extreme hardship to the citizen of lawful resident spouse or parent of the alien. INA 212(i).


" M is a native of Peru who first entered the United States in October of 1996 as a visitor using her Peruvian passport which indicated that she was married and listed her married name.  The stamps in her passport indicated that she departed and returned to the United States several times between 1996 and 1999.

M was married to Joe in  1976 in Peru and together the couple had four children. Joe filed paper to end  their marriage in February 1197 and appeared in court in May 1997 to sign additional papers.  Unfortunately to M, her divorce did not become final in May 1997, but in fact became final on October 29, 1998.

Notwithstanding,  M married Paul on August 21 1997.  Paul filed alien relative petition  on M's behalf in September 1997.

In the petition, Paul listed M's name as married name and indicated that she entered the United States on an uncertain date without having been inspected or admitted. The petition claimed that M was married to Paul  and had never been previously married or divorced. The petition only listed  M as having one child.

In support of her petition, M listed no former husbands in the biographic information sheet. In further support of the petition, M  provided a Peruvian passport issued by the Peruvian Consulate Office in New Jersey in July 1997.  The passport listed her name as M and indicated that she was unmarried. The alien relative petition was approved in 1998.

In July 2000, M filed a petition to adjust her status to a lawful permanent resident based upon her marriage to Paul. In her application, again, M claimed that she entered in the United States without inspection and listed only the two children she had with Paul.

Because M sought her adjustment status on a basis of having entered the United States  without inspection, she was required to file a waiver request with the Attorney General which she did in September 2001. Ultimately, her application was granted and her status was adjusted to a lawful permanent resident on 2002. Notably M readily acknowledges that she made misrepresentations in obtaining legal permanent residence.

M alleges that the cause of her misrepresentations (omitting her four children and failing to acknowledge her last marriage) was physical and mental abuse by Paul who she divorced in February 2003.

On October 26, 2006, M married Sam. Shortly after M filed an application for naturalization. In this application, M did not review her prior married names, nor did she acknowledge her prior marriages (Joe and Paul); but for the first time, she revealed all six of her children.

In her application, M also answer "NO" question 22, which asked whether she had ever been married to two persons at the same time. Further M answered "NO" to question 23, which asked if she had ever given false misleading information to any U. S. Government official while applying for any immigration benefits.

Finally, M answered "NO" to question 24, which asked if she had lied to any U.S. Government official to gain entry  or admission to the United States.

As to question regarding previous marriages, M listed Joe e Paul.  M provided documentation showing that she had been married to Paul when she was married to Joe.

United States Citizenship and Services (USCIS) denied M's naturalization application because it found that she lacked " good moral character" and because she was not lawfully admitted as permanent resident.  Specially, the decision noted that M canceled her other children and her prior marriage in the past filings, she lied under oath regarding her prior marriage to Joe, she failed to reveal her married name and she had a bigamous relationship with Paul.

In December 2007, M sougth administrative review of her naturalization application request. The USCIS affirmed the denial and M filed the Petition for Review of Naturalization, pro se, on 2009.  Respondents moved to dismissed and /or summary judgement on August 2009.

The Court granted Respondents' motion to summary judgement."

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See Leonarda Moore v. John E. Thompson, Janet Napolitano.
Civil No. 09-1747.