Be creative

As any veteran lawyer would tell you that legal practice is not only based on facts and applicable laws, rules, and regulations, or researching precedent cases and presenting persuasive arguments, but also a form of art that inspires one's creativity, resourcefulness, and determination to find pieces of evidence that bolsters your claim. In my almost 20 years of practice, I have seen cases that seemed to be a lost cause but with a bit of patience and "outside the box thinking", positive outcomes were achieved.

Take the case of Lisa. She was previously married to a US citizen and was able to obtain a green card thorough that marriage. When it was time to file a petition to remove conditions of her residency, she was already divorced. It was such a bitter separation that she resigned from her job, moved to the other side of the country, destroyed everything that pertained to the marriage, and severed all ties with him including his family and relatives. Lisa went as far as she could go away from him.

When USCIS issued a Request for Evidence (RFE) asking for more information and specific documents about her marriage, she was only able to submit a few documents that she could find. USCIS sent her another request this time with a Notice of Intent to Deny if she would still be unable to produce more convincing evidence. After a thorough exploration of other possible alternatives, it was discovered that she had a tattoo of her ex-husband's name inked on her waist. Pictures of the bodily art were submitted accompanied with what seemed to be persuasive arguments were enough to convince the USCIS to issue their approval.

In the case of Tina and Roy, they were only married for a year. As what you might expect, their union is so fresh and young such that they never had much to show about the bone fides of their marriage. Roy did not have a Social Security number, so they were not able to open a joint bank account nor file a joint tax return. They have no properties registered under both their names and again, because of Roy's lack of status in the US, their options are very limited. Roy cannot even be named as Tina's beneficiary in her insurance policies.

Having no children, they opted to adopt a puppy which incidentally, the kennel had their names registered as its "fur parents". They were so fond of the dog, named Max, that they took pictures of it as it grew and matured under their care. During the interview at the local USCIS office, they were asked by the officer if they had any other proof to submit noting that they only had a few initial documents on file. Tina volunteered to submit the dog's owners' certificate along with the photo album containing all the pictures of Max. It turned out that the officer had a dog of the same breed as Max's! At that point, what was anticipated to be a tense and stressful interview turned out to be more relaxed and engaging as the couple felt a sense of bond with the USCIS officer in having a shared commonality with him. Roy received his green card two weeks after.

These are just two examples of how we can use creativity in presenting our cases and arguments in a persuasive manner. Do not lose hope if you think you have a dead-end case. There are alternatives out there you may not have considered. All you have to do is unleash that keen sense of innovation and ingenuity in you.