When you’re applying for a provisional waiver, the most important aspect is demonstrating extreme hardship. This is where applications fail and it’s so important to have the right lawyer and get the right advice about how to demonstrate extreme hardship. When you’re talking about extreme hardship, you want to demonstrate everything about your life, why you came to the United States, what your family ties are here, what things you’ve accomplished in this country, your work history, the hardship to your family, the hardship to you, the country that you’re returning to, your possibility of getting work if you leave the United States. Everything that you say about your life, all the hardship must be documented. We say in our office, “If you say it, you must document it.” It’s a good reason for immigration to deny your case if you say something without backing it up on paper. In our office particularly, we are on you to make sure you have all the documents that we ask for because there’s a formula to demonstrating extreme hardship. We want to get to know everything about your family and why it would affect you if you left the United States. How would it affect your spouse or children if you could not live in this country and how would it affect them if they left the country?

When you are demonstrating extreme hardship, you need to show both. You need to show how it will affect your family if you have to leave the United States and they stay behind, and how it will affect your family if they leave the United States and go with you. It is all done by documents. In our office, in addition to all the documents that we submit, we prepare about a 10-15 page memo tying everything together so that immigration will have a picture of who you are. I often hear from clients, “I don’t have any medical issues. There’s nothing wrong with me. There is nothing I can point out to show a hardship.” Everybody has a story, and in my office it’s really important for us to understand your story and learn everything about you and why it would be a hardship. There’s always going to be hardship to somebody who separated. It’s not enough that it’s just financial. It’s not enough that it’s emotional. It’s your whole life story. We’ll work with you to establish what that is and demonstrate to the government that it is an extreme hardship to you and your loved ones if you’re not allowed to return and live here freely with a green card.

If you have questions, or would like to understand this process more, click here to contact the office of Cheryl David, located in New York City. Cheryl David is an experienced immigration attorney and would be happy to assist you.