Immigration Cases and Litigation

National Interest Waiver for a Neurologist

Our client who is still a medical resident, conducts groundbreaking research in the fields of neuroscience, neurosurgery, and neurology, bringing medical science a step closer to reversal of paralysis and treatment of spinal cord injuries. His work involves investigation of the relation between inflammatory processes and peripheral nerve regeneration, the isolation of these processes, and the translation of these processes and their application to injuries of the central nervous system. In addition to his research in peripheral and central nervous system injuries, our client has also introduced a number of new discoveries in the area of neurosurgery.

After presenting our client’s influential work and the potential benefit to our country if he is allowed to remain permanently in the United States, the USCIS agreed that giving a permanent residence in the United States to our client will be in the national interest of the United States. Sofia Zneimer was the attorney on this case.

National Interest Waiver for a Neuroscientist

Some foreign nationals would be an asset to any country in the world. Luckily for our nation, our client chose the United States.

Our client is a Physician and a Neuroscientist who has made and continues to make very important discoveries about the testing and treatment of epilepsy and brain injuries, with significant potential for savings for our country and help for the patients who suffer from these debilitating conditions. According to the Center for Disease Control, acute care and rehabilitation of brain injury patients in the United States costs about $9 billion to $10 billion per year, without counting the indirect costs to society as well as to families, including costs associated with lost earnings, work time, and productivity, as well as the costs linked to providing social services.

After presenting our client’s important accomplishments and the enormous benefit to our country if he is allowed to pursue his work in the United States, the USCIS agreed that giving a permanent residence in the United States to our client will be in the national interest of the United States. Sofia Zneimer was the attorney on this case.

Appellate Victory Before the Board of Immigration Appeals

The Board of Immigration Appeals reversed an immigration judge’s decision ordering the removal of our client from the United States.

Our client was married to a legal US permanent resident and had asked the judge for a continuance of his removal hearing in order to apply for adjustment of status based on his marriage. The immigration judge denied the request reasoning that there were no immediately available immigrant visas for a spouse of a permanent resident, and the wait would be for many years. Unfortunately neither the immigration judge nor our client’s former counsel considered the Cuban citizenship of the permanent resident spouse. Under the Cuban Adjustment Act, spouses of Cubans under certain conditions, can adjust without requiring a family petition and without any waiting for a priority date.

Sofia Zneimer filed an appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals, arguing that the immigration judge had made a mistake in ordering our client removed without considering his eligibility for immigration relief. The Board of Immigration Appeals agreed, reversed the immigration judge’s decision, and remanded the case back to the immigration court to allow our client to apply for the immigration relief to which he is entitled.

Victory on Behalf of DV Lottery Winner

Our office filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of a DV Lottery Winner to compel the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) to process the winner’s adjustment of status application before the statutory deadline before the end of the U.S. government’s fiscal year. Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, the USCIS approved the adjustment of status and the lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed. Sofia Zneimer was the attorney on this case.

Zneimer & Zneimer Helps Reunite a Mother and Her Child

Our client’s U.S.-born daughter was only eight months old when she and her mother arrived at the airport in Detroit, Michigan . An immigration officer found the mother inadmissible for having an immigrant intent, took her eight month old baby and handed the baby to her estranged U.S. citizen ex-boyfriend who had shown up with a custody order, obtained ex-parte from an Illinois court. The immigration officer then told our client that she was barred from coming to the U.S. for ten years, jailed her overnight, and deported her on the next day without her baby and without her luggage. The distraught mother began searching for help immediately after arriving at her home country, sending emails to over eighty attorneys in Illinois.

Sofia Zneimer took this challenging case and contacted the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. She convinced the Department of State’s Office of Children’s Issues that the child was technically kidnapped by the boyfriend from the mother’s country within the meaning of the Hague Convention because the immigration officer never admitted the mother in the U.S. and because the U.S. citizen child was too young to consent to entry without her mother.With the help of the Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the law firm of Dykema, the client brought a case under the Hague Convention in the Northern District of Illinois. Our firm successfully argued to the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department that the client was inadmissible only for five years, and that she was eligible for a nonimmigrant waiver in order to appear at her court hearing. The U.S. consulate with the DHS’s consent agreed, and issued a visa to our client who appeared at an evidentiary hearing before the court.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the court agreed with the mother’s position and ordered the boyfriend to return the child to her. The boyfriend appealed to the Seventh Circuit, and the appellate court affirmed that the boyfriend must return the child to our client. Today, mother and daughter are together and continue to keep in touch with our firm.