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• Filed: 01/30/2019
• Form I-613 Sent by USCIS to DOS on 01/06/2020
• DOS Favorable recommendation on: 06/23/2020
• USCIS Approval: 06/24/2020

At the time The Ranchod Law Group applied for this exceptional hardship waiver, the client had been in the United States for six years. He has two children born in the U.S.

The Ranchod Law Group argued that one child had an established medical history of respiratory distress and Egypt is notorious for its history of very poor air quality. We also argued that compounding the issue of air quality in Egypt is the lack of adequate medical care.

Also, the children spoke and were exclusively spoken to in English. As a consequence, the relocation of the family would result in exceptional educational and social hardship for the children.

We also argued that because of his low prospective salary in Egypt client wouldn’t be able to provide adequate support for his children abroad. Based on all these factors we were able to build, document, and argue a successful case for the client.

The holiday season is a time for family and togetherness. In our line of work, we are fortunate to be able to help many families remain in the United States together. We had the pleasure of working with an Egyptian national who came to the United States on a J-1 visa in order to conduct cutting-edge research on environmental problems related to water contamination and the effect of aquatic life. He was subject to the two-year residency requirement, which would have meant that his two United States-born daughters who would have had to go to Egypt with him if the waiver of the requirement were not approved. His youngest daughter has suffered from a host of health issues since birth, so her relocation to Egypt where medical standards are well below those of the United States could have disastrous long-term consequences. His daughter suffered from difficulty breathing at birth, which could lead to various health concerns in the future, including hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.
The Ranchod Law Group was able to successfully overcome the high burden to show that client’s daughters would suffer extreme hardship if the waiver were denied and they were required to live in Egypt for two years. Through in-depth country research, intensive document collection, and our no-stone-unturned approach, we were able to demonstrate to USCIS that even two years spent in Egypt would adversely affect client’s two daughters. We covered arguments spanning from:

• medical standards in Egypt;
• safety of children;
• economic conditions in the country and how they would affect the two girls’ quality of life.

After receiving a challenging Request For Evidence (RFE), we were able to secure an approval for our client’s waiver application in less than one year. Our clients will rest a bit easier this holiday season, knowing that their family can remain in the United States and maintain their quality of life.

We proved that our client’s United States Citizen husband and his United States Citizen parents would suffer exceptional hardship if she returned to her home country of Canada to fulfill the two-year foreign residency requirement and if her husband et al were to relocate to Canada with her.

Her spouse would be devastated because of his inability to continue his career abroad and because of the couple’s obligations to his elderly sick American parents. He had sacrificed so much to become a United States board certified specialist (spending 14 years in education and training) and is unable to practice in Canada.

Furthermore, he had mental health issues including generalized anxiety disorder. Any other scenario aside from an approval of this waiver would be severely detrimental to his mental health and ability to function.

Finally, he would not send his wife to Canada to be a single mother to their child, he would not remain in the United States separated from his wife and child, nor would he separate the child from its mother and send his wife to Canada by herself.

Our client is one among the severe shortage of medical specialists.

Current wait times to be seen by this specialist for initial evaluations is up to 11 weeks. If consulted and seen early, therapies can be put into place to prevent further damage to overall health.

Fortunately, because of her J-1 approval our client can continue helping a vulnerable population.

The facts about this case:

• Client has two United States citizen children.
• The older of the two children had RSV and a medical history of respiratory illness.
• That child receives medical care multiple times each year.
• In the United States the family has excellent health insurance coverage via client’s employer which they would lose if the family relocated to Egypt.

The Ranchod Law Group argued exceptional medical hardship because of this and because conditions in Egypt would aggravate the child’s health.

This problem is also compounded by the unavailability of medical care and medications in Egypt.

We also made additional hardship arguments due to:

• the dangerous conditions in Egypt including terrorism and kidnapping;
• the exceptional financial hardship which would accompany relocation to Egypt as relevant to the children;
• the severe educational deficiencies in Egypt;
• the language barrier;
• emotional/mental health hardship to the children;

among other hardships.

The case was approved in a year and three months.