Marco Gómez, a young worker for the United States postal service, fulfilled his mother’s dream of leaving the migratory limbo in which he lived for 25 years to become a resident of this country.
Despite the pandemic, the process took less than a year, her mother did not have to go to an immigration interview in Ciudad Juárez or here in Los Angeles, and she did not require a additional sponsor, since the sponsorship of his eldest son was enough.
“Months after my son turned 21 years, we submitted the residency petition,” recalls Mayra Arochi Estrada, who crossed the border on July 4, 1920 with a tourist visa.
“My boyfriend lived here and invited me to come spend a few days on vacation in Los Angeles.”
So Mayra had 17 years old, and she lived in Mazatlan, Mexico.
“They gave me permission for 6 months, but my boyfriend asked me to stay.”
And not only did she stay, but she also had a child with her boyfriend her. What Mayra never thought is that it would be her son Marco, who upon his 12 years , would help her regularize her immigration status, something her father never did, despite being a US resident.
This Mexican, now a permanent resident, says she always lived in fear of deportation , since their two children will be left alone. Mayra had a second child with her second husband
“You live in fear that migration will arrive and take you away. I tried to be well because I thought that one day it would be time to become a resident.”
She says that when her son turned 19 years old went to ask, what could he do so that his son applied for his residency when he reached 21 years.
“I went to the office of immigration attorney Sergio Siderman , and there they gave me the information. I had to present my tax returns for the last three years, my son had to show economic capacity to be my sponsor and I had to have no crimes”.
Mayra breathed easy because during her years in this country she he was very careful not to commit even the slightest. Thus he had no crime, and he had religiously complied with the payment of taxes.
“I have always worked. She currently worked as a waitress in a Deny’s restaurant”.
And also her son Marco worked in the United States postal service, since June 2020.
“It met all the requirements. He had also entered on a tourist visa. The only thing left for me is to wait for my son to reach 21 year old , and in the meantime I began to gather all the papers”.
The long-awaited day that her son came of age, It was October 5, 2001. In April of 2022, his lawyer submitted his residence application and in November of that same year, he received his social security number and your work permit.
“Since I applied, I felt like I could breathe easier. The lawyer gave me a card with my case number in case Immigration stopped me during my process, I would show it to them”.
But he also says that seeing that the card included the lawyer’s phone number to call him if the detained or a problem arose with the immigration authorities, it made her feel safer.
“You feel that there is already someone who can defend you.”
It was the last day of January when Mayra received her permanent residence card in the mail.
“I cried for about 3 days. It feels so nice to be a resident. I feel a break. As if a very heavy crockery had been lifted off me”.
Her greatest wish, now as a resident, is to be able to travel to Mexico to see the family he hasn’t seen for over 18 years.
“I want to see my sister, her children, my aunts. My dad and my grandmother have already passed away, without me being able to say goodbye to them. Thank God that my mom is visiting me now”.
She trusts that now as a resident she wants to study something related to investments to have a better future.
“Being a waitress sucks, and I don’t want to be one all my life.”
When she received her residence card, says that emotionally she thanked her son Marco.
“Don’t tell me that mommy, you deserve it!”, he replied.
Mayra She says that her son, in addition to working in the post office, is in school because he wants to study to be a veterinarian.
Despite the covid pandemic-19, your residency petition progressed very quickly.
“We filed the petition in April 2021, and in January 31 this year, received residency. It was a total of 8 months”, explains attorney Siderman.
“It helps a lot for a case to progress quickly, presenting the residence petition and adjustment of status together, with all the evidence. Sometimes if there are not enough or they are delivered completely, that can delay the case.”
In the event that a person has serious crimes, it says that the immigrant should talk to an expert lawyer in law criminals to be disposed of (dismiss in English) not to be erased (expunge in English).
“Discarding is not the same as erasing. To erase is to cover crimes with a sheet. That works for purposes of requesting work, but for migration you have to discard the strong charges. Dismiss and Expunge are two very different things for migration”.
Lawyer Siderman said that the conditions for young people to request their undocumented parents are more flexible with the Biden Administration.
“You can see that the process has been streamlined and can take between 12 and 18 months” .
Therefore, recommended to boys born in the United States in the 2001 or earlier, seeking residency for their undocumented parents.
In the case of Mayra, she said that there was no need to leave the country because she entered from legally, but he was granted a pardon for extended illegal stay, since he exceeded the time he was given when he entered with the tourist visa.
“Legal advice is important because even when the Immigration Law can be benevolent for many undocumented immigrants, it is difficult to understand its processes: “A small error when filling out the forms can become a great waste of time, effort and money,” said Siderman, who recommends seeking the help of an honest lawyer. and registered in a Bar Association.
She added that the reason why Mayra did not need a sponsor is because her son Marco has an income of more than $25,000, the amount that marks as minimum the Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS).