you’re in a though spot. You might have to clear your removal proceedings before your I-485 could be approved. you definitely need a lawyer to go to court to terminate whatever removal/deportation proceedings pending on you.

@gumali mo thank you 🙏🏾

USCIS has no jurisdiction on your I-485, when you went to your interview, I would have expect the officer to tell you that and give you further instructions… Get a lawyer with experience in motions for removal proceedings, NOT every immigration lawyer does a good job in that area. Get the lawyer to file a joint motion to terminate/ dismiss so you can adjust your status. Do not sit on waiting for hearing from court to look at your case because that can take many years due to the overflowing immigration issues. The joint motion is the best route, some will say for you to wait for I130 to be approved to do that, but the moment a person goes in removal proceedings, a lawyer can file a motion to terminate, in your case, based on the marriage. (I Speak from own personal experience and also my best friend is lawyer that works for a firm that does that). Good luck!

@Steph Romano thanks for your advices. I have a master hearing front of the IJ next week too

@faith 14 try to get the lawyer to approve your case. Don't terminate, rather request for judge approval. it fast and better.

you might want to terminate your removal with the eoir before reopening with Uscis , my friend got same issue and got his green card later after reopening

@Steph Romano ... thank you for your constant precious advices, I have withholding of removal since 2014... I got married in 2019 and filed in June 2023.. my I765 just got approved for 5 years on January 3rd 2024 and I received the EAD card. Should I go ahead and terminate the removal proceedings or should I wait for an approved I 130? i filed concurrently for i130, i485 and i765 in June 2023, my Pd is June 15 2023 The field office is NBC Thank you

@faith 14 You’re most welcome and thank you for sharing yours as well! Did the hearing went well, did they scheduled another one? If I may ask. Thankfully you also already have the EAD🙏🏻 I honestly do think you should file the joint motion now, just because it takes time for ICE Attorney to agree on filing the joint motion so the judge can dismiss or terminate . Most lawyers nowadays accomplish a lot filing the motions online and going back and forth with emails, SOMETIMES like in my case, it got terminated and I didn’t even had to appear in court. Regarsless, I do think you should do it ASAP! Having the I130 already approved , would be nice, BUT, the longer you wait to take action, the worse can also be the amount of time you will wait to have them put you in the calendar (I hear all the time they just keep rescheduling for years ahead, when they see a person already have EAD, like we are not their priority) if that makes sense to you. Just file the motion and see what happens, I hope it doesn’t take crazy long ! If I can be of any help, I’m here !

@Steph Romano Thank you 😊. I am lucky to be scheduled for a PD special master hearing on Friday, my lawyer filed already the joint motion

I’m happy to hear, that’s great! Good luck😊

@Steph Romano thank you a lot, that answers my question, I'll start the process of filling to terminate the removal, even though I don't have I 130 approved yet. any directions on how to start that process to terminate? my lawyer is unfortunately not the best so I try to give as much directions as I can. I know my court is in philadelphia. thank you

@Gaston Gob I can gladly share with you a template if that helps. You can even prepared that completely by yourself ‘pro se’ or add your lawyers name to it and go to court and drop at their window, they will give you a stamp as prove you serve them, and then once they put you on the calendar, you’ll get letter with your court date. But frankly nowadays the ways things to move faster, is having the ICE attorney to agree to joint the motion so the judge just then sign to dismiss/terminate. Mind you that when I say ‘faster’ , it can still be long months , but still better than waiting years to get court date just to go there and get reeschedule to the following year, depending how many cases are pending on your city/state. Regardless, I’m no lawyer but gained a lot of experience the last few years with that and can share via email the template and how to contact them!

@Steph Romano you are such a life savior. the ICE lawyer, is that the lawyer that stood against me in front of the judge when I was in court asking for withholding? thank you for your precious help. yes I will absolutely love to have a template. as you said it's better to try and schedule it now even if I don't have an approved I 130 yet. and I rather listen to somebody with hands on experience than a lawyer that certainly never dealt with such case and only know it by theory and absolutely confuses admistrative closure and termination, and for sure I will prefer to follow your advice by using your template and also try to have the ICE lawyer to join my motion to terminate. if you can also give me directions on how to reach him and acomplish that along with the template. That would be awesome. Again thank you. here is my email franckbosso@gmail.com thanks for your help, your advices, the template and directions. I will sure keep you posted of advancements

@Steph Romano @Gaston Gob my removal proceeding has been dismissed today via zoom

@faith 14 congrats! super happy for you at least you're ahead of your I130 while waiting for it to be approved. you can certainly update your i485 online with your dismissal and or amend it from what I understood. congrats. how long did it take you from requesting to it to be dismissed to today dismissal? and did you have a joint dismissal with the Ice lawyer?

@Gaston Gob , they approved on Wednesday too

@Gaston Gob I was calendar for the PD master Hearing on the 19 of January,but 485 was administratively closed in the 12 , so I was just lucky

@faith 14 wow that’s amazing news, I’m happy to hear it’s over for you, greats things ahead, congratulations!!!😁

@Gaston Gob Ok! no problem, just bear with me. I’m super busy with work, I’m in the medical surgical field , but you’ll get my email before the weekend it’s over !

@Gaston Gob to answer your question about the ‘Ice lawyer ‘ that is the person I was referring to, yes!ICE attorneys are government prosecutors who represent the U.S. government in removal cases and appeals before immigration courts! I can understand your frustration , but trust me, your lawyer is not the only one, I frankly wish Courts would also change the ‘administratively close’ term, it confuses a lot of people including many lawyers and it’s pretty saddening to walk out of court thinking it’s all resolved and over till you try to adjust your status to only find out at the end that it wasn’t terminated, just off the calendar/ on hold, crazy sad…

@faith 14 even more amazing news; congratulations. I'm very happy you're at the end of the tunnel. @Steph Romano thank you a lot as usual. I truly appreciate your help. it means a lot. and no problem I totally understand I'll wait: you already helping me a lot, more than I received over my entire journey so I'm forever grateful. thank you

@Steph Romano thank you a lot for the emails. I received it, I truly appreciate it