USCIS in settlement talks with Bangladeshi widower

The U.S. government has entered into settlement negotiations with a Bangladeshi widower of a U.S. citizen wife who sued over the filing of a case for his removal or deportation.

Obaydul Hoque Bhuiyan has reportedly been residing in the CNMI for 18 years now. His U.S. citizen wife died less than three years after their marriage.

Bhuiyan, through counsel Joseph E. Horey, and U.S. Department of Justice Office of Immigration Litigation trial attorney Sarah L. Vuong, as counsel for the U.S. government, have notified the U.S. District Court for the NMI that they are working to resolve the case without court involvement.

Vuong said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has agreed to reopen and renew Bhuiyan’s Form I-360 petition for Amerasian, widower, or special immigrant application.

Should USCIS deny the petition, Bhuiyan can seek administrative review before the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Vuong and Horey both asked the court to vacate the U.S. government’s response deadline to provide USCIS time to adjudicate Bhuiyan’s reopened Form I-360 petition.

The lawyers said they will also explore other avenues of potential relief associated with the reopened Form I-360.

They agreed to file a joint status report by Dec. 3, 2014, updating the court of their progress.

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona granted the parties’ request.

In his lawsuit filed in June, Bhuiyan asked the federal court to issue an order declaring that he has been lawfully present in the CNMI since Nov. 28, 2009, when federalization of local immigration took effect.

Bhuiyan asked the court to issue a mandatory injunction requiring the U.S. government to immediately grant him humanitarian parole-in-place in the CNMI. He also wants the court to require the U.S. government to entertain any application that may be made for him for a CW-1 permit, or any other visa, permit, status or other relief, without requiring him to depart the CNMI.

Horey stated in the complaint that Bhuiyan first came to the CNMI from Bangladesh in 1996 and has lived in the CNMI since then.

On March 5, 2004, Bhuiyan married Ana Atalig, also known as Ana Atalig Torres, a U.S. citizen. After his marriage, Bhuiyan applied for and was issued an immediate relative permit by the CNMI government.

Bhuiyan renewed his IR permit in 2005 and 2006.

Horey said that, on July 7, 2006, some two years and three months after her marriage to Bhuiyan, Atalig died. After Atalig’s death, Bhuiyan renewed his IR permit in 2007, 2008, and 2009.

On Sept. 27, 2011, USCIS approved Bhuiyan’s Form I-360. He then filed Form I-485 as the final step for an alien in the U.S. to adjust status to that of lawful permanent resident.

In 2012, Horey said the U.S. government revoked Bhuiyan’s previously approved Form I-360, for the reason that he and his wife had been married for longer than two years at the time of her death.

USCIS told Bhuiyan that his Form I-360 had been “inadvertently approved.”

Bhuiyan’s Form I-485 was denied, due to the prior revocation of his Form I-360. Bhuiyan applied for humanitarian parole in place, which was denied.

On March 12, 2013, Bhuiyan was issued a notice to appear for removal proceedings, on the ground that he was “an immigrant not in possession of a valid unexpired immigrant visa.”

Horey said that, on May 8, 2013, removal proceedings against Bhuiyan were administratively closed, but could be reopened at any time.