USCIS works to regularize widower’s immigration status

The U.S. government and Obaydul Hoque Bhuiyan, a Bangladeshi widower of a U.S. citizen wife who sued to stop his deportation, are making steady progress toward the regularization of Bhuiyan’s immigration status via the administrative process.

U.S. Department of Justice Office of Immigration Litigation trial attorney Sarah L. Vuong and Bhuiyan’s counsel, Joseph E. Horey, filed a second joint status report with the U.S. District Court for the NMI on Friday.

Vuong and Horey informed the court that they will continue to work together to resolve Bhuiyan’s case.

The lawyers said they will file by June 1, 2015, another joint status report or stipulation to dismiss Bhuiyan’s lawsuit.

Vuong and Horey said the U.S. immigration court in Saipan ordered Bhuiyan’s immigration proceedings recalendared and terminated without prejudice, which means it can be re-opened in the future.

The parties said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has reopened Bhuiyan’s Form I-485 or application to adjust status. The application remains pending.

Form I-485 is required as the final step for an alien in the U.S. to adjust status to that of lawful permanent resident.

USCIS has approved Bhuiyan’s previous parole-in-place applications. He is in the process of preparing his application for a CW-1 visa.

USCIS has revoked Bhuiyan’s Form I-360 Form, or a petition for Amerasian, widower or special immigration application. However, he is pursuing an administrative appeal of the revocation.

The parties agreed to ask the court to keep vacating the U.S. government’s deadline to respond to Bhuiyan’s complaint.

Bhuiyan has been residing in the CNMI for 19 years now. His U.S. citizen wife died less than three years after their marriage.

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

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.

Horey stated in the complaint that Bhuiyan first came to the CNMI from Bangladesh in 1996, and has resided in the CNMI continuously 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, about two years and three months after her marriage to Bhuiyan, Atalig died. After Atalig’s death, plaintiff renewed his IR permit in 2007, 2008, and 2009.

On Sept. 27, 2011, USCIS approved Bhuiyan’s Form I-360 but then revoked it in 2012, for the reason that he and his wife had been married for longer than two years at the time of her death.

USCIS advised 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.”