Case Notes

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has reversed the confirmation by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) of a deportation order because the Immigration Judge's (“IJ's”) finding of a fraudulent marriage was not based on proper evidence. Patel v. Sessions, 868 F.3d 719 (8th Cir. 2017).

Urvashi Nilesh Patel (Patel), an Indian national, entered into an arranged marriage with a U.S. citizen in January 2002. The couple had met two months prior to the wedding, which took place in India and was attended by approximately 50 guests. Just over a year later, in February 2003, Patel moved to the United States with a conditional resident visa, for which her husband had filed. See 8 U.S.C. § 1186a(a) (U.S. citizen's alien spouse “shall be considered, at the time of obtaining the status of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, to have obtained such status on a conditional basis.”). The “condition” on her residency, as with other marriage-based immigrant residence permissions, was that Patel must remain married to her husband for two years, and that toward the end of that period she must file a joint petition with her husband to remove the “condition.”