Ms. Gao was refereed to immigration court in 2003 after her asylum was denied. She showed up for the first master hearing without lawyer. She later found a US citizen boyfriend and hired a lawyer who charged her low fee to help her in court. The attorney told her she does not need to go to court as she was about to marry the US citizen.

Ms. Gao failed to appear in her second master hearing and the judge ordered her removed.

Two months ago Ms. Gao came to our office asking for help. gao married another man, also US citizen, in 2011. She later discovered that she had an outstanding deportation order.

Gao does not want to return to her country for visa processing. The only way to get her green card is to reopen her immigration court case.

This is very difficult case because the order was issued 11 years ago and she did not hire an attorney to do anything until now.

We filed our motion one month ago and the immigration judge granted our motion to reopen the case last week.

Ms. Gao is saved, at least procedurally.

It is very difficult to reopen old immigration court cases. We have done it many times because we know how to find the right facts and use the facts to the full benefit of our cases.