Zheng: arriving aliens can adjust status despite AG's improper regulation

Filed 09/08/05, No. 03-3634
Zheng v. Atty Gen USA
Zheng v. Gonzales
precedential

Great news -- from reading an excerpt, it seems that the Third Circuit agrees with the First Circuit court in Boston that an arriving alien can adjust status such as get a green card if there is a valid petition ongoing.

The reason this is in question is that the Attorney General issued a regulation that arriving aliens (people who are caught upon returning to the US and put into deportation proceedings before they enter) are prohibited from adjusting their status.

Attorneys and non-profit organizations like AILF (the American Immigration Lawyers Foundation) have argued that the AG's regulation is illegal because there is no legal basis for prohibiting arriving aliens to get green card status if they are qualified for it.

The Third Circuit agreed and gave the case back to the BIA to review the request to terminate the case because there are two green card petitions pending for the immigrant.

The First Circuit case that started this trend is Succar v. Ashcroft, 394 F.3d 8 (1st Cir. 2005).