My case is unique, I was a winner of the 2022 Diversity Visa lottery, and had completed my interview with my spouse in June. I was issued, but my spouse was put into the "extreme vetting" category of Administrative Processing with a DS5535 for seemingly no reason. A Canadian citizen with no criminal ...history, travel history or sensitive jobs or education, was put on an indefinite processing timeline, for a visa that has a definite end date.
For anyone that doesn't know, with a Diversity Visa, you enter a lottery to be given a chance to apply for a Green Card. Each year up to 55,000 people can be given Permanent Residency, but they must be given the visa before September 30th.
This waiting was torture, because US Government offices are largely unable to be contacted, and if they are (the consulate, only via email) they will not give any information about the movement of your case. We were slowly losing hope as time went on, having to accept that we wouldn't be able to move to the United States.
We had filed a lawsuit with a different attorney hoping we would not need to rely on it, but as the months dragged on, it became clear this "backup" was actually very important.
Right at the last moment, our original case was transferred to a different court, effectively making our case moot as it would not be seen before the deadline. We were very unhappy with our previous attorney and started looking for an alternative. We struggled to find one that wasn't trying to gouge us financially because of our desperation.
In comes Chris Casazza. We had contacted Chris by email, finding him on Pacermonitor while looking at successful immigration cases filed recently. After telling him our story and hoping he would be able to help us, the stars aligned as he had just freed his schedule.
He worked tirelessly on our case, keeping us informed and in constant contact. Impressively, he filed a Writ of Mandamus AND a Temporary Restraining Order within 3 days (First day consulation, Second day document collection and payment, third day drafting then filed). This lawyer is impressive. His firm has single-handedly changed our opinion of lawyers. Having spoken to 5 different lawyers, there is such a huge difference with Chris. He genuinely cares, gets to know the case intimately, and has the legal know-how to back up his confidence.
Long story short, we got our visa in one week. This is verifiably 100% because of Chris and his team. The other cases waiting in Administrative Processing at the Consulate have not been issued and are likely going to miss their Green Card opportunity because of government processing delays.
After filing, Chris was away temporarily and we had the pleasure of working with both Alex Isbell and Caitlin Costello. Alex gave professional recommendations and communicated with Government attorneys regarding our case, ensuring everything went smoothly. The government wanted us to withdraw the case when the status updated to issued online, but Alex fought for us, saying that was not good enough. This was a brilliant move, because the status continued to change back and forth from Issed to Refused until finally the visa was mailed to us.
When our visa was issued, Chris reached out to us to congratulate us from his vacation, which shows how much he cares. It's a small gesture, but had a big impact.
Without his passion, intelligence, creativity and professionalism, I can safely say that my family and I would not be US Residents. I 100% recommend him and his law firm for anyone requiring legal help with immigration.
When we become US Citizens, we know exactly who to contact.