Tifany Elizabeth Markee

Tifany was referred by us by another immigration attorney after USCIS pushed back on our application for adjustment of status with a *massive* RFE. She walked us through the process, we followed instructions, and my adopted daughter got her GreenCard last week, after a 6 year journey. The backgro...und: My wife is from Mexico, and grew up taking care of her two younger sisters after their father abandoned them and their mother died at a young age. Her youngest sister was 11 when we first met, and 13 when we got married. The middle sister was in her early 20's. When we got married, I insisted to my wife that we adopt the youngest sister - she is an amazing, smart young woman, spoke great English already, and I felt we could offer her a better life by having her here with us in the US vs. leaving her with the middle sister in Mexico. We found and hired our first attorney in 2014, and understood the process - we get guardianship, then adopt in California where we live, then we file for adjustment of status with USCIS. We got guardianship with no issue, and the adoption was pretty easy too. After the adoption, since Mexico is a Hague convention country, we needed to send a certified letter to the government asking them to certify some information, or let 120 days pass, after which we could file the adjustment of status. For reasons I won't get into, this ended up being extremely difficult, not least of which is that our 1st attorney disappeared entirely (we filed a complaint with the Bar). Our 2nd attorney, after we filed the paperwork and got the RFE, suggested we contact Tifany, given the issues this administration has with immigrants and the complexity of the case. We engaged her first in 2018, and right away had options for us. She explained what she was seeing and hearing from the legal community about USCIS and changes to legal immigration, and quickly discovered that the CA adoption judge, trying to be helpful and expedite the case, had signed the amended order with the Hague language one day too soon - 119 days from when the letter was received by the Mexican Government. Based on that, we elected to administratively close the case, re-file with the Mexican government, wait the full 120 days this time, get the adoption order amended, and re-file. We did this in late 2019. We had expected to have interviews, etc - some level of pushback - but in April we got a note that our daughter needed to update her medical exam (since it had been more than 2 years) and re-send. We did that, and in early July we got a notice of approval, and then the Green Card shortly thereafter. The 6 year process was complete, and I credit Tifany. She understood our stress as a family with a daughter we had adopted but was technically undocumented - couldn't work, scared to drive - and was with us the whole time. Our daughter just completed her 2nd year at a UC school in Aerospace Engineering, and she can finally live without fear. I can't recommend Tifany highly enough. She helped our family and she will do all she can to help yours.

My niece had no one in her country who could take care of her. While she was in US on tourist visa, her grandmother she lived with died. Tifany recommended and successfully walked us thought two steps process: special immigrant juvenile status for my niece (and guardianship for me and my wife), and g...reen card. Tifany followed up with government when naturalization process slowed down and recommend to contact local congresswoman to speed up the inquary response and finally get process going.