My first few half dozen cases in 1996 and 1997
Before 1997, there was a form of relief called suspension of deportation, which was a way of obtaining a green card by proving that, even though the client was now out of status, the client was here in the US for seven continuous years, had good moral character and the clients deportation would result in hardship to a US citizen or permanent resident spouse, parent or child. We did a lot of these and usually won. The hard part was being creative in presenting each case as an individual. The law changed in 1997, and it then required a showing of "extremely unusual hardship" and moved the time frame up from 7 years to 10 years that you had to be in the US. The strange thing is that there was no way to apply for this benefit without putting the client into deportation proceedings.
We did a lot of preparation for clients who were in the US a bit less then the 7 years, and then submitted the application on year 7 day 1 or so. Most of out clients were students who over-stayed their student visas, got a job, married, had kids, everything anyone would do- but were never here legally after the visa expired years ago. There was a lot of strategy, a lot of planning an it was essential to have a true partnership with your client.
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