DOJ gearing up for immigration pathway for foreign same-sex spouses of US citizens

http://www.metroweekly.com/poliglot/2012/06/mote-than-a-year-ago.html

DOJ Immigration Board Decisions Suggest Plans For a Post-DOMA America

Posted by Chris Geidner |
June 19, 2012 2:55 PM

Recent decisions from the Obama administration suggest that the government is taking tentative first steps to gear up for the day when an American with a same-sex spouse who wants to immigrate to the U.S. will be able to get a green card for that foreign spouse.

Over the past month, the Board of Immigration Appeals, which is a part of the Department of Justice, has taken action in several cases involving same-sex binational couples that has the result of delaying the cases for now and potentially setting up the foreign partner of the couples to be granted a marriage-based green card should the Supreme Court declare Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act to be unconstitutional, Metro Weekly has learned.

Lavi Soloway, an attorney arguing several of the cases, tells Metro Weekly the move, which sends the cases back for further fact-based investigations to determine whether the couples would be eligible for relief were it not for DOMA, is "historic" and reflects DOJ's apparent view that "there may very well be, a year from now, a post-DOMA world."

The decisions by the BIA in four cases reviewed by Metro Weekly, three of which involve visa requests and one of which involves a request to reopen an immigration case in removal proceedings, require similar follow-up action and use almost identical language despite appearing to have been signed by three different BIA members on behalf of the board.