Matter of Al Wazzan

20 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20529 To: REGIONAL DIRECTORS SERVICE CENTER DIRECTORS DISTRICT DIRECTORS NATIONAL BENEFIT CENTER DIRECTOR From: Robert C. Divine /S/ Acting Deputy Director Date: October 18, 2005 Re: Matter of Al Wazzan (January 12, 2005) As Acting Deputy Director I hereby designate the attached decision of the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) in Matter of Al Wazzan as a USCIS Adopted Decision. Accordingly, this decision is binding policy guidance on all USCIS personnel. This AAO decision establishes that a petition that is deniable (i.e. not approvable), whether or not the petition is denied 180 days or more after the filing of the adjustment of status application, cannot serve as a basis for approval of adjustment of status to permanent residence under the portability provision of INA § 204(j). USCIS personnel are directed to follow the reasoning in this decision in similar cases.

The holding in this decision is consistent with the policy previously articulated in the answer to Question 1, Section I, on page 3 of the May 12, 2005 memorandum signed by William R. Yates entitled “Interim Guidance for Processing Form I-140 Employment-Based Immigrant Petitions and Form I-485 and H-1B Petitions Affected by the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000 (AC21) (Public Law 106-313)” which allows the use of INA § 204(j) in certain adjustment applications involving an “approvable” petition.