15.5 New York City District Office (“Stokes”) Interviews.

(a) Introduction .

The following explanation of the "Stokes" decision was prepared by the Adjudications Branch of the New York District Office. Although Stokes applies only to the New York District, it is of interest to Adjudicators throughout the Service, as it not only describes the procedures by which that office deals with the requirements imposed by the court, it also shows how beneficial an effective fraud interview program can be. A sample of the call-in letter used in these cases is included in Appendix 15-1 .

(b) Procedures .

“Stokes” refers to a Federal District Court decision, Stokes v. INS , No. 74 Civ. 1022 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 10, 1976. By the terms of this decision, every I-130 spouse petition filed in the New York District Office in which a question of the bona fides of the marriage is at issue must be adjudicated using the following guidelines:

· a written notice describing the rights of the parties involved must be given to the petitioner,

· a separate attachment of the list of rights must be mailed out with the appointment letter, and

· a list of what documents to submit at the time of the interview must be mailed to the petitioner.

The New York District Office has a separate "Stokes" Unit, which handles suspect I-130 marriage cases and relating adjustment applications. The unit receives the bulk of its work from the regular adjustment of status unit (75%) with the remainder of cases referred from the Litigation Unit. (In litigation cases, the district director lacks jurisdiction over the I-485, unless the case has been specifically remanded by the immigration court, pursuant to an agreement with the government attorney.) Without such a remand, the Stokes Unit adjudicates only the I-130 petition.