i485 denial notice after verbal approval during interview (merged)

[pollypocketz 0]

Hi all-

I am in a state of shock and panic. My husband arrived here on a K-1 in 2000, married his fiancé within the time period, completed application and received green card. He and his wife divorced shortly after the receipt of his green card. His green card then expired and he's been here since.

We met in 2011 and married in 2012, hired an experienced immigration lawyer and began the AOS process. We had our interview on January 30th. The interview went smoothly and the immigration officer told us that he believed our marriage was legit and would be approving our application. The only item in question was his original green card. He explained that because my husband had basically fallen through the cracks and was never contacted by immigration regarding his divorce and his expired green card that he was unsure if the AOS would be going off of the original green card date, which he would then be eligible for PR status, OR if the AOS would be based on our marriage and he would then receive a new green card based on our marriage date. After the interview, we had a lengthy discussion with our lawyer who was extremely satisfied with the way the interview went and told us that we should expect our approval notice and documents shortly.

The i130 came shortly after that as approved, but it was weeks before anything happened with the i485. I just checked the case status on the USCIS site yesterday, and it has moved to the "decision" column and says that our i485 was denied and the reason for the denial will be in the letter that will arrive in the mail. I immediately called our lawyer and his secretary said he would call me as soon as he can. I didn't sleep a wink last night and I'm sitting here with knots in my stomach. How can this possibly happen? I am hoping beyond hope that the reason for the denial is because they are going to adjust him using his original 2000 date and therefore our application would be "denied" because he's technically considered a PR already but my luck is never that good.

Does this mean he is in removal proceedings? If so, how long do they normally take? No one knows that we have married civilly already and we have a religious ceremony with 140 guests planned for June. This is my worst nightmare coming true. Can someone please ease my worried mind? I'm literally shaking composing this email. The waiting is awful...waiting for my lawyer, waiting for the letter to come so I can see what the denial reason is. They should not be able to just post "denied" on the case status without listing the reason.

Someone please help!!!

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

You can't know anything until you see the reason for denial on the postal letter. Good luck.

Edited April 23, 2014 by Harpa Timsah

[Pitaya 2,576]

You really need to receive and review the official notice. It is pure speculation at this point trying to figure out the reason for the denial. Hopefully it will be something that can be resolved.

Good luck on your immigration journey.

[pollypocketz 0]

This is my lawyers response:

The i485 is based on your husbands eligibility to adjust his status. As I mentioned after the interview, the question of his eligibility depends on whether or not he was already a resident at the time of the interview. Try not to panic; we will review the basis of the denial when we receive it. Let's talk after we get the letter. All we know is it was denied, we don't know why.

[pollypocketz 0]

Can someone please help me decipher this letter while I wait for our lawyer's response? It appears that my husband is already considered a PR from his first marriage in 2000. If this is the correct assumption, how does he go about getting the documents he needs to travel? And we paid all this money to adjust his status when he was already a resident? Was there a way to check that out before we applied that my attorney should have told us about?

[pollypocketz 0]

Abridged version:

Husband arrived here in 2000 on K-1 and married his first wife. They separated while his gc was pending and divorced. She never gave the gc to him and he was never contacted about the divorce.

We met and married in 2012 (secretly, civilly) to begin AOS (at my insistence). Hired immigration attorney, had interview 1/30/14. IO told us at interview he should already be considered a PR from his first marriage. Received the attached letter today of denial of our i485 because he is in fact already considered a PR.

Questions:

Should my lawyer have checked his status before we paid thousands of dollars to adjust a status that didn't need to be adjusted? Is there such a way to find out one's current immigration status?

What documents does he need to have? How do we go about obtaining the documents? Would it be considered "replacement" documents as he never had them in the first place?

When can he become a citizen?

Any info would be appreciated!

[KayDeeCee 4,891]

They are saying he already applied for AOS, it was granted and he received a 2 year conditional green card. If he never filed to remove conditions, then he loses his permanent residency and is subject to deportation.

~ Duplicate topic removed - please do not post multiple threads on the same topic ~

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

As I read your notice, it says that he already was a conditional resident. One responsibility of conditional residents is that they must show in the removal of conditions process that they did not marry in order to evade the immigration laws of the US. Further, failure to do this results in the automatic cancellation of LPR status. He failed to remove conditions, and therefore he did not prove that his first marriage was bona fide.

He cannot get a new LPR status based on a new marriage without satisfying the old requirements.

Yes, your lawyer should have checked all of this.

I am not sure what he does now, if he files a late ROC based on the old marriage, or what.

Ina 245F says: The Attorney General may not adjust, under subsection (a), the status of an alien lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence on a conditional basis under section 216A .

216 outlines all the rules for conditional residents.

[Hypnos 6,576]

This is messy.

I suspect that a (very, very) late RoC filing will be the way to go. Fortunately, there is good news here, because a divorced individual can file for RoC at any point from when their divorce becomes final up to their removal from the US.

From the I-751 instructions:

"Filing with a request that the joint filing requirement be waived

You may file this petition at any time after you are granted conditional resident status and before you are removed from the US".

I hope he has a lot of proof that his first marriage was bona fide, because I strongly suspect he's going to need it.

Given that your legal counsel seems of questionable effectiveness, I'd also strongly recommend you consult with several other reputable immigration attorneys to see if their advice differs from that of your current attorney.

[pollypocketz 0]

So a VERY late ROC is what our lawyer is suggesting. The problem is, he was not married for long and he has none of the documentation that he had from his original application.

Our attorney said that we are going to submit an affidavit explaining the late application and the lack of documentation. He did mention that immigration court is a possibility in the event that the I751 is denied, but said to remain hopeful that even if our case does end up in court, that the judge would (hopefully) then do the AOS based on our marriage

Does anyone have a process estimate on a 751? Lawyer would not speculate on a time frame.

[pollypocketz 0]

I would also like to add that my husband never had possession of his green card. He thought when the marriage ended that he just wouldn't receive it due to the termination of their marriage. He was never aware that the green card was actually issued. He never received any notification from immigration that he failed to remove his conditions, nor was he ever placed in removal proceedings. Our lawyer says that he is hanging in a grey out of status area and somehow fell threw the cracks of immigration. Now I fear that bringing his case to the attention of immigration by trying to correct his status that he will be punished for it and removed from the US. I am terrified. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated!

[Eric-Pris 1,602]

Sorry no words of wisdom, but I would think about this lawyer you guys hired.

Is this a real immigration lawyer or an ambulance chaser personal injury lawyer who does immigration, estate, contracts, corporate, income taxes, sells pre-paid phone cards, notary public, etc ? Really!!! I'm no lawyer but I have gone through the K-1, GC, ROC, and Citizenship process with my wife. And I would bet most people here who have gone through the process would not advise to resend i-485 since he had a greencard already. If he already had a green card, then he is/was at some point a permanent resident. No way would I refile for residency without first verifying his current status.

Now, that this is going to drag out for a long time and may end up in court, so he stands to make $$$ (I'm sure he will bill you to sort this out) because of HIS mistake, or was this his plan. Sorry, I don't trust lawyers one bit and don't put it past one to plan this...

Edited May 7, 2014 by Eric-Pris

[pollypocketz 0]

Well I did ask him why we filed the 485 if he knew that my husband was at some point a PR and what his fee was going to be for the 751. He explained that he had adjusted statuses based on new marriages before and had hoped that since he had fallen through the immigration cracks (husband was married pre-9/11 and apparently they were more lax then?) that they would let him do the AOS based on our marriage rather than having to do 751 on old marriage. He said that he feels badly that the 485 was denied and that he won't charge us a fee for the 751. I'm pissed that we paid the filing fee for the 485 and now we will have to pay the fee for the 751 but I at least give lawyer some credit for not charging us for HIS time for the 751. I know lawyers can be sneaky but I do feel confident that this wasn't somehow planned to squeeze every dime he can out of us.

[Hypnos 6,576]

I would imagine a RoC interview is going to be a near certainty. If he cannot prove his first marriage was bona fide then a denial and immigration court could well be in the offing. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

Good luck.