Divorce finalized right after I-751 approved

[firebird00 66]

Hello everyone,

 

So I filed a joint I-751 with my wife back in 2016. After that we had problems and I filed for divorce sometime in mid July 2017. We were and still living together. My petition was approved and I received my GC in early October 2017. About 2 weeks after that the divorce was finalized. What do I have to do at this point? Do I have to tell USCIS about the update? If yes, how?

[Villanelle 4,121]

You didnt notify them when you separated? Or when you filed. Your username is familiar. Im sure you either posted about this before (in the past when it was happening) or youve been active in the forums while this was happening.

 

So Im sure youve seen my posts advising people to notify USCIS when the relationship changes from legit and together to separated and divorce pending. If you didnt notify USCIS you MAY have problems. Recently people getting naturalized (at 5 years__) have been asked about the previous marriage. It has been argued about whether USCIS can do this since its under the 5yr rule.- They can.

 

When they find out you were separated when approved for ROC you may have problems. They consider it withholding info that was relevant and have gone back and reversed the approval for the ROC for some. There is no general policy about this. It will be up to USCIS to decide what to do at the time they discover this. 

 

If you didnt notify them, then I dunno. You can notify them now or stay silent and see if its an issue at naturalization. Neither answer is "more" correct. 

[firebird00 66]

16 hours ago, Damara said:

You didnt notify them when you separated? Or when you filed. Your username is familiar. Im sure you either posted about this before (in the past when it was happening) or youve been active in the forums while this was happening.

 

So Im sure youve seen my posts advising people to notify USCIS when the relationship changes from legit and together to separated and divorce pending. If you didnt notify USCIS you MAY have problems. Recently people getting naturalized (at 5 years__) have been asked about the previous marriage. It has been argued about whether USCIS can do this since its under the 5yr rule.- They can.

 

When they find out you were separated when approved for ROC you may have problems. They consider it withholding info that was relevant and have gone back and reversed the approval for the ROC for some. There is no general policy about this. It will be up to USCIS to decide what to do at the time they discover this. 

 

If you didnt notify them, then I dunno. You can notify them now or stay silent and see if its an issue at naturalization. Neither answer is "more" correct. 

Hi,

 

When I separated I sent them a letter as I was advised here. There was no divorce pending at that time, just physical separation. When I came back to the same house with my wife, I notified them by a letter again and changed my address online in both changes. 

 

After I came back we decided that its not going to work and we should get a divorce instead of fighting always. But I didnt notify USCIS that we filed for divorce because there is nothing on their website or instructions that says to notify them if there is a divorce filed. The only thing I saw is that notify us if you got divorced before the I751 is approved. Which is not the case. I got approved then the divorce got finalized.

[Villanelle 4,121]

As long as you notified them of the separation you are totally fine and dont need to do anything except save all the documents for when you naturalize.

Your post is still kind of confusing though. You sent them 2 letters? One stating you were separated and then one stating that you were back together? Did you not notify them when you separated/filed for divorce the second time? Im just trying to make sure they had all the info when they decided to approve you/ 

[firebird00 66]

16 hours ago, Damara said:

As long as you notified them of the separation you are totally fine and dont need to do anything except save all the documents for when you naturalize.

Your post is still kind of confusing though. You sent them 2 letters? One stating you were separated and then one stating that you were back together? Did you not notify them when you separated/filed for divorce the second time? Im just trying to make sure they had all the info when they decided to approve you/ 

We decided to separate first before the divorce. So I moved out and notified them with a letter and I changed my address online. After few months we decided to get back together, so I moved back with her and notified USCIS with a letter than now we are back together and changed my address online again. Couple of months after that we decided to get divorced so we filed for divorce. But I didn't move out and we were still living together. So I didn't notify USCIS with anything because we are still married basically and still living in same address. The divorce was finalized after 22 days from my I-751 was approved. We are till now living together as we are planing our next steps in life.

What should I do regarding USCIS? Do I send them the final divorce decree or just change my address online when I move out?

[Villanelle 4,121]

I dont understand why you didnt notify them when you filed for divorce?? I get your logic that you were living in the same house but a divorce was filed. That means , well, okay. I feel like Im explaining the same thing over and over again so lets try another way.

 

When you submit the joint ROC it is "assumed" that the relationship is bonadife/legit/on going. If something changes you have to notify them. You did when you moved out, you did when you reconciled again, but you didnt when you filed for divorce. Who filed for the divorce? I know the popular advice on VJ is that USCIS doesnt care but the truth is they do. To ROC with a divorce waiver you have to show it wasnt your fault the marriage ended. It could be mutual/irreconcilable differences etc but it cant be based on your fault. 

 

Anyway, I have no idea what is the best thing for you to do now. You can submit the decree along with a letter stating what happened. If they want to reopen it now they will. If they dont reopen it then atleast you sent them the divorce stuff and notified them in a timely manner after it happened and you were approved. So if they review it at naturalization they will see you sent the info and they chose to do nothing about it back then and probably wont do anything about it at that point. If you send nothing- they will see everything at naturalization and it can be an issue. 

 

You can speak to an attny about this but I believe they will tell you nothing needs to be done. Unless they are familiar with the cases that had issues during naturalization they will explain to you USCIS has two status for relationships. Married or divorced. They dont acknowledge separated as a status but they want to know if you were separated or divorce was filed after a joint ROC was filed. Many attnys tell people to stay silent during the process and IMO thats the wrong advice.

 

You need to do whatever you are comfortable with. The "divorce memo" which Im sure youve seen states if the service becomes aware of a divorce filed or separation how to handle it. It says nothing about being required to notify them but common sense tells one that its the people involved who have to speak up and make them aware since they are not psychic. I would send a copy of it now to try to cover my butt and hope its not an issue at naturalization.