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I-129F Returned to USCIS for review for bogus reason

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Filed: Other Country: Philippines
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  I apologize in advance if I am not following proper procedure here. I have poked around on here but never posted.

 

 I will try to make a long story short and am hoping someone can help point me in the right direction... I am a US citizen and my fiancee is from the Philippines. She was married once when she was a teenager and they were only together for a few months before permanently separating many years ago. We met online early in 2015 and in person later that year. She informed me of the prior marriage and we were concerned it might be a problem so spent the next year trying to make sure all was in order before I filed for her visa. When I filed we had her divorce decree included in the I-129F packet and when she went to the embassy for her interview she also had another legal document form singed by a judge confirming that all was in order for the divorce. 

 

 She eventually cleared her medical and interview and after the interview they kept her passport leading us to believe that they were processing her visa. The next thing we know she receives a letter informing us that our packet was being returned to USCIS for review because she had "an un-terminated marriage", which is blatantly false. The embassy should have given us a chance to help resolve the issue but did not. I tried everything I could think of to work with USCIS including; calling them multiple times, writing emails, snail mails, contacting my lawyer, my congressman and the processing center... Obviously to no avail... Today my congressman's office finally got back to me to inform me that USCIS had obviously sat on it till it was expired and won't allow any further action on that petition.

 

  So in summation, the embassy screwed up are petition by falsely claiming she was still married, didn't give us a chance to try to resolve that. Then kicked it back to USCIS who refused to do anything with it other than sit on it till they could claim that it was expired and we have no recourse other than to start over again... We did everything we were supposed to. Filed all the forms, paid all the ridiculously high fees, waited all the stupidly long wait times, jumped through all their hoops and then we are rewarded with the fact that they refuse to even do the review they were supposed to do and make us start all over again from square one.

 

  I am sorry this is so long but wanted to try to make sure all the necessary info was here. Now I have a couple of questions. Is there any way to get them to review this since they did not and it was sent for review because of incorrect information from the Manila embassy? If so how would I go about doing that because everything I have tried has failed. And what other options do we have? If I have to start over does that mean EVERYTHING has to be redone, refiled and repaid? Also if we do have to start over is it better to go with a fiancee visa again or a spousal visa?

 

  We are both very frustrated and upset and my poor fiancee is stuck waiting in a strange city with no family or friends and all her belongings packed, just waiting to get her visa and come here so we can start out life together... We have been in limbo for months...

 

  Any and all info or suggestions are greatly welcome...

 

 

 

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Ukraine
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4 minutes ago, Imgumby said:

  I apologize in advance if I am not following proper procedure here. I have poked around on here but never posted.

 

 I will try to make a long story short and am hoping someone can help point me in the right direction... I am a US citizen and my fiancee is from the Philippines. She was married once when she was a teenager and they were only together for a few months before permanently separating many years ago. We met online early in 2015 and in person later that year. She informed me of the prior marriage and we were concerned it might be a problem so spent the next year trying to make sure all was in order before I filed for her visa. When I filed we had her divorce decree included in the I-129F packet and when she went to the embassy for her interview she also had another legal document form singed by a judge confirming that all was in order for the divorce. 

 

 She eventually cleared her medical and interview and after the interview they kept her passport leading us to believe that they were processing her visa. The next thing we know she receives a letter informing us that our packet was being returned to USCIS for review because she had "an un-terminated marriage", which is blatantly false. The embassy should have given us a chance to help resolve the issue but did not. I tried everything I could think of to work with USCIS including; calling them multiple times, writing emails, snail mails, contacting my lawyer, my congressman and the processing center... Obviously to no avail... Today my congressman's office finally got back to me to inform me that USCIS had obviously sat on it till it was expired and won't allow any further action on that petition.

 

  So in summation, the embassy screwed up are petition by falsely claiming she was still married, didn't give us a chance to try to resolve that. Then kicked it back to USCIS who refused to do anything with it other than sit on it till they could claim that it was expired and we have no recourse other than to start over again... We did everything we were supposed to. Filed all the forms, paid all the ridiculously high fees, waited all the stupidly long wait times, jumped through all their hoops and then we are rewarded with the fact that they refuse to even do the review they were supposed to do and make us start all over again from square one.

 

  I am sorry this is so long but wanted to try to make sure all the necessary info was here. Now I have a couple of questions. Is there any way to get them to review this since they did not and it was sent for review because of incorrect information from the Manila embassy? If so how would I go about doing that because everything I have tried has failed. And what other options do we have? If I have to start over does that mean EVERYTHING has to be redone, refiled and repaid? Also if we do have to start over is it better to go with a fiancee visa again or a spousal visa?

 

  We are both very frustrated and upset and my poor fiancee is stuck waiting in a strange city with no family or friends and all her belongings packed, just waiting to get her visa and come here so we can start out life together... We have been in limbo for months...

 

  Any and all info or suggestions are greatly welcome...

 

 

 

That is absolutely insane what happened to you.  

 

I would recommend contacting your congressman or state senators office to see if there is anything you can do.    I am not sure if they can but that is where i would start.

 

Other options are to 

1) appeal  - pay

2) get married and file spousal

3) refile again

 

With all 3 options are you going to pay filing fees all over again.  An appeal I believe is around $640?  Almost as expensive as #2 and #3.  

 

Wait times are also long for 2 and 3.  IF I were to chose between the spousal and fiance visa, I would go with spousal. Its a little bit longer of a wait time but your girl gets a green card upon entry and you dont have to pay for AOS which is around $1K.

 

Also, because of your denial - it could come up again with the fiance visa.

 

 

 

 

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Was she married to a Filipino prior?  How did she get a divorce as there are none in PI?  Do you mean annulment?

 

If she was married to a Foreigner and he filed divorce in another country then there is a way, if she filed, well that's an issue.

 

As above, what does the CENOMAR say?

Edited by jskibo
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Filed: Other Country: Philippines
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I am sorry I haven't replied sooner but work has been super busy this last week or so and won't let up for another week or so... I appreciate those that took the time to read and reply to my post.

belinda63 and jskibo -

Short answer is she ended up going to the PSA office and dealing with it herself as the lawyers we hired never got it done. She took the advice of couple of people she dealt with, there and was told that if she made it a Muslim divorce it would make it easier and quicker. So that is what she did and where the divorce decree came from. She was not able to get a CENOMAR but was issued a marriage certificate stating that there was only 1 marriage in her history and was told that when they checked it out that they would know what it meant and how to deal with it and all would be fine. I wondered if not having a CENOMAR was going to be a problem but they assured her if she did as they suggested she would be fine... The previous marriage was to a Filipino.

GP1977-

"my congressman's office finally got back to me to inform me that USCIS had obviously sat on it till it was expired and won't allow any further action on that petition." They told me there was no appeal...

 

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