What would be the correct procedure?

[bandv 0]

Hello, my name is David and here goes our story:

I had been living in the US since 2001, in 2003 i was approved for an L1 visa which expired in 2006, the employer I was working for had no intention in continue the process in order to obtain the permanent residency but tried to take advantage of the fact that I had been given a Visa thourhg them. I decided to pursue better oportunities on my own and work out the paperwork in other ways, while doing so i ended up in a different state, being there I met the most wondeful woman who had decided to share and start a new life with me, due to the fact that i was still married at the time (separated from my at the time wife for mayor circumstances) we were unable to marry, due to several resason my divorce did not take place in timely manner. Not only did i overstay my visa but also made a terrible mistake and was caught shoplifting, this lead to my arrest by local authorities and ultimately called the attention of the immigration authorities, while being held for the "incident"that ocurred i was handed to the immigration authorities and my deportation was imminentin november of 2008 and now I am in Venezuela and she is in the US; the situation here in Venezuela is not promising due to all the social and political turmoil and it is not easy for my wife to be (we will get married soon now that my divorce has been sentenced) to leave all her life behind (4 kids, 7 grandkids, our house we just purchased) to come to a country in which the americans are considered the imperialists and evil doers of the world; also several things have happened, for instance our house was broken into and not aonly hte monetary loss, but the helpless feeling and the fact that now she has to do all on her own, we have spent a lot of money trying to get her some good paying jobs, but it all fades into nothing, she has been dealing with a lot of strees on top of the fact that we are separated and I have honest concerns about her wellbeing, as it is not a secret nobody helps anyone withour expecting anything, moreover everybody is too busy with their own life to also put up with the burden of another individual.

She visited me recently here in Venezuela and realized that this is not the place for her to be, but on the other hand (and please dont take me wrong, she is an extremely capable woman) life apart is really hard to manage. We definitely want to continue our lives together and preferibly in the US, could anyone give us some advice in reference of how to file and proceed about obtaining a pardon and file the right request in immigration.

Thank you very much.

[Dakine 26]

Hello, my name is David and here goes our story:

I had been living in the US since 2001, in 2003 i was approved for an L1 visa which expired in 2006, the employer I was working for had no intention in continue the process in order to obtain the permanent residency but tried to take advantage of the fact that I had been given a Visa thourhg them. I decided to pursue better oportunities on my own and work out the paperwork in other ways, while doing so i ended up in a different state, being there I met the most wondeful woman who had decided to share and start a new life with me, due to the fact that i was still married at the time (separated from my at the time wife for mayor circumstances) we were unable to marry, due to several resason my divorce did not take place in timely manner. Not only did i overstay my visa but also made a terrible mistake and was caught shoplifting, this lead to my arrest by local authorities and ultimately called the attention of the immigration authorities, while being held for the "incident"that ocurred i was handed to the immigration authorities and my deportation was imminentin november of 2008 and now I am in Venezuela and she is in the US; the situation here in Venezuela is not promising due to all the social and political turmoil and it is not easy for my wife to be (we will get married soon now that my divorce has been sentenced) to leave all her life behind (4 kids, 7 grandkids, our house we just purchased) to come to a country in which the americans are considered the imperialists and evil doers of the world; also several things have happened, for instance our house was broken into and not aonly hte monetary loss, but the helpless feeling and the fact that now she has to do all on her own, we have spent a lot of money trying to get her some good paying jobs, but it all fades into nothing, she has been dealing with a lot of strees on top of the fact that we are separated and I have honest concerns about her wellbeing, as it is not a secret nobody helps anyone withour expecting anything, moreover everybody is too busy with their own life to also put up with the burden of another individual.

She visited me recently here in Venezuela and realized that this is not the place for her to be, but on the other hand (and please dont take me wrong, she is an extremely capable woman) life apart is really hard to manage. We definitely want to continue our lives together and preferibly in the US, could anyone give us some advice in reference of how to file and proceed about obtaining a pardon and file the right request in immigration.

Thank you very much.

"Not only did i overstay my visa but also made a terrible mistake and was caught shoplifting, this lead to my arrest by local authorities and ultimately called the attention of the immigration authorities, while being held for the "incident"that ocurred i was handed to the immigration authorities and my deportation was imminentin november of 2008 and now I am in Venezuela"!

Sounds like your wife needs to get a decent lawyer!

[canadian_wife 1,827]

From your story, it sounds like you have a 10 year ban for the 2 year overstay (it was 2 years right?!?!) and a deportation order (were you formally deported?).

So, your wife will need to file the I-130 for you to immigrate to the US. This will be denied at the interview. You will then file the I-212 and the I-601. The I-212 is for the deportation and the I-601 is for the ban. The I-601 will need to show that your wife will undergo EXTREME hardship if you are not to return to the United States.

Your case is complicated. Have your wife hire a lawyer.

[bandv 0]

From your story, it sounds like you have a 10 year ban for the 2 year overstay (it was 2 years right?!?!) and a deportation order (were you formally deported?).

So, your wife will need to file the I-130 for you to immigrate to the US. This will be denied at the interview. You will then file the I-212 and the I-601. The I-212 is for the deportation and the I-601 is for the ban. The I-601 will need to show that your wife will undergo EXTREME hardship if you are not to return to the United States.

Your case is complicated. Have your wife hire a lawyer.

Two years, that is correct, during my process in Krome I had to sign a quite large document in which i acknowledged the issues and it was a 10 year ban, later on the day of my deportatio they handed me a piece of paper that I had to fingerprint in which they banned me for life, all they said when I asked about it was for me to contact the immigration authorities back in my country, but I have called USCIS, Immigration and no one can give me any information.

We do not have the financial means to hire a lawyer, we've been scouting around and it does not fall under 6 to 10K for the process . Does anybody know or would recommend any pro bono lawyers?

This situation is really difficult and toll taking for all of us

Thanks for the prompt reply.

PS. Happy mothers day to every mom on this forum.

[canadian_wife 1,827]

Ok what were the grounds for the lifetime ban? It's hard for me to understand how you went from a 10 year ban to a lifetime ban, was that made clear to you?

Pro bono immigration lawyers usually do asylum cases or refugee cases. They are unlikely to touch an overstay/deportation case pro bono.

Any more information on the grounds for your lifetime ban will be helpful.

good luck.

[Dakine 26]

we will get married soon now that my divorce has been sentenced)

Oops I missed the fact the OP wasn't married again yet.

[bandv 0]

From your story, it sounds like you have a 10 year ban for the 2 year overstay (it was 2 years right?!?!) and a deportation order (were you formally deported?).

So, your wife will need to file the I-130 for you to immigrate to the US. This will be denied at the interview. You will then file the I-212 and the I-601. The I-212 is for the deportation and the I-601 is for the ban. The I-601 will need to show that your wife will undergo EXTREME hardship if you are not to return to the United States.

Your case is complicated. Have your wife hire a lawyer.

Two years, that is correct, during my process in Krome I had to sign a quite large document in which i acknowledged the issues and it was a 10 year ban, later on the day of my deportatio they handed me a piece of paper that I had to fingerprint in which they banned me for life, all they said when I asked about it was for me to contact the immigration authorities back in my country, but I have called USCIS, Immigration and no one can give me any information.

We do not have the financial means to hire a lawyer, we've been scouting around and it does not fall under 6 to 10K for the process . Does anybody know or would recommend any pro bono lawyers?

This situation is really difficult and toll taking for all of us

Thanks for the prompt reply.

PS. Happy mothers day to every mom on this forum.

When I asked about that they only said that it would make no diference and if i had any questions i could ask the US immigration authorities here in Venezuela, while doing a little research I found that by falsely representing oneself as an american citizen is reason enough to be banned for life, from the time my visa expired, I kept working with my own SSN, I'm quite sure this will count as falsely claiming being a US citizen.

I am very sorry... to be honest, we are blank... this whole situacion has opened a lot of "pandora boxes" in our lifes, and on top of this we are also dealing with a lot of other personal issues and it is very hard....

I just had an idea last night of involving somebody in the senate of Indiana... I know it is not impossible... I met a guy in Krome who spent 26 months in detention while waiting for his I130 petition to be approved, he divorced and remarried while in detention, had a quite lenghty overstay, ten years ago convicted for selling alcohol to a minor, using an alias (bought a passport with a visa in his home country) and yet fortunately he was able to pull it through... but this after over 20K of lawyer expenses... which we do not have .

[bandv 0]

we will get married soon now that my divorce has been sentenced)

Oops I missed the fact the OP wasn't married again yet.

OP? and yes mi divorce was sentenced on April 29 09, a little of lazyness and a little of conflict made the process very long, my girlfriends divorce was sentenced late last year. I never pushed my girlfriend for marriage becuase I did not want her to think that my reason for being with her was to get my paperwork done, but I must admit that she tried more than once to make me understand... unfortunately it did not happen in a timely manner, nonetheless I think that even married and in process this very stupid thing I did would have ended up in the same. Right now she is in the US, without a job, surrounded by people that are trying (and have already) to take advantage of her, repairing a house that is quite damaged (she's done wonders) trying to hold fast to her family but as they try to make her understand... they all have a life of their own to take care off. So part of our plan was for her to come back to Venezuela sometime in june or july, get married spend some more time together go back, try to make a living, file the I130 and simply wait... time is passing by, things are changing, people is changing...

[Sylvia_n_Joseph 3]

Ok what were the grounds for the lifetime ban? It's hard for me to understand how you went from a 10 year ban to a lifetime ban, was that made clear to you?

Pro bono immigration lawyers usually do asylum cases or refugee cases. They are unlikely to touch an overstay/deportation case pro bono.

Any more information on the grounds for your lifetime ban will be helpful.

good luck.

The OP mentioned shoplifting which with the overstay probably got a moral turpitute hit which is a life time ban. If so they have to hope to build an extreme hardship case.

[bandv 0]

Ok what were the grounds for the lifetime ban? It's hard for me to understand how you went from a 10 year ban to a lifetime ban, was that made clear to you?

Pro bono immigration lawyers usually do asylum cases or refugee cases. They are unlikely to touch an overstay/deportation case pro bono.

Any more information on the grounds for your lifetime ban will be helpful.

good luck.

The OP mentioned shoplifting which with the overstay probably got a moral turpitute hit which is a life time ban. If so they have to hope to build an extreme hardship case.

Actually the nature of the shoplifting charge is of moral turpitude, there is two more charges for resisting arrest w/o violence and resisting merchant. I was found guilty of the three, the PD recommended to plead nolo contendere and i served a sentence of 21 days, which was granted as credit for the time served during my stay in County Jail, when I was aprehended my girlfriend paid the bond but I was subject to a immigration interview and they werent able to release me until this had taken place, so i spend the weekend imprisoned and had the interview on monday, they said that once the criminal process ends i would go to them and the immigration issue would be handled but that i could very well pay my bond after the initial hearing and Seminole County would release me to immigration and the whole process would be faster, this we did but immigration did not "remember" that I had a court appearance on 09/02 in Seminole County, since I was not present an arrest warrant was issued and they got me from Krome back to Seminole County where I had to return to a preliminary hearing and had to wait for the final hearing. It was a really hard time, I don't think I would have been able to handle it without B's support.

A little more explaining, when I was first taken to KROME i was classified with the non criminal detainees since at the time I had only been registered for the overstay but upon my return I had to be reclassified since there was a criminal charge now, this might have caused the ban to change from 10 yrs to permanent, but it is my understanding that only aggravated felonies can cause a permanent ban.

What is and how does an extreme hardship case works?

PS: thank you for all your help!!!

Edited May 10, 2009 by bandv

[canadian_wife 1,827]

Ok your case is a little more clear. What exactly is written in your passport?

There is a sticky on the I-601 page that has steps to complete the hardship waiver. Your spouse will have to show that she will incur EXTREME hardship if you are not returned to the US plus she must show why she cannot move to your country. Simply writing a letter to explain is not sufficient, she will need to have hard evidence to support her claims.

Good luck

[bandv 0]

Ok your case is a little more clear. What exactly is written in your passport?

There is a sticky on the I-601 page that has steps to complete the hardship waiver. Your spouse will have to show that she will incur EXTREME hardship if you are not returned to the US plus she must show why she cannot move to your country. Simply writing a letter to explain is not sufficient, she will need to have hard evidence to support her claims.

Good luck

there is no remarks on my passport, and I was never given a copy of anything i signed or was informed in KROME by ICE, nonetheless I will check my passport, I remember clearly that they crossed my L1 visa; another turn my exwife and oldest son have not yet solved their paperwork, they were both dependent on my L1 visa, my youngest kid is an american citizen.

[Sylvia_n_Joseph 3]

You may be facing a very very hard road. You have several negatives it seems in your file. Overstay, shoplifting with added charges and misrepresentation. It will take years to get things approved if ever. There is another forum immigrate2us.net that centers its posting around people that have immigration issues like yours. You may find that it provides more answers to what to do next and how to get it done than VJ does. Vj is probably the best for family immigration on a "happy path" where things go as planned but when things go wrong it is harder to find information anywhere.

Good luck