Wife returning voluntarily to the Philippines

[JTandMaria 0]

My wife entered the US on a K-1 visa from her first husband in August, 2005. They married within 90 days and filed for AOS soon thereafter. A couple of months after this he asked her to leave because she refused to be his "servant". He would constantly threatened to "send her back" along with other forms of emotional abuse. She went to Seattle to live with her brother, until we met and she moved in with me. He filed for divorce and this was finalized just over 1 year after they were married. All the while her first AOS was pending, presumably because she moved so much. We married in June of 2008 and filed her 2nd AOS on Sep 24, 2008 (first one still pending). We included a cover letter explaining the detailed circumstances of her situation as I have explained them here. We had an interview in Feb 2009 during which we were told that they did not have her permanant file and that we would have to wait for that to arrive before any decision could be made. She received another appointment letter sometime after this which we thought was for our second interview. Instead, it was for her first AOS petition with her first husband. Needless to say this interview was fruitless as well.

On July 14, 2009 we received two denial letters for each of the I-485's, both dated July 10, 2009. We have since consulted 3 separate immigration attorneys and each has advised that she must return to the Philippines and begin the process of legal immigration all over again. The law is apparently clear about this in that she cannot adjust status if she has divorced and remarried while an I-485 is pending. In other words, I did not sponsor her visa so she cannot AOS based on our marriage. The attorneys however did not agree on when she would be considered to begin acruing unlawfull status, nor do the people on the helpline at USCIS. We have heard everything from "when she applied for her first AOS (Feb 2006)" to "when she divorced (Sep 2006)", to "when we filed for AOS (Sep 2008)" to "when the denial letters are dated (July 10, 2009)".

We don't know what to believe and since each of these dates bring about vastly different consequences as far as 3 yr, 10 yr or lifetime bans go, we would like to know. I still hope to find some way to adjust her status without leaving the country, but we are running out of options. If they consider her unlawful staus to begin when we first filed our AOS then it will be 1 year as of Sep. 24, so we have booked tickets to Manila on the Sep 23 to avoid a possible 10 yr ban scenario. Can anyone offer any hope for handling this differently?

[daboyz 36]

My wife entered the US on a K-1 visa from her first husband in August, 2005. They married within 90 days and filed for AOS soon thereafter. A couple of months after this he asked her to leave because she refused to be his "servant". He would constantly threatened to "send her back" along with other forms of emotional abuse. She went to Seattle to live with her brother, until we met and she moved in with me. He filed for divorce and this was finalized just over 1 year after they were married. All the while her first AOS was pending, presumably because she moved so much. We married in June of 2008 and filed her 2nd AOS on Sep 24, 2008 (first one still pending). We included a cover letter explaining the detailed circumstances of her situation as I have explained them here. We had an interview in Feb 2009 during which we were told that they did not have her permanant file and that we would have to wait for that to arrive before any decision could be made. She received another appointment letter sometime after this which we thought was for our second interview. Instead, it was for her first AOS petition with her first husband. Needless to say this interview was fruitless as well.

On July 14, 2009 we received two denial letters for each of the I-485's, both dated July 10, 2009. We have since consulted 3 separate immigration attorneys and each has advised that she must return to the Philippines and begin the process of legal immigration all over again. The law is apparently clear about this in that she cannot adjust status if she has divorced and remarried while an I-485 is pending. In other words, I did not sponsor her visa so she cannot AOS based on our marriage. The attorneys however did not agree on when she would be considered to begin acruing unlawfull status, nor do the people on the helpline at USCIS. We have heard everything from "when she applied for her first AOS (Feb 2006)" to "when she divorced (Sep 2006)", to "when we filed for AOS (Sep 2008)" to "when the denial letters are dated (July 10, 2009)".

We don't know what to believe and since each of these dates bring about vastly different consequences as far as 3 yr, 10 yr or lifetime bans go, we would like to know. I still hope to find some way to adjust her status without leaving the country, but we are running out of options. If they consider her unlawful staus to begin when we first filed our AOS then it will be 1 year as of Sep. 24, so we have booked tickets to Manila on the Sep 23 to avoid a possible 10 yr ban scenario. Can anyone offer any hope for handling this differently?

Post this question here:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showforum=113

More than likely she'll need a waiver.