Denied I-130 Denied K1 Denied Humanitarian Parole

[dwrowe 0]

I have been attempting to get my wife and my American born son back into the USA. We were married in Indonesia, and before she could come to USA we were required to file for a I-130 which we did. . . this was denied because as our Indonesian marriage was not recognized by US.

We then applied for K1, but then this was denied by Jakarta Embassy because legally my wife was married in Indonesia. . . yep to me. . . . . . so we filed for a Humanitarian Parole, which was denied today saying that Parole was not intended to circumvent the USCIS system. To hold our family together i fly to Indonesia every 2 month, but it is placing a strain on our marriage.

It has been 2 years since my 3 year old son was born in North Carolina and has never been home since. . . . he cant even speak English, but he holds a USA passport. He cant even come to USA for a vacation. . . .

What is my options.?

[Darnell 8,478]

1. there's some way to register a marriage with the Indonesia government - I'm unsure how to do it, but suggest you do it, get some government chopped marriage certificate. Then get an english translation (if needed) Once ya got that, file the I-130 again.

2. For the son - if you're on the birth certificate, then can file for Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA) with the US Embassy in Jakarta, then file for USA Passport.

Edited June 15, 2011 by Darnell

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

Your son can visit if he holds a US passport. His mom/your wife is stuck at the moment. You will have to figure out how to get a marriage that the US will recognise in the US.

[N&S 32]

This is just a wild guess on my behalf but:

Can't you and your wife do a holiday in a country where the US would accept the marriage certificate from and get re-married there and then file I-130 with that marriage certificate?

Best of luck!

[dwrowe 0]

Thank you all - Yes last night we checked into re-marring in Canada, looks like quickest way. . . . but still more waiting for I-130 again. . . . Does anyone know if the possibility of obtaining a visitor visa for the USA so that she can come for a two week term in USA. ( the flight every 2 months is killing me,, but get great frequent flyer miles) but would trade them all for a visa to get them home.

Dave

[Penguin_ie 5,987]

I think her chances of getting a tourist visa are close to 0, with a US based USC husband and having been denied three visas. Sorry. What is it about the Indonseian marriage that the USA doesn't recognise?

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

First, your son can come to the US anytime you want him to. He's a US citizen with a US passport.

The rest of this mess could have been avoided if you'd done some basic research. I would have thought that having the spousal visa denied would have been sufficient to spur you to find out what you needed to do in order to make this work. Had you done that, you never would have wasted any time with the K1 visa because you would have known it would have failed. I'm not chastising you because this is all water under the bridge, but anyone reading this who is in a similar predicament should not try to follow in your footsteps. You are, in essence, half married, which puts you in limbo land between a fiancee and spousal visa.

I'm assuming your Indonesian marriage wasn't recognized because you didn't register it. Why not? Is your wife a Muslim and you are not? Are you both non-Muslim and you just didn't bother to register with Civil Registry office? Is there any reason you can't finish the process and get your marriage registered so that you can get a marriage certificate that is recognized by the US government, issued either by the KUA (if the marriage is Islamic) or the Civil Registry office (if the marriage is not Islamic)? This would be the correct way to resolve your problem.

[dwrowe 0]

I appreciate any comment to my posting as during a stressful time that i am sure all watching this aboard have been through can respect. However i strongly believe in family values, and of course it is obvious my son can leave his mother behind and come to USA, but i personally believe that is ridicules and in humane to any society that has strong family views.

That being said, researching prior requirements to obtain Visa permission into any country especially USA is a case by case bases and there is no cookie-cutter method to insuring that a Visa will be issued. All the research and i can insure you it was done ( i have over $7,000 in attorney fees) prior to submitting and paying filling fees to the USCIS.

Every country marriage system has unique nuances, and the ones we discovered in Indonesia i will post here so people in the future may be aware.

Indonesia has two steps to the marriage process, one is the religious wedding, the second is the registration. Further the registration process is done differently depending on the religious ceremony, and is not required by Indonesian law,(but most definitely is by Western countries, because that is when they verify that it was all legal and you don’t have other wife’s)

Also the time delay between the marriage ceremony and the legal registration is also critical, same day is best. . . . Also obtaining all documents from your country of birth is also critical, (not country of residence) birth cert. divorce papers, permission to marry . . . . the list goes on. . . .

What you do not want to have is a delay between the religious ceremony and the legal filing, also both husband and wife must be present when signing legal registration (not required by Indonesia government, but will not be accepted in USCIS.)

This was the mistake we made; I left Indonesia, after the wedding and before the registration, my wife took care of it all before flying back to USA, In Indonesia we are legally married. . .. However in USA the registration was deemed not legal, so 2 years later when filling for I-130, our actions in the past were determined badly.

So yes we messed up. . . . i did not do my home work, but i don’t blame anyone, in my mind it was not a forcible issue. . . .

As for the K1, Jakarta Embassy of course they could not issue a K1, but that was the written direction from USCIS stating that "issuance of an Immigration Visa is subject to the USCIS interpretation of any country law as it might pertain to the respective law in the USA". Therefore the USCIS does not legal recognize the marriage in Indonesia and the correct Visa would be a K1. We have filed an appeal but that will take up to 1 year to resolve, we also have the Legal advisory board trying to resolve the technical laws, but that could also take forever.

So people have said, doing your home work is very important, but will it guarantee you getting your requested Visa? 'NO'. I am sure that the USCIS issue millions of Visas each year, and probably very small percentages have issues. . . . But you might end up being one of those small percentages, and no matter how much you do your home work or prepare, something might not alien.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Moving on with my case, HAVE A BACK UP PLAN: will be flying to Indonesia for July 4th week, (seems appropriate timing) have meeting at the US Embassy office that was arranged through my local Senators office. . . . (this always helps to have them aware of issues like this) Also we will be married again in Canada next month. ( this was the easiest quick marriage out of USA) and re-submit for i-130 using new documents.

[Harsh_77 716]

Most ppl think having a immigration lawyer is all that they need and lawyer would do the magic, unfortunately it does not work that way.

Now that would be surprising that you did not file for your wife to unite you with you in US until 2 years of marriage.

Not sure what was the point of waiting and that’s when you discovered the flaws in the system – its just unfortunate.

I am still thinking that if you could get your marriage registered in Indonesia – you would be ok.

[dwrowe 0]

We both worked in Asia so we were not stationed state side until about 2 years after marriage, then my job brought me permanent in USA. We found time to have our son born in USA, and at that time she was on business Visa through her job.

[Darnell 8,478]

I echo the 'register the marriage in Indonesia' bit.

[dwrowe 0]

Thank you Darnell - I understand, we will try again contacting the Indonesia registry office for guidance, however they do not have a problem with our marriage and there thought is that everything is fine, only USCIS do not support this because i did not attend the registration process. So we believe they cannot help change the USCIS mind,or change my past actions.

[Inky 1,110]

Does Canada recognize your marriage as a legal marriage? if so you may not be able to be legally married again to the same person there.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

...(snip)

That being said, researching prior requirements to obtain Visa permission into any country especially USA is a case by case bases and there is no cookie-cutter method to insuring that a Visa will be issued. All the research and i can insure you it was done ( i have over $7,000 in attorney fees) prior to submitting and paying filling fees to the USCIS.

Every country marriage system has unique nuances, and the ones we discovered in Indonesia i will post here so people in the future may be aware.

...(snip)

So people have said, doing your home work is very important, but will it guarantee you getting your requested Visa? 'NO'. I am sure that the USCIS issue millions of Visas each year, and probably very small percentages have issues. . . . But you might end up being one of those small percentages, and no matter how much you do your home work or prepare, something might not alien.

...(snip)

Did your expensive lawyer bother to check the Department of State reciprocity tables in order to determine what sort of document would be acceptable as a marriage certificate from Indonesia? No? Too bad, because that's all I did when I posted my initial response. If your attorney had done this (took me about 30 seconds) then he/she would have known that only a certificate issued by the Civil Registry office or KUA was acceptable as a marriage certificate for purposes of immigration. He or she would have told you to get the marriage registered and get the certificate before submitting your I-130 petition.

Look, I'm not trying to beat you up over this, but your case has two years worth of "FAIL" written on it, and it's all because of a lack of basic research. If your attorney is responsible for this then your attorney owes you a refund.

And now your trying to appeal the K1 denial? Again, has your attorney done any research? If so, your attorney will know that a consular officer's decisions are not subject to review or appeal - by anyone. No judge - not even the President - can overturn the CO's decision. You can fight USCIS over the revocation of the petition approval, but there's nothing you can do about the visa denial.

Go to Indonesia, register the marriage properly, and get a certificate from the Civil Registry office. Come home and file another I-130. Stop tilting at windmills while buying your attorney a new BMW.

A side note - USCIS doesn't issue any visas. USCIS approves petitions and controls immigration. Department of State issues visas. There is very little overlap in the authority of these two US government agencies.

[Boiler 43,852]

So what have you done differently to the the thousand who have married in Indonesia and immigrated?