Need pointing in the right direction...

[gavinsdad 0]

Hi everyone.

Great forum you have here.

I have a pretty complicated situation and I know from reading on here that most of you will say "you need a lawyer", which I know I will, but I just wanted to know if anyone else has had anything similar happen or if they know of a good and reasonably priced immigration attorney to help myself, my wife and child out.

Bear with me, here is how everything happened to where I am now.

In 2005, I came to the US on a K1 Visa #I am a UK citizen#, we married, had a wonderful wedding, applied for conditional greencard and was granted it. Moved house #twice#, my wife became pregnant in late 2006 and everything was going great. Both of us were working in ok #ish# jobs and we got a mortgage so that we wouldn't have to be suddenly moved from a rented property as we had been in the past because we obviously had a baby on the way.

Then about a year after he was born, things began to fall apart - not with my family, but because in the melee of moving houses in the short space of time, having a child, then both my father in the UK and my wifes grandfather in the US being diagnosed with terminal cancer, we forgot to lift the conditions on my Greencard. Furthermore we forgot to change the address to our newest one #completely slipped our minds#. In fact the first we knew about the greencard expiring was when a letter, stating that my residency was being terminated and I was no longer allowed to live or work in the US, finally caught up to us in the new address. I know it was a stupid mistake, but I like to put all my important paperwork in the fireproof safe and when it's needed, I grab it. Thats where the Greencard ended up and thats partly why we forgot it .

Anyway panic set in so I handed in my notice at work #did not want to break the law#, and we decided it would work out best #and cheaper# if I was to come back to the UK, help my mother take care of my father whilst saving up to get a immigration laywer to get the problem fixed from over here. Probably another mistake, but I did not want to be deported as we felt that would be a much worse situation than me leaving and trying to do things by the book.

Well, my father is needing full time care now #lung cancer, spread to his body, needs help in a lot of ways now# and my wife and child have just literally today left to go back to the US after coming to stay here and visit myself and the family in the UK. Now my fathers care is out of my hands, we want to get our situation fixed so we can be a family again.

We don't want to uproot our child and my wife is very happy in her job, plus we have a house and mortgage. Plus I believe we can give our child a better life in the US than over here in the UK, so having them move over here is pretty much the last resort. Plus my wife really doesn't like the idea of living here and having to go through the UK immigration process after what we have gone though with the US.

So there we have it, I doubt anyone has exactly the same story as us, but hopefully someone can give us some encouragement on the whole thing, and at least point us in the right direction to a immigration attorney that is reasonably priced. As you can imagine, money isn't something that I have a lot of having to look after someone for most of my time who is not only dying, but my father. I do work part time and am willing to put every penny I earn into getting our family back together how they should be. At least if we know where to start, how much I need and what I need to work on to get this going, I can make plans and arrangements to work more hours, take on another job, etc, to pay for it.

Hopefully one of you has had a story almost like ours, but had good news

It just breaks my heart hearing my 4 year old asking "can you come home with us daddy?". I want to be able to say "yes, son".

Thanks

Gavinsdad

(if this is in the wrong forum, I am sorry, didn't know where to post it to be honest)

[milimelo 4,500]

So how long - months, years were you not in legal status and when did you leave the US? If more than a year passed, you now have a 10-yr ban and your wife will have to do I-601 waiver after I-130 and immigrant visa approved to get you back into the US. If between 6 months and a year, it's a 3-yr ban and you may have already worked it off it you've been outside the country for that time.

Laurel Scott has been referred here a lot - she has free chat on Wednesdays so you may want to look into this and get a consult.

Edited November 29, 2011 by milimelo

[gavinsdad 0]

So how long - months, years were you not in legal status and when did you leave the US? If more than a year passed, you now have a 10-yr ban and your wife will have to do I-601 waiver after I-130 and immigrant visa approved to get you back into the US. If between 6 months and a year, it's a 3-yr ban and you may have already worked it off it you've been outside the country for that time.

Laurel Scott has been referred here a lot - she has free chat on Wednesdays so you may want to look into this and get a consult.

Well my greencard expired in august 08, and I left at the start of 2010 right when the letter arrived. For some reason I assumed it was a 5 year conditional card, no idea why (

So, are you saying its 10 years before she can do the I-130 & I-601 or unless she does that its 10 years?

This is such a mess. I honestly don't know what to do now, was torn between helping my dying father and leaving to get our problems fixed, now I know I've made it worse

[milimelo 4,500]

Well my greencard expired in august 08, and I left at the start of 2010 right when the letter arrived. For some reason I assumed it was a 5 year conditional card, no idea why (

So, are you saying its 10 years before she can do the I-130 & I-601 or unless she does that its 10 years?

This is such a mess. I honestly don't know what to do now, was torn between helping my dying father and leaving to get our problems fixed, now I know I've made it worse

No, what I am saying is that she will have to file I-130 and until your interview at the embassy will probably be 7-10 months. At that time, your immigrant visa will be denied for overstay - that's when you will submit your I-601 waiver and then you will have to wait and see when/if it will be approved. If approved, you will be issued a visa and can re-join your family. I don't know how long London takes to decide on a waiver.

For this reason, having a lawyer well versed in I-601 issues and how to assemble the waiver evidence is important. Also take a look at immigrate2us.net forum as it deals specifically with waivers on overstay and inadmissibility.

[gavinsdad 0]

No, what I am saying is that she will have to file I-130 and until your interview at the embassy will probably be 7-10 months. At that time, your immigrant visa will be denied for overstay - that's when you will submit your I-601 waiver and then you will have to wait and see when/if it will be approved. If approved, you will be issued a visa and can re-join your family. I don't know how long London takes to decide on a waiver.

For this reason, having a lawyer well versed in I-601 issues and how to assemble the waiver evidence is important. Also take a look at immigrate2us.net forum as it deals specifically with waivers on overstay and inadmissibility.

Thank you so much. At least I know where to begin now. I will start looking into this ASAP. Sooner we do it, the sooner we can get back to normality. She is still on her flight as we speak so I will have a word with her when she gets home.

[milimelo 4,500]

Here's the topic of people who waited/are waiting for waiver processing in London - they may be helpful to you as well: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/247015-waiting-for-i-601-waivers-in-london-us-embassy/

Also, there is a UK regional forum on VJ that you may want to post for more support from your fellow countrymen.

Good luck and I hope you're reunited with family soon!

[wee carrington 33]

Good luck!