Need help with N-400 issue

[sonny09 0]

I came to the US with my parents. My brother sponsored us to US. After 5 years, all my brother and sisters applied for GC and 5 years later they applied for citizenship. They are all citizen now, except my Dad and Mom because they don't know English.

I applied for GC late and eventually I got my GC on Nov 2005 (shown on the GC).

Here is the issue:

During the time IO going over my papers, I got married in Sept 2005. About 5 week before I received the GC.

If I knew there would be an issue, I wouldn't get married.

So, I filed for N-400 on May 2011 and the IO denied my case because of the issue above.

Reason: My GC status is single, but I married before they issued the GC. I married to a U.S citizen (she has been a US citizen since 1994)

I came see the attorney and filed for an appeal along with supporting evidence.

It's been more than a year from the hearing July 2011 (N-336 form).

I am wondering what would the outcome be with this appeal?

While continue waiting for the outcome. I have some thinking. I am not sure whether or not it will make the case more complicated.

If I divorce now, and have the divorce paper completely done. THEN

I re-apply for N-400 and check mark on the form with the DIVORCE status.

Do you think this would make it worst?

Thank you very much for your advice.

[No-Where-Man 147]

what you will do now will not reflect on what happened a year ago, you were denied and filed an appeal to get things moving.

USCIS is so clear that when your marital status change when you have a pending petitions (specially GC petitions), you have to notify USCIS, you did not and it caused your N-400 to get denied.

I would not file an appeal on the first place, because its clearly your mistake for not telling USCIS about the change in your marital status once it happened. Your attorny should knew that already and not wasting time and money. The appeal is a request to get your case looked at because you believe it was a wrongful decision by USCIS. In your case may be you did not know that you needed to report your marriage, but USCIS wont forgive that, its your responsibility to seek information, you know what I mean!

A year and you did not hear anything back, they have 120 days after your last interview to reach and give you a decision which they did not.

You have two options:

Either take them to the court for the fact it been so long and you made plenty of efforts to get them to take a decision, in this case the court will handle the whole case and will determine your eligibility and either confirm the denial or grant you a citizenship.

OR you should try to get USCIS to take a decision on your N-400 first before applying for a new on, from what you said, your case is NOT CLOSED which makes you not able to apply again. Until a decision is made, I guess you can not simply jusy reapply.

try to put a service request on your case by contacting customer service, and see what will be the outcome first.

Good luck

Edited September 12, 2012 by no_where_man

[sasaqlain 24]

Thinking! .....

You want to divorce your wife, so that you can complete your N400 process or are having troubles in your marriage and assuming an expedited divorce would simplify your case?

Anyways, to me your case seems to be one of bad luck, more than one of rationale. With what you have stated, uscis shouldn't have denied you.

Edited September 12, 2012 by PathaN

[aaron2020 11,651]

I came to the US with my parents. My brother sponsored us to US. After 5 years, all my brother and sisters applied for GC and 5 years later they applied for citizenship. They are all citizen now, except my Dad and Mom because they don't know English.

I applied for GC late and eventually I got my GC on Nov 2005 (shown on the GC).

Here is the issue:

During the time IO going over my papers, I got married in Sept 2005. About 5 week before I received the GC.

If I knew there would be an issue, I wouldn't get married.

So, I filed for N-400 on May 2011 and the IO denied my case because of the issue above.

Reason: My GC status is single, but I married before they issued the GC. I married to a U.S citizen (she has been a US citizen since 1994)

I came see the attorney and filed for an appeal along with supporting evidence.

It's been more than a year from the hearing July 2011 (N-336 form).

I am wondering what would the outcome be with this appeal?

While continue waiting for the outcome. I have some thinking. I am not sure whether or not it will make the case more complicated.

If I divorce now, and have the divorce paper completely done. THEN

I re-apply for N-400 and check mark on the form with the DIVORCE status.

Do you think this would make it worst?

Thank you very much for your advice.

Divorce does not solve your problem.

You obtained your green card through fraud (even it unintentional) under US law. Your green card was for an unmarried person, and it is fraud for a married person to get one. That is your underlying problem which caused the N-400 to be denied. Divorce now does not undo your marriage and make you single in 2005.

You need to contact an attorney. Your green card may get revoked be ause you should not have gotten it in 2005 because marriage made you ineligible. Your wife may need to petition a green card for you. You might get your citizenship after 3 years. However, the original fraud may make you ineligible for US citizenship. These are serious possibilities, so you need the help of an attorney.

[arvinb 17]

Divorce does not solve your problem.

You obtained your green card through fraud (even it unintentional) under US law. Your green card was for an unmarried person, and it is fraud for a married person to get one. That is your underlying problem which caused the N-400 to be denied. Divorce now does not undo your marriage and make you single in 2005.

You need to contact an attorney. Your green card may get revoked be ause you should not have gotten it in 2005 because marriage made you ineligible. Your wife may need to petition a green card for you. You might get your citizenship after 3 years. However, the original fraud may make you ineligible for US citizenship. These are serious possibilities, so you need the help of an attorney.

I really have no clue about these specific matters, but I'm wondering why it's an issue at all, other than the fact that he did not notify USCIS, that he got married to a USC after applying for an individual GC but before actually receiving it. Getting married after applying for GC as individual doesn't help the individual's GC status at all. Is it really just that he didn't notify them when it happened?

[sonny09 0]

Hello All,

Thank you very much for your input.

I didn't know that I had to report to USCIS about my marriage. If I knew it was going to affect when I apply for N-400, I wouldn't get married.

Recently, I have contacted my attorney, we both will give it some time.

I am wondering why it takes so long to make decision on my case. I understand that there are many applications and things needed to be processed at local office.

Still, they should have a time frame for each application.

No_Where_Man - I totally agree with you about the options that you suggest. My attorney and I have thought about that, but we still give them a little extra time.

I am very surprised that this forum is very beneficial and helpful.

Thank you very much for all your help.

I will come back with update on my N-400 status.

Sonny