I-751 and Separation

[JonandTina06 0]

Both my wife and I jointly filed our I-751 last month. Yet, in recent weeks we've discussed taking a trial separation (I won't bore you with our sob story, promise!) My question is this: Having already jointly filed our I-751 as husband and wife, are we obligated to inform CIS of any changes in our circumstances? Of course, if I move out I will have to file an AR-11, but aside from this, do we have to tell them if we are no longer living together?

My understanding is that the purpose of the I-751 is to show that the marriage was entered into in good faith, not that we're still madly in love? There's no shortage of documentation covering the period of the marriage up until the filing of the I-751, so I'm not concerned there. But thinking ahead (in case we are randomly selected for interview) would our separating now raise an eyebrow? (It's unlikely we'll be filing for divorce) I want to make sure before doing anything rash!

[Christi85 86]

Sorry to hear things between you and your wife aren't going well.

I hope you receive an answer to your actual question (whether to notify USCIS and when), I just wanted you to keep in mind the following:

1) The purpose of an I-751 application if filed jointly is to show that the marriage was entered in good faith (seems like you're covered in that department) but also that the marriage is still ongoing and in good standing. So in a way yes, they do want you to prove that you're still madly in love (as in, you're still living together, have joint assets and joint financial responsibilities etc.)

2) When filing AR-11 mid-process, you are very likely - though not certain - to trigger an RFE. A lot of people in the forum have received RFEs because they moved and filed change of address while the application was still pending. The reason for those RFEs is exactly for the USCIS adjudicator to find out whether the couple separated mid process and whether one of them moved out of the common residence. In most cases, this isn't the case and people successfully navigate the RFE by providing additional evidence of joint information at the new address. In your case, it would be the case and that could possibly make them scrutinize your application more closely and quite possibly call you in for an interview (they may ask for your wife to be present as well).

3) If you intended to file for citizenship in the 3 years and you definitely break up with your spouse, you then become ineligible for that and will have to wait until you complete 5 years of legal permanent residency before you are allowed to apply.

I'm not trying to scare you, I'm just laying out what could very possibly happen. I hope someone more experienced is able to give better advice, but if a separation is something you and your husband have definitely decided, it may be worth contacting USCIS to ask what to do in this case. It's very possible that you will be required to file for a divorce waiver - which could delay the process, plus it could complicate things if you don't actually file for a divorce (remember, these are bureaucrats and they need to have all their boxes ticked). Also, if a divorce waiver is filed mid process, you should almost certainly expect to be called in for an interview.

Best of luck with whatever you decide, and more than anything, I hope you and your wife re-think things through and are able to make it work, so that this discussion is redundant.

Edited to change "husband" into "wife". For some reason I originally thought it was the wife posting. Apologies for the confusion

Edited May 17, 2013 by Christi85