Question regarding 2nd I-130 Lagos Nigeria

[Adepeju 4]

I have a question. I am US citizen and was previously married to a Nigerien. His CR-1 was approved and he came to USA. Our marriage did not last and we divorced.

I, for a while now, have been talking/involved with another Nigerian man. I will be going to visit soon. If our relationship continues to progress and we decide we want to be married, will my previous marriage affect this one?

Thank you in advance for any help/advice you can give me.

[cujodu 15]

I have read (though I can't find it specifically right now) that 2nd marriages do sometimes raise suspicion for fraud. Be prepared to prove your relationship is legitimate!

[makebalayesarr 9]

There will be a red flag for the second marriage and USCIS will always look into the previous one to see if there were fraud committed. You will have to demonstrate with clear evidence that the first one was a bonafide marriage and not a sham for immigration purpose. Take your time and have a lot of evidences, multiple visits because Nigeria is deemed hight fraud country when it comes to immigrant visas.

[DC85 113]

No Red flag, I went though this myself, so don't worry. however, You need to give more details , how long the marriage lasted

Edited July 18, 2013 by myafi1985

[Adepeju 4]

We were married 2 years...living together in states for a year. I do believe there was fraud on his part and I did report him

[dwheels76 5,459]

We were married 2 years...living together in states for a year. I do believe there was fraud on his part and I did report him

That can be a Big issue. Because they may question your judgement. Hopefully you reporting him stopped a 10 year green card or citizenship.

But it just means you may be scrutinized more. You could be seen as an American just bringing immigrants here for profit. Because Lagos sees this all too much it is a Big red flag. So just have your evidence together and probably have to spend more time with this one before petitioning.

How many visits to nigeria for how long before you married and brought him over? That is key

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

When was this last marriage ? If it was recently they will look very closely to see if you are marrying for money. I know 3 Nigerian men that applied for green cards based on the same woman in a period of about 6 years. The first 2 got away with it but the 3rd one they stopped and they placed the woman on some sort of immigration black list ( apparently her bank account increased by about 10 k when each relationship started ) Any exchange of money from him to you will be a huge red flag.

[TBoneTX 43,042]

*** Thread moved from General Immigration Discussion to the Africa/Subsaharan regional subforum -- topic is country-specific. ***

[Adepeju 4]

I was thinking this may be a red flag. Also, what is your advice on this.....if our relationship does continue to progress and we wanted to be together, I was thinking of fiance visa rather than spousal visa. My personal reason being, if approved, that would give me a little bit of time to cohabitate together and I can see if he changes at all. My ex-husband changed the moment he arrived and was like I didnt even know him.

I am thinking maybe it would not matter to embassy what type of visa, they will scrutinize regardless.

[yorubaqueen13 28]

Sorry to hear of ur past experience... Ur brave to try again... Just curious, but how do u know this guys legit? Arent u afraid of a repeat? The ones that are frauds r very good at wat they do... Some stories I read r amazing! They culd b grammy winning actors... Its sad to, it gives the good nigerians a bad image... Its a shame... Plz b careful n God bless u and ur new partner

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

Sorry to hear of ur past experience... Ur brave to try again... Just curious, but how do u know this guys legit? Arent u afraid of a repeat? The ones that are frauds r very good at wat they do... Some stories I read r amazing! They culd b grammy winning actors... Its sad to, it gives the good nigerians a bad image... Its a shame... Plz b careful n God bless u and ur new partner

My thought exactly especially if this new one is from the same area as the old one. They pass names along. For all that I love my husband and the good Nigerians I truly wish that they would find a better way of outing scammers. I wish they could administer lie detector interviews in high fraud countries. End the false denials and stop the liars before they get here and wreck havoc on the unsuspecting USC.

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

I was thinking this may be a red flag. Also, what is your advice on this.....if our relationship does continue to progress and we wanted to be together, I was thinking of fiance visa rather than spousal visa. My personal reason being, if approved, that would give me a little bit of time to cohabitate together and I can see if he changes at all. My ex-husband changed the moment he arrived and was like I didnt even know him.

I am thinking maybe it would not matter to embassy what type of visa, they will scrutinize regardless.

Unfortunately a K1 visa is not a 'getting to know each other' visa but based on definite intent marriage which you will state in the letter of intent.

Lagos denies more K1's than CR1's.

If your K1 is denied, and there is a good chance that it may with the red flag of a previous approved petition from a high fraud country,

then the case will expire and you have the option to either refile or move to Nigeria.

CR1's are a little stronger and if the CO refuses to issue the visa then the case gets send back but you will have a chance to overcome the refusal.

Not so with a K1...ones send back that's it. Extremely rare exceptions with VSC. Forget it if you go through CSC, they don't reaffirm.

Some key issues here would be the time gap between the two relationships, when did you divorce and how long after that did you meet your current fiance ?

If they are many years apart it is better than a few months or couple years in between.

You have the option to marry and file a CR1 but since you seem a little unsure of his motive and understandably so, you have to weigh the risks.

The best thing to do woud be to go very slow, visit 2-3 times for as long as you can, even stay there for a few months if you can to

give the CO the impression that you will be more alert and cautious this time around.

Meanwhile you can get an awareness and insight of any inconstencies your fiance may show during a longer wait.

Some can't keep the game up for long and get too impatient and find another faster route on the highway of life.

Some can keep it up but not without a few things to make you go "WTH ?" now and then that you want to examine on a deeper level.

Since you reported the ex as a scammer you will be scrutinized more on the other hand it should point to at least your own genuine

motive and intent, i.e. you did not marry him as a sham to get paid.

In a nut shell....take it slow and enjoy the ride, gather loads of genuine relationship evidence without the element of speeding through this.

[Adepeju 4]

Thank you all for all of your advice.