Filing ROC a year late with Divorce Waiver

[TotalMistake 0]

This community was immensely helpful when I helped my now ex-husband file a K-1 Visa in 2012 and get his Conditional Green card back in 2013, and I'm hoping some of the seasoned members might be able to help me with a few questions?

I am a US Citizen and my ex is from Albania. We filed a K-1 Visa in 2012, he entered the US in December of 2012. We were married in March of 2013. Shortly after our marriage, my ex became extremely physically abusive which is something I had never dealt with in my life. He was arrested 3 times in the 9 months we were married for domestic violence, but the charges were always dropped by the DA. We tried counseling and he was diagnosed as a sociopath so I asked him to leave my home in December of 2013 and filed for divorce in May of 2014. Our divorce was finalized in October of 2014.

After my ex and I were separated and throughout the divorce process, he would constantly call, email and text me. I deleted all of my social media accounts, changed my phone number, and even sold my home and moved all so he and his family could no longer harass me. It was a complete nightmare. It had been almost 3 years since I had spoke to him and I was finally starting to get over the trauma he inflicted on me when he decided to show up at my work and wait for me in the parking garage this past August of 2016. He was at my work stalking for me for 5 hours as evidenced by my company's security cameras and it was not a nice encounter. I was obviously completely taken off guard and confused as to why he came back since he had been living across the country for the past 3 years. To make a long story short, I asked him what he wanted and he said he was in town to get a copy of our marriage license from the County Administration building and "wanted to see me".

His conditional green card expired in July of 2015, so I assume he's trying to file for ROC over a year late with a waiver since we are divorced. I tried to put a restraining order on him to stay away but was unable to serve him because he was fired from his job in NYC right before he came to my place of work. I have no idea where he lives or works now so I cannot serve him with the restraining order.

My questions are:

- Can he file for means-tested benefits with an expired GC?

- What is the likelihood that he can successfully file ROC over a year late with a waiver since we are divorced? (He has ZERO proof of a legitimate relationship except what we originally submitted for AES back in 2013 and divorce decree and marriage license. He lived in a home I owned before we met, was not on any utility bills or leases, and he was on my insurance at work and my bank accounts so he does not have access to any of that).

- Is there a way for me to check his status with USCIS? Do I have that right since I am the petitioner and his ex wife and responsible to the government for him? I just want to know if I need to watch my back for the rest of my life wondering if he's going to come back and hurt me again.

Thank you very much in advance!

[Boiler 43,429]

Benefits is a very complicated are, probably is the best answer. NYC for example he should be able to get Medicaid.

Theoretically he should not but you never know, there have been some cases I have seen who were similar and successful.

You have no rights, I 864 is a responsibility.

[Anitafeliz 1,133]

oh man crazy.

Can he still file? isn't their a window for that?

he may be deportable.

Edited November 9, 2016 by Anitafeliz

[EM_Vandaveer 2,368]

oh man crazy.

Can he still file? isn't their a window for that?

he may be deportable.

He can file up until an NTA is issued.

[Bill and Vicky 25]

USCIS may or may not allow you to track it.

What you *do* want to do is make sure that they are aware that you are legally divorced. My ex-wife was out of the U.S. when we divorced, and I forwarded a copy of the divorce decree to USCIS along with a note referencing her case number and saying "I suggest you don't proceed with her petition since we're no longer married." Four years later, I received a letter from USCIS out of the blue letting me know that they had "discovered" we were divorced and that they were cancelling her petition. You should point out to them that not only are you divorced, but he is in all likelihood out of visa status and deportable. I doubt they'll make an extra effort to get rid of him, but if he turns up in custody and they check they can do an immigration hold.

Also, make a regular effort to search for your ex's name in Google or some other engine. If he's the kind of person who beats his wife, it's likely he'll have other legal issues. I check my ex about once a year to make sure she's still showing up outside of the country.

Good luck.

Bill

[Anitafeliz 1,133]

He can file up until an NTA is issued.

Good to know

[TotalMistake 0]

He can file up until an NTA is issued.

Sorry, I've been out of the game for a few years... what is NTA? Thank you!

[Boiler 43,429]

Notice to Appear

[TotalMistake 0]

USCIS may or may not allow you to track it.

What you *do* want to do is make sure that they are aware that you are legally divorced. My ex-wife was out of the U.S. when we divorced, and I forwarded a copy of the divorce decree to USCIS along with a note referencing her case number and saying "I suggest you don't proceed with her petition since we're no longer married." Four years later, I received a letter from USCIS out of the blue letting me know that they had "discovered" we were divorced and that they were cancelling her petition. You should point out to them that not only are you divorced, but he is in all likelihood out of visa status and deportable. I doubt they'll make an extra effort to get rid of him, but if he turns up in custody and they check they can do an immigration hold.

Also, make a regular effort to search for your ex's name in Google or some other engine. If he's the kind of person who beats his wife, it's likely he'll have other legal issues. I check my ex about once a year to make sure she's still showing up outside of the country.

Good luck.

Bill

Thank you for your response, Bill. I've thought about writing a letter to USCIS but I would only be able to reference his old case number for his Adjustment of Status since I have no way of finding out if he filed for ROC and his new case number. And while I absolutely think my ex is a terrible person and shouldn't be allowed to stay in the US because of his criminal history, I don't want to be petty and throw mud. If USCIS thinks he deserves to stay after seeing that I've tried putting restraining orders on him and have police reports of domestic violence, then so be it as long as my ex leaves me the heck alone!

Does anyone else recommend writing a letter to USCIS? It's my understanding from doing some reading on here that it is HIS responsibility to notify USCIS of our divorce, and not mine, since it's his immigration status. I'm just not sure what effect the letter would have, if any

Notice to Appear

Ahh, thanks. Any idea how long it takes USCIS to send the NTA after he failed to file ROC on time?

[Boiler 43,429]

Any letter would be attached to his file.

I do not believe there is a timeline, or for that matter an automatic process to issue a NTA. I assumed it would arise if he came to attention some other way.

[Villanelle 4,121]

This community was immensely helpful when I helped my now ex-husband file a K-1 Visa in 2012 and get his Conditional Green card back in 2013, and I'm hoping some of the seasoned members might be able to help me with a few questions?

I am a US Citizen and my ex is from Albania. We filed a K-1 Visa in 2012, he entered the US in December of 2012. We were married in March of 2013. Shortly after our marriage, my ex became extremely physically abusive which is something I had never dealt with in my life. He was arrested 3 times in the 9 months we were married for domestic violence, but the charges were always dropped by the DA. We tried counseling and he was diagnosed as a sociopath so I asked him to leave my home in December of 2013 and filed for divorce in May of 2014. Our divorce was finalized in October of 2014.

After my ex and I were separated and throughout the divorce process, he would constantly call, email and text me. I deleted all of my social media accounts, changed my phone number, and even sold my home and moved all so he and his family could no longer harass me. It was a complete nightmare. It had been almost 3 years since I had spoke to him and I was finally starting to get over the trauma he inflicted on me when he decided to show up at my work and wait for me in the parking garage this past August of 2016. He was at my work stalking for me for 5 hours as evidenced by my company's security cameras and it was not a nice encounter. I was obviously completely taken off guard and confused as to why he came back since he had been living across the country for the past 3 years. To make a long story short, I asked him what he wanted and he said he was in town to get a copy of our marriage license from the County Administration building and "wanted to see me".

His conditional green card expired in July of 2015, so I assume he's trying to file for ROC over a year late with a waiver since we are divorced. I tried to put a restraining order on him to stay away but was unable to serve him because he was fired from his job in NYC right before he came to my place of work. I have no idea where he lives or works now so I cannot serve him with the restraining order.

My questions are:

- Can he file for means-tested benefits with an expired GC?

- What is the likelihood that he can successfully file ROC over a year late with a waiver since we are divorced? (He has ZERO proof of a legitimate relationship except what we originally submitted for AES back in 2013 and divorce decree and marriage license. He lived in a home I owned before we met, was not on any utility bills or leases, and he was on my insurance at work and my bank accounts so he does not have access to any of that).

- Is there a way for me to check his status with USCIS? Do I have that right since I am the petitioner and his ex wife and responsible to the government for him? I just want to know if I need to watch my back for the rest of my life wondering if he's going to come back and hurt me again.

Thank you very much in advance!

If you encountered him in August why did you wait until now to post this?? Anyway- did you report the incident at your work to the police? I know they cant really do anything about it but you still could get it documented. At this point I dont know if its still worth it to do so if you havent. Only you know him...

Moving on- you are speculating that he did not file ROC. He could have filed on time. Processing for some can take a long time (1-2 years). There is also the possibility he did not file. IF he did file and was infact gathering documents like the marriage certificate as evidence well... you can send a letter explaining your side of the story. However this can work for you or against you.

USCIS evaluates whether you have a bonafide marriage during ROC. This means legitimate. This does not mean happy or functional or peaceful. So you submitting a letter explaining the dysfunction in the relationship can actually be viewed as a statement supporting the fact that the relationship was legitimate it was just filled with abuse which caused you to end it. On the other hand a statement explaining the abuse endured and your 3rd party testimony of the therapist labeling him a sociopath can call into question his moral character. A huge part of ROC is the alien being able to make a sworn statement that they entered the marriage in good faith. Some one with a poor moral character can not do such. Any evidence presented during ROC will be evaluated by the Officer and given the weight deemed appropriate by the Officer. So there is no way to know how they will view this.

Another issue to consider is the mental state of your ex. If you submit a statement there is a chance that it will be brought up during an interview with your ex. Im not saying they will pull out the letter and hand it to your ex to read or quote him passages from it! However they may flip through some paperwork in a power play interview style tactic and say something along the lines of 'according to your ex blah blah blah' . If his petition is denied...well.. this may cause him to assign the blame to you...Is it worth it to poke the bear like that? You say he has little evidence, so I dont know. I would just leave it be.

Regarding means tested benefits- typically perm residents can not get benefits until 5yrs. At that point they are eligible for citizenship so he may go that route. If he does get any benefits- he does. There is nothing you can do about it. However you should note that in history there have only been a handful of times that the government has actually tried to recover money from the sponsors. It turned out to be a complete fiasco. They found it cost more in recovery efforts then what they actually recovered. Occasionally its brought up to try to implement some kind of better system of tracking sponsors for recovery but like many legislative efforts it never advances. So for right now and the foreseeable future the odds are very low to almost non existent that you will be receiving any kind of bill or collection notice in the mail.

[Ketsuban 1,034]

Given how much USCIS are sticklers for proof during ROC I would say he will have a bad time with it, not to mention he is filing late with a divorce waiver. He could still possibly get his 10 year Green Card but USCIS really, really, *really* likes proof of joint accounts at this stage.

[Bill and Vicky 25]

You can reference the old case number and it'll catch up to his file. My current wife and I were greeted by two six-inch-thick files when we went for her naturalization interview...every piece of paper we had generated over the years.

USCIS may not do the legwork in the event of tracking down restraining orders, domestic violence, etc. Put another way: if you could stop him from staying here and doing it to someone else, would you?

It's not being vindictive to point out to them the reality that he's now divorced from you and should not benefit from the petition that you originally filed based on a long and happy life together. The circumstances have changed.

Regards,

Bill