Marriage problems_ couple of months to end of conditional green card

[Peep201 0]

I am married to a US citizen and he has been emotionally and verbally abusing me in the last one year. I have been enduring it, hoping we can work on this marriage, but it appears my spouse chooses to make life unbearable for me, and he doesn't want to work on the marriage as he is already cheating on me. 

He probates and re-probates about working on the marriage so he cannot be trusted. He most recently started threatening not signing documents for the removal of condition on my green card, and then comes back next day and be cool with signing it. This is a lot for someone with a new baby to go through. 

I have 5 months to the end of my conditional green card, and I am seriously considering moving out of state and leaving him so I can breathe some fresh air, and move on with my life.
 

The state we currently reside in requires a 1 year legal separation before divorce is granted. If I were to file for divorce, there is no way it will be finalized before my conditional green card expires.  I have evidences of him cheating heavily on me, and had spoken to a lawyer, who said that if there was any police report of domestic violence, then it would be easy for me to file on my own under battered spouse waiver.  We have a baby between us and have a lot of pictures and tax returns with some joint financial responsibilities shared between us in the last three years. 
 

He mentioned i should use an attorney for my ROC which I didn't think was necessary, but I don't know what he wants to do. So another question I have will be: if i were to use an attorney, do i let him know what is going on even if this husband of mine will sign the papers? This guy has dealt with me mentally and emotionally that I am finding it difficult to trust anything coming out of his mouth recently.

 

I will appreciate advices/suggestions from people who have gone through similar issue, and would like to know how they went about filing to remove the condition on their green card. Please kindly share your story.

 

 

[millefleur 5,038]

**Moved from Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion to Effects of Major Family Changes on Immigration Benefits**

[destinychild1 10]

Hi

 

I have been through a similar situation last year and can understand your plight.

 

USCIS does have a provision to remove conditions through a waiver (either divorce or Extreme Cruelty in your situation)

 

Option 1: Divorce Waiver

You will need to prove bonafide marriage

You will need Divorce decree after about a year of filing i751

 

Option 2: Extreme Cruelty

You will need to prove bonafide marriage

You will need evidence to prove emotional and physical abuse done by your spouse

 

Feel free to search visa journey to see the list of documentation to prove each of the statements above.

Having strong financial co-mingling evidences helps a lot to prove bonafide marriage.

 

Good luck! I hope it all works out for you.

 

[Peep201 0]

Thank you for your response.

i have evidences of his emotional abuse to me even when I was pregnant with our baby, I have a witness to it too. Thought we were were working on our marriage so I never reported him to the doctor or the police.

 

i have been researching and it looks like i must have a police or doctor's  report.

 

He is also having extramarital affairs and I have evidences for those. 

 

What can can I do as he is manipulating me and threatening me and also wanting to send  me out of the house with my baby?

 

please help.... anyone in a similar situation without any reports but with evidences?

[destinychild1 10]

Try to take a written affidavit from your witness describing all incidents in detail.

 

Visit a psycologist for 5-6 sessions and keep reports of the same, get a psycologist evaluation document.

 

Extramarital affair does not count as extreme cruelty as per USCIS norms.

 

Try to record (audio, video, written chats) for all the manipulation, threats he is giving you. If he throws you out of house and you happen to stay at shelter home, take written documentation from shelter home describing your situation and length of stay.

 

Hope this helps. Stay safe.

[Ontarkie 13,925]

File using divorce waiver. It's a lot less complicated, just start gathering all your proof of bonafide marriage. 

[sebher 2]

2 hours ago, Ontarkie said:

File using divorce waiver. It's a lot less complicated, just start gathering all your proof of bonafide marriage. 

So filing for divorce waiver is more convenient than to do it under VAWA? 

[destinychild1 10]

4 hours ago, sebher said:

So filing for divorce waiver is more convenient than to do it under VAWA? 

VAWA is meant to be applied when one does not have conditional green card like K1 visa.

 

Divorce waiver / Extreme cruelty waiver is used to remove conditions on marriage based greencard

[Ontarkie 13,925]

7 hours ago, sebher said:

So filing for divorce waiver is more convenient than to do it under VAWA? 

Yes, she already has a green card. Now she needs to remove conditions and can do that by simply checking divorce waiver box. Then the only thing she must prove is  that she entered the marriage in good faith. 

If she files with the box checked of Extreme cruelty then she must prove that and prove she entered the  marriage in good faith.

Why make things harder when they don't have to be. 

Edited June 6, 2017 by Ontarkie

[Peep201 0]

Thanks Ontarkie. Here is my dilemma, we need 1 year legal separation before we can get a divorce. So the divorce decree might not be ready if I proceed with it now. What can I do?

[EM_Vandaveer 2,370]

You are considering moving to another state. In Nevada you can file for divorce as a resident, I believe 6 weeks after establishing residency there...

[sebher 2]

11 hours ago, Ontarkie said:

Yes, she already has a green card. Now she needs to remove conditions and can do that by simply checking divorce waiver box. Then the only thing she must prove is  that she entered the marriage in good faith. 

If she files with the box checked of Extreme cruelty then she must prove that and prove she entered the  marriage in good faith.

Why make things harder when they don't have to be. 

I am trying to divorce my abusive wife. Should I not file the divorce for domestic violence?

[TBoneTX 43,288]

Let's not hijack other people's threads when you have your own thread, please.

[Villanelle 4,121]

10 hours ago, Peep201 said:

Thanks Ontarkie. Here is my dilemma, we need 1 year legal separation before we can get a divorce. So the divorce decree might not be ready if I proceed with it now. What can I do?

You can try to move to another state where you can get the divorce done quicker- however thats not always a viable option for people. So if you remain in your state heres what will happen:

 

(you didnt provide any dates in your posting so I am just going to make some up okay?)

 

You have the conditional GC which will expire Aug 01 2017. You MUST file for ROC by that date, regardless of what type of filing you choose. You can file 1.Joint, 2, divorce waiver, 3. abuse waiver. But you absolutely must file by the date the card expires or else USCIS will view it as you abandoning your status.

 

For #1 Joint, you need your spouse to sign the petition. This may or may not be possible. You also need to be legally married from the date you file to the date you are approved. 

 

For #2 divorce, you can file the petition as a divorce waiver even if you are not divorced yet. Many people do this. You can find multiple threads about this by searching for keywords divorce and ROC here on VJ or just by browsing the forums. However when you file this way you need to be divorced (final decree) before you can be approved. So you would file checking off the divorce tic box and for most they get their final decree in time to be approved. (ROC can take 6-8 months) Since you have absolutely no way of obtaining the decree during the time USCIS will be processing you- USCIS will deny your petition and refer you to immigration court. There the judge will give you whatever time you need to obtain the decree from the divorce court. They understand divorce court runs at its own speed and its different then the speed USCIS works at. However USCIS can not hold your petition while you wait for the divorce court, so they will deny it and refer you to court. The judge there can hold it while you wait.

 

It may be necessary to file another ROC petition when the first one is denied. You will also most likely want an attny to help you with immigration court. They have very specific procedures and while it can be done by yourself, its really not something you want to do yourself. So you can file with a divorce waiver when its time to file. You will get an RFE for the decree to which you can respond you dont have it yet. You may get denied right then and there or have an interview set. At the interview you would again be asked for the decree which you wont have and they will explain they have to deny you and send you to immigration court. 

 

For #3 you dont have to be divorced to be approved. You do however need proof of the abuse you are claiming. Since we are talking emotional abuse the bar for it is very high. You would need things like a psych eval or medication records along with your own statement detailing the abuse. But again USCIS has its own definition of "abuse" and not everything that is "abusive" meets the definition USCIS has set. You can join the VAWA thread and detail the abuse out there (if you wish) and get feedback if what you described meets the definition. 

 

As other have said, you can file under more then one waiver option but each option you choose you have to PROVE. So filing abuse+divorce means you have to prove 2 things where just filing divorce only means 1 thing. (of course all types need to prove bonafide marriage as well but you seem to have evidence of that).

 

A side note, if you file under abuse and are approved you can file for naturalization at the 3 yr mark instead of waiting for the 5 yr mark. People on VJ usually discourage picking the abuse waiver option if the divorce waiver option is available simply because the abuse waiver can be difficult to prove, but for those with a solid case of abuse its a viable option and shouldnt be written off simply because its hard. 

 

If you still have questions please feel free to ask.

 

 

[Peep201 0]

Thank you so much Damara for the detailed response. I am working on talking to an attorney. I appreciate all the feedbacks.