Will USCIS Officer Ever Visit Your Place Unannounced?

[TonyMichael 3]

My apologies if this is posted under the wrong category, but I just wanted to ask if USCIS officers ever visit you at your place without any notice to find out if your marriage is bona fide?

 

I have read in multiple pages that it is possible that a USCIS officer sometimes visit your place without any prior notice if they suspect that your marriage was entered into solely for immigration benefit purposes.

And this unannounced visit can occur before or even after you pass the AOS interview. Some websites say some people got their conditional green card after passing the AOS interview, but a USCIS still visited their place to do the bed check to make sure their initial decision was correct.

 

I guess my questions are, <1> How often does this USCIS officer visiting your place thing occur? <2> Could this happen long after you got your conditional green card? Or normally just right after?  I am married in true love and I received my conditional green card about 5 months ago. However, we are going through a rough patch now and we are not sharing the same bedroom. It's been like this for 2 weeks. We still live in the same apartment, but I sleep in our bedroom and he sleeps in the living room. We are not thinking about a divorce at this point, but we are not on good terms either. I just started worrying that if a USCIS officer ever pays a sudden, unannounced visit when we are like this, it might look so bad and they might take my conditional green card away because we are not sleeping in the same bedroom? Like we might not look like a married couple?  Could they still visit you 5 months after they made a decision?

I just want to concentrate on fixing our problem, but this thought has been stressing me out.

[Boiler 45,665]

It does happen, seems very uncommon, when I would not like to say.

[geowrian 22,337]

Yes they can stop by unannounced. You're not required to let them in, although I'm assuming that would not reflect well on the circumstances.

It's rare, but happen.

Your situation is what it is...immigration stopping by is something you don't have control over, and it sounds like there are more pressing issues to deal with than immigation.

[Going through 5,671]

Can it happen?  Yes.  Does it happen regularly?  No.

 

If it did happen, it's not like they'll just throw you into a van and drive you to the airport straightaway if that's your main worry.  There is a legal process to revoke your resident status which involves you appearing in court before an immigration judge to plead your case.

 

The immigration process can put strain on even the best of marriages---concentrate on working on your relationship without letting the worry of your immigration status take over.   If you do end up divorcing, there are still legal options for you to remain in the US.

[Unlockable 7,315]

Yes it happens but not often. At least not often enough for us to hear about it regularly.

 

There are a couple of contributing members of VJ that reported their experience.

 

 

[TonyMichael 3]

3 hours ago, Going through said:

Can it happen?  Yes.  Does it happen regularly?  No.

 

If it did happen, it's not like they'll just throw you into a van and drive you to the airport straightaway if that's your main worry.  There is a legal process to revoke your resident status which involves you appearing in court before an immigration judge to plead your case.

 

The immigration process can put strain on even the best of marriages---concentrate on working on your relationship without letting the worry of your immigration status take over.   If you do end up divorcing, there are still legal options for you to remain in the US.

But I heard that you have to remain married in good condition and apply for removal of condition with your spouse. Also you need to attend an interview with your spouse to do that. 

I feel like being on bad terms will look bad at the interview even if we get to that point..

 

At the AOS interview, my USCIS interview officer told me that there will be an interview to remove the condition, 100% under the current law.

Edited December 28, 2018 by TonyMichael

[TonyMichael 3]

1 hour ago, NuestraUnion said:

Yes it happens but not often. At least not often enough for us to hear about it regularly.

 

There are a couple of contributing members of VJ that reported their experience.

 

 

 

Do they do the visit at random? Or do they normally pay a visit only if they suspect a fraud? 

[Unlockable 7,315]

1 hour ago, TonyMichael said:

But I heard that you have to remain married in good condition and apply for removal of condition with your spouse. Also you need to attend an interview with your spouse to do that. 

I feel like being on bad terms will look bad at the interview even if we get to that point..

 

At the AOS interview, my USCIS interview officer told me that there will be an interview to remove the condition, 100% under the current law.

You don't have to remain married. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. Nobody wants to put anyone in a situation where they feel trapped in a relationship because they feel that they have to remain in it. 

 

You can still remove conditions but a divorce waiver will be needed. The biggest thing you have to prove is that you entered the marriage in good faith and not just so you can get a green card.

 

If fraud is found by immigration, then yes the ROC will be denied because the marriage was not bonafide. But if you truly married for love and things just didn't work out, you can divorce and move forward with ROC and a divorce waiver. Of course, you would need to explain what happened to the marriage.

 

If you two are no longer together you should NOT remain married simply so you can get pass the ROC. We have seen this backfire too many times. When you have the ROC interview, it will be with your spouse together. This is when the officer will interview you both to see how the marriage is going. If thinngs have deteriorated between you two, it would easily be noticed by the officer. 

 

If you want to work things out then that ia perfectly fine. People understand that there are rough patches in every marriage.

 

1 hour ago, TonyMichael said:

 

Do they do the visit at random? Or do they normally pay a visit only if they suspect a fraud? 

Nobody can say for sure. USCIS has the authority to visit anyone. It can be random. However, I would suspect the cases that are more suspicious would be at the top of the list of field visits.

[Going through 5,671]

1 hour ago, TonyMichael said:

But I heard that you have to remain married in good condition and apply for removal of condition with your spouse. Also you need to attend an interview with your spouse to do that. 

I feel like being on bad terms will look bad at the interview even if we get to that point..

 

You don't have to remain married.  If filing with a divorce waiver, you have to prove you entered the marriage with bonafide intent (and lived in marital union) before the marriage broke down.

 

Think about it---- and NOT saying this is your case here, just using an example---what if one spouse is physically (or otherwise) abusive towards the other spouse?  USCIS is not in the habit of forcing couples to remain married under bad circumstances, is my point....so there are other legal avenues for one to remove conditions from their green card without having to file jointly with your spouse if need be.

[TonyMichael 3]

2 minutes ago, NuestraUnion said:

You don't have to remain married. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. Nobody wants to put anyone in a situation where they feel trapped in a relationship because they feel that they have to remain in it. 

 

You can still remove conditions but a divorce waiver will be needed. The biggest thing you have to prove is that you entered the marriage in good faith and not just so you can get a green card.

 

When my spouse and I submitted the packet of AOS (by the way, I was a student and AOS'ed to permanent resident status), it had been about a year since we got married.

So we included lots of evidence that our pre-marriage relationship was true and that post-marriage relationship is also true, such as rent receipts paid by both of us, bills together, lease with both names, and health insurance where the beneficiaries are the spouse. 

If we do end up divorcing, can we submit those documents again? I mean, evidence of bona-fide marriage was submitted for AOS interview too, so for ROC, the same documents + new documents obtained after AOS will be submitted?

 

Will we need a proof of why the divorce occurred? I believe there is an official paper (decree?) that divorce is finalized, but do we need to submit a reason? For example, if my spouse cheated on me, do we need to submit the proof that he cheated?

What if we just keep fighting and end up with a divorce? I think these are hard to prove, other than verbal explanations?

[Going through 5,671]

Just now, TonyMichael said:

Will we need a proof of why the divorce occurred? I believe there is an official paper (decree?) that divorce is finalized, but do we need to submit a reason? For example, if my spouse cheated on me, do we need to submit the proof that he cheated?

What if we just keep fighting and end up with a divorce? I think these are hard to prove, other than verbal explanations?

USCIS doesn't care why you divorced.  They only care that the marriage was entered into with bonfide intent, and that you are able to prove that (co mingling of finances from marriage leading up to when the marriage broke down, as an example of evidence).

 

[TonyMichael 3]

1 minute ago, Going through said:

USCIS doesn't care why you divorced.  They only care that the marriage was entered into with bonfide intent, and that you are able to prove that (co mingling of finances from marriage leading up to when the marriage broke down, as an example of evidence).

 

Makes sense.

 

So as long as the marriage was genuine, that's all that matters, and they dont care why it didn't work out.

Is there any set length that is considered "too short" for a divorce after marriage? I mean, of course the longer the marriage, the better for sure.

 

However, a divorce can occur at any time. If a married couple who got a conditional green card divorced within a year due to, say, an adultery of the US spouse, or even finding too many differences between the two, do they suspect a lot much harder? 

[kris&me 572]

you think they will show up at night to see where u sleep?

a visit would be made during the say 

just keep your beds made up and share a closet

 

and work on the marriage

[TonyMichael 3]

2 minutes ago, kris&me said:

you think they will show up at night to see where u sleep?

a visit would be made during the say 

just keep your beds made up and share a closet

 

and work on the marriage

I dont think they would visit at night., but I guess that they would check the bedroom to make sure the married life happens there.

[Cryssiekins 976]

Sleeping in the same bed does not alone equate to a bonafide marriage.  My husband and I work opposite shifts and therefore do not go to bed together every night.  He basically goes to sleep as I’m getting up for my day.  And on weekends, the snoring is so unbearable one of us usually winds up on the couch.  

 

People fight.  People work different shifts. They are SO many other ways to show your marriage is genuine.  

 

I’d be more concerned if they came and discovered one person has no personal items in the home, or regularly spends nights away at a friend or family members house.