Separation and Divorce Prior to I-751 Filling - Complex Situation

[IDK1994 0]

I have been to many lawyers, and each one gave me different opinion, and I am honestly so depressed and I am losing all my sanity, so I'd appreciate any advice:

 

I married my wife early 2017, everything was good until 10 months laters, when we split for 2 months due to a lot our arguments, and my wife (USC) went back to school in her hometown (4 months program). Our split was prior to the approval of my CGC.After that, everything went back to normal and we worked on our relationship. Our marriage was getting better and better every single day; however, she received a job offer out of town, so we started doing long distance. Surprisingly, the long distance marriage empowered our relationship as we starting valuing our time more and more.

 

However, with time, we lost our intimacy, and our marriage started to be dull. We have amazing relationship, and we do love each others to death, it is just love isn't enough to make a marriage work, so we decided on divorce recently (Which will take around 4 months once it is filed, and we didn't file it yet, we planning on starting soon)

 

Now, the earliest I can apply for ROC is in 5 weeks, and I am not sure what to do?

1) Should I file for a divorce waiver now, and wait for them to send me the RFE? [I am not sure how long does it take them to issue an RFE? Is it once they accept it, or once the IO start looking at it?]

2) We file together, and say we are currently separated and on our way of divorce, and once the divorce is final, we will amend the application? [Would it raise flags?]

3) should I wait until the last min to apply for ROC, and wait for the RFE or just send the divorce decree as I am sure it will be done by then?

 

I am honestly so depressed and I am not sure what to do specially because every time I go to a lawyer, they start talking about deportation and denial right away. We had a real marriage, that was rocky every step of the way. I am not sure if we have good evidence, but we had joint leases, taxes, IDs same addresses, State Taxes, trips, photos, joint credit cards, joint savings, joint healthcare, joint medical bills, phone records that shows daily calls for the past 2 years, and joint utilities. Even when my wife was working out of town, she was driving home regularly at least two weekends a month. 

 

I'd appreciate any input really

Edited August 28, 2019 by IDK1994

[kline19 102]

The type of evidence you have listed, my quick first impression would be that you do have substantive amounts of it. 

 

Second, you will need to have a support structure around you so you won't be getting the blues and freaking out right now because of the snail's pace at which USCIS does its job. Given that they are taking roughly anywhere between 12 to 20 months, you will have to be able to take care of your self for the long haul and not spend this long stretch just going crazy. 

 

mindthegap would probably be the best person on here to give you some detailed information but I think you can make the case for a divorce waiver with your situation and all the evidence you have got.

 

 

[little immigrant 800]

When you get ready to file for ROC in five weeks, will your wife be willing to sign the papers with you? If you aren't divorced by then, I would file jointly because things can happen and you may decide against divorcing. As soon as you receive the divorce decree you need to switch your ROC to a divorce waiver and send them a copy of your divorce decree. 

Edited August 28, 2019 by little immigrant

[IDK1994 0]

1 minute ago, little immigrant said:

When you get ready to file for ROC in five weeks, will your wife be willing to sign the papers with you? If you aren't divorced by then, I would file jointly because things can happen and you may decide against divorcing. As soon as you receive the divorce decree you need to switch your ROC to a divorce waiver and send them a copy of your divorce decree. 

Yes, we are in more than great terms. We truly love each others, it is just we can't live together and we can't live without each others. She has no problem signing together, but she is 100% sure about the divorce.

[IDK1994 0]

44 minutes ago, kline19 said:

The type of evidence you have listed, my quick first impression would be that you do have substantive amounts of it. 

 

Second, you will need to have a support structure around you so you won't be getting the blues and freaking out right now because of the snail's pace at which USCIS does its job. Given that they are taking roughly anywhere between 12 to 20 months, you will have to be able to take care of your self for the long haul and not spend this long stretch just going crazy. 

 

mindthegap would probably be the best person on here to give you some detailed information but I think you can make the case for a divorce waiver with your situation and all the evidence you have got.

 

 

My concern is, lets say I file a divorce waiver now, how long does it take them to glance over the file and know that the divorce is not final and send RFE? I am just afraid I send a divorce waiver, and in couple of weeks they send RFE asking for the divorce decree, which by no mean, I will have

[little immigrant 800]

I believe they give you enough time to receive the divorce decree when they RFE you. 

 

Another thing I wanted to reassure you. You won't get deported. With our without divorce waiver you can get your ROC approved. Just make sure you have enough evidence that the marriage was entered in good faith. 

[IDK1994 0]

4 minutes ago, little immigrant said:

I believe they give you enough time to receive the divorce decree when they RFE you. 

 

Another thing I wanted to reassure you. You won't get deported. With our without divorce waiver you can get your ROC approved. Just make sure you have enough evidence that the marriage was entered in good faith. 

Well that is the thing, do they ask for the divorce decree once the application is received, or 8-9 Months into the application when the case get assigned to IO?

[little immigrant 800]

17 hours ago, IDK1994 said:

Well that is the thing, do they ask for the divorce decree once the application is received, or 8-9 Months into the application when the case get assigned to IO?

I don't have any first hand experience for this as I filed my ROC jointly at the time. 

[mindthegap 2,521]

19 hours ago, little immigrant said:

I believe they give you enough time to receive the divorce decree when they RFE you. 

 

What?

Standard 87 day response for an RFE when issued.

 

19 hours ago, IDK1994 said:

Well that is the thing, do they ask for the divorce decree once the application is received, or 8-9 Months into the application when the case get assigned to IO?

Probably quite quickly, as they check to see what it has been filed under in order to accept the filing.

 

 

 

 

Note - a waiver filing can be sent at any time - it does not have to be in the 90 day window like a joint filing. It even states this in the instructions....

So you could wait until you are divorced, then file (assuming you can cope with the scary and legally inaccurate 'your status is terminated' letters). Or you could file now jointly then switch to solo when divorced, or take your chances filing with a waiver now and wait and see how long the RFE takes..

Either way, you remain a LPR until adjudication - just some methods have a few more hoops to jump through and paperwork than others.

 

[Georgia16 2,858]

Since you are at good terms and you are not divorced or anything by now sent it in as a regular joint petition. 

When the divorce is finalized you send in the divorce decree and a note saying you will be switching to divorce waiver. 

 

That way way you don’t have to think about RFE right now in the middle of everything. 

[IDK1994 0]

1 hour ago, Georgia16 said:

Since you are at good terms and you are not divorced or anything by now sent it in as a regular joint petition. 

When the divorce is finalized you send in the divorce decree and a note saying you will be switching to divorce waiver. 

 

That way way you don’t have to think about RFE right now in the middle of everything. 

I am considering that option while stating that as of XY date, we decided on divorce, and right now are separated until we finalize the divorce

[IDK1994 0]

2 hours ago, mindthegap said:

What?

Standard 87 day response for an RFE when issued.

 

Probably quite quickly, as they check to see what it has been filed under in order to accept the filing.

 

 

 

 

Note - a waiver filing can be sent at any time - it does not have to be in the 90 day window like a joint filing. It even states this in the instructions....

So you could wait until you are divorced, then file (assuming you can cope with the scary and legally inaccurate 'your status is terminated' letters). Or you could file now jointly then switch to solo when divorced, or take your chances filing with a waiver now and wait and see how long the RFE takes..

Either way, you remain a LPR until adjudication - just some methods have a few more hoops to jump through and paperwork than others.

 

I appreciate your response. I am just going to ask my wife if she is comfortable with filling together a joint until the divorce is final, which is probably the safest route since you really never know how long a divorce is going to take (Assumption 3-4 months), If yes, I will be making sure I send a note explaining that upfront as well that we getting divorced.

 

For the divorce waiver, which I personally prefer, I have seen some cases similar to mine back in 2016 and 2015 on VJ that sent a divorce waiver without a final decree and received a RFE in about 4 months from the date of NOA. That is why I assumed it will be 8-9 months into the process considering the longerrr processing time now, and my silly me, I assumed that only the assigned IO gets to send an RFE, not the those who check the application and cash the check. But as most people would agree, you never know when they send the RFE, it could be a week after the accept it, or MONTHS, which make it risky