Pending I-751 and Divorce

[Walbrzyszanka221 61]

Hello,

 

September 2019, my husband and I filed jointly. February 2020, my husband decided that he was done (we had some marital issues that were irreconcilable). I filed for divorce in March and just yesterday, we found out the court hearing date. Now, my question is, when I hire an immigration lawyer to change it to divorce waiver, will I have to send marital evidence from the start of our marriage? Or will evidence accumulated after we filed in September be enough? Just trying to prepare myself mentally.

 

Thank you.

[Just Paul 4,591]

1 hour ago, Walbrzyszanka221 said:

Now, my question is, when I hire an immigration lawyer to change it to divorce waiver, will I have to send marital evidence from the start of our marriage?

No need for an attorney and no need to refile or submit any old evidence.  When you go in for the interview take the divorce decree with you and any additional proof that you might want to include that shows that you entered the marriage in good faith.

[Walbrzyszanka221 61]

I am debating about the lawyer. The divorce is uncontested so no fighting. Do you know anyone personally or from this forum that went through the divorce waiver without the help of an immigration lawyer?

[Just Paul 4,591]

17 minutes ago, Walbrzyszanka221 said:

Do you know anyone personally or from this forum that went through the divorce waiver without the help of an immigration lawyer?

I've worked with a few women who have done this. 

 

It is pretty straightforward especially if you have the divorce decree for the interview.  If you don't and the interview is scheduled then you can contact the field office to reschedule or attend the interview where they will issue and RFE for the decree.  If needed,  personally I'd do the interview and get the decree to them later - appointments are hard to get in most places.

[Walbrzyszanka221 61]

4 minutes ago, Paul & Mary said:

I've worked with a few women who have done this. 

 

It is pretty straightforward especially if you have the divorce decree for the interview.  If you don't and the interview is scheduled then you can contact the field office to reschedule or attend the interview where they will issue and RFE for the decree.  If needed,  personally I'd do the interview and get the decree to them later - appointments are hard to get in most places.

Right but I still should inform them that I am changing it from joint to divorce waiver. I am just not looking forward to this since the process is already taking longer than expected. Kind of like ripping off the band-aid. 

[Just Paul 4,591]

10 minutes ago, Walbrzyszanka221 said:

Right but I still should inform them that I am changing it from joint to divorce waiver.

Until you have the final divorce decree there is nothing to do.   Once you have that you can contact the USCIS center if you want.  I would just wait for the interview so nothing will slow it down any further.  It isn't anything the field office hasn't seen before.  

[Walbrzyszanka221 61]

No interview yet unless you are talking about the divorce court hearing date.

[Just Paul 4,591]

11 minutes ago, Walbrzyszanka221 said:

No interview yet unless you are talking about the divorce court hearing date.

You need the final divorce decree before doing anything else.   You are still married  

 

[Walbrzyszanka221 61]

6 minutes ago, Paul & Mary said:

You need the final divorce decree before doing anything else.   You are still married  

 

Right, yes. I will just wait until I have the divorce decree in hand and then move forward with changing my I-751 status to the divorce waiver.

 

Thank you.

[Yasuo 15]

You would need to get the divorce degree first. Then inform the USCIS immediately about switching to divorce waiver.

 

If you don't inform them right away and just wait for the interview to inform them, you could run into a weird situation where they approve your case without an interview. If this happens (most people will be happy about this), you will have a lot of problems when applying for citizenship since technically your I-751 were approved based on a joint application, but you were divorced during the application processing time. The USCIS would say you fail to inform them about your marriage status during the I-751 process. 

 

I believe I read the above situation somewhere in VJ forum already.

[Walbrzyszanka221 61]

17 minutes ago, Yasuo said:

You would need to get the divorce degree first. Then inform the USCIS immediately about switching to divorce waiver.

 

If you don't inform them right away and just wait for the interview to inform them, you could run into a weird situation where they approve your case without an interview. If this happens (most people will be happy about this), you will have a lot of problems when applying for citizenship since technically your I-751 were approved based on a joint application, but you were divorced during the application processing time. The USCIS would say you fail to inform them about your marriage status during the I-751 process. 

 

I believe I read the above situation somewhere in VJ forum already.

Thank you. Yes I do not want to be in that situation. My hearing is 8/11 but in the meantime I am preparing the form, writing the letter and also seeing if I can get documents/invoices from the marriage counselor.