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Vzla90

US citizen under 3 year rule and now getting married again

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1 hour ago, Duke & Marie said:

You might think it’s not abnormal to commence a relationship with another person pre filing for divorce but that doesn’t make it normal by any standard American or otherwise.. irrespective of immigration 

I would agree, but that’s irrelevant. What might be relevant is that this particular situation is somewhat complicated by the requirement to be living in marital union all the way for naturalization to happen based on 3 year rule. I don’t think uscis Intends that to be “remain living with spouse on the face of it to get naturalized early while fooling around with someone you plan to sponsor later”. So i agree the timeline will be scrutinized. I’m still not sure what they can actually do about it though.

 

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Filed: Country: Jamaica
Timeline
19 hours ago, Vzla90 said:

-I got married in 2015

-I got my first GC in may 2016

-I became a US citizen last year (2019)  in september.

-We filed for divorce in april 2020. The divorces hasn't been finalized yet. The trial is in january 2021.

 

NEW PARTNER:

-I know him since last year (2019) but we started dating at the beginning of 2020. 

-My partner lives with me here in Boston. 

-He is under an F1 visa but we are planning to get married next year around summer time.

 

I am just worried if USCIS think that I tried to do something wrong to become a US citizen when it comes the time for the interview and they start asking me about my prior marriage. 

Of course they are going to ask you about your prior marriage.  They may even call your soon to be ex-husband to ask about bonafide marriage.  You need to check state guidelines on how soon you can get married after divorce.  

Phase I - IV - Completed the Immigration Journey 

 

 

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Brazil
Timeline
19 hours ago, Vzla90 said:

-I got married in 2015

-I got my first GC in may 2016

-I became a US citizen last year (2019)  in september.

-We filed for divorce in april 2020. The divorces hasn't been finalized yet. The trial is in january 2021.

 

NEW PARTNER:

-I know him since last year (2019) but we started dating at the beginning of 2020. 

-My partner lives with me here in Boston. 

-He is under an F1 visa but we are planning to get married next year around summer time.

 

I am just worried if USCIS think that I tried to do something wrong to become a US citizen when it comes the time for the interview and they start asking me about my prior marriage. 

It is very likely this will get scrutinized. It will be especially difficult if your new partner is Venezuelan.

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Thank you everyone for the information. 
 

To start, I wasn’t fulling around with my new partner before getting divorce. 
Right after a filed the N-400 we starting getting some issues in our marriage and it was getting worse. He didn’t have a job and got offer something good in California so we were thinking about if to move to LA. The situation got really bad to the point I left the house and went to my mom’s. 
 

We decided a few weeks after de citizenship ceremony to end the marriage. We wait until April when he was settled down in LA.  
 

Around Christmas 2019 I started “dating” my new partner and we decided to move in together after I filed for divorce. My ex knows he is in my life and that we are together. 
 

My partner is from Costa Rica. He has been living in here for 3 years now and next year he is applying for his master. He is under the F1 and yes, he can take classes online without an issue.

 

I didn’t come in here to judge me. I haven’t done anything wrong or illegal. I married a beautiful person but our marriage didn’t work. I wasn’t planning to get divorce right after getting my citizenship. I knew we had issues but I wasn’t expecting breaking up with my ex like that. I filed for the citizenship to bring my dad to USA from Venezuela. Now I have a new partner I want to help at some point during our relationship.

 

That is why I was wondering what could it happen when that moment comes and the IO think I did something wrong. I know now is way worse than before and I don’t want to cause an issue to my partner.

 

After getting divorce I have to wait 120 days to marry him or at least being able to get married. 
 

I am sorry I wasn’t really specific at the beginning.

 

once again, 

 

thanks 

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51 minutes ago, Mollie09 said:

It is very likely this will get scrutinized. It will be especially difficult if your new partner is Venezuelan.

He is from Costa Rica.

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Filed: IR-1/CR-1 Visa Country: Canada
Timeline
7 minutes ago, Vzla90 said:

Thank you everyone for the information. 
 

To start, I wasn’t fulling around with my new partner before getting divorce. 
Right after a filed the N-400 we starting getting some issues in our marriage and it was getting worse. He didn’t have a job and got offer something good in California so we were thinking about if to move to LA. The situation got really bad to the point I left the house and went to my mom’s. 
 

We decided a few weeks after de citizenship ceremony to end the marriage. We wait until April when he was settled down in LA.  
 

Around Christmas 2019 I started “dating” my new partner and we decided to move in together after I filed for divorce. My ex knows he is in my life and that we are together. 
 

My partner is from Costa Rica. He has been living in here for 3 years now and next year he is applying for his master. He is under the F1 and yes, he can take classes online without an issue.

 

I didn’t come in here to judge me. I haven’t done anything wrong or illegal. I married a beautiful person but our marriage didn’t work. I wasn’t planning to get divorce right after getting my citizenship. I knew we had issues but I wasn’t expecting breaking up with my ex like that. I filed for the citizenship to bring my dad to USA from Venezuela. Now I have a new partner I want to help at some point during our relationship.

 

That is why I was wondering what could it happen when that moment comes and the IO think I did something wrong. I know now is way worse than before and I don’t want to cause an issue to my partner.

 

After getting divorce I have to wait 120 days to marry him or at least being able to get married. 
 

I am sorry I wasn’t really specific at the beginning.

 

once again, 

 

thanks 

The reality here is most of the responses are people judging you based on what they feel is some arbitrary requirement of time for a new relationship. The timeline doesn't matter as long as you have enough proof to satisfy the the people in the government looking at your file. You dont need to satisfy the people on this forum who want to judge your timeline.

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Just now, jackanddeona said:

The reality here is most of the responses are people judging you based on what they feel is some arbitrary requirement of time for a new relationship. The timeline doesn't matter as long as you have enough proof to satisfy the the people in the government looking at your file. You dont need to satisfy the people on this forum who want to judge your timeline.

Thank you very much!

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Brazil
Timeline
11 minutes ago, jackanddeona said:

The reality here is most of the responses are people judging you based on what they feel is some arbitrary requirement of time for a new relationship. The timeline doesn't matter as long as you have enough proof to satisfy the the people in the government looking at your file. You dont need to satisfy the people on this forum who want to judge your timeline.

Except for one line of comments that went in the direction of whether or not it's right to date someone who hasn't filed for divorce, the rest of the advice is solid: yes, it's likely to get scrutinized. We explained why. I got divorced before ROC and remarried before I naturalized, so I'm not here to judge people who divorce during immigration, but I came to this forum to understand just how much scrutiny I would get and how to prepare for it, like OP did.

 

My advice is to wait as long as possible to file for immigration benefits for a new spouse. Establish that this new relationship is solid and ongoing, whether married or not, and not entered into for immigration benefits - but I realize with an F-1 that might not be possible.

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2 minutes ago, Mollie09 said:

Except for one line of comments that went in the direction of whether or not it's right to date someone who hasn't filed for divorce, the rest of the advice is solid: yes, it's likely to get scrutinized. We explained why. I got divorced before ROC and remarried before I naturalized, so I'm not here to judge people who divorce during immigration, but I came to this forum to understand just how much scrutiny I would get and how to prepare for it, like OP did.

 

My advice is to wait as long as possible to file for immigration benefits for a new spouse. Establish that this new relationship is solid and ongoing, whether married or not, and not entered into for immigration benefits - but I realize with an F-1 that might not be possible.

Yeah! I am worry about his status and specially now with everything Trump is doing. 

 

We have something really good going on and we might have to wait a year to get married and then we are talking about at least six month to get an interview, probably more.

 

When the time comes, it doesn't matter if it is in  years, they will still ask me how I became a US citizen and they might notice my timeline. Not with my current relation, but with my past relation and the times. Technically, I filed for divorce 7 months after my ceremony.

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1 minute ago, mushroomspore said:

USCIS itself has no policies about timelines but IO's sure as heck can and will ask about the details.

How bad could it be? Like, I feel I am ready to answer all the questions. I am not afraid about my past. I was in a relation that did not work and I found the love of my life and I want him to be with my in this country that is my country. 

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Filed: IR-1/CR-1 Visa Country: Canada
Timeline
1 minute ago, mushroomspore said:

USCIS itself has no policies about timelines but IO's sure as heck can and will ask about the details.

Yes they can. And its up to the op to convince them their current relationship is real. They don't have to prove they are a us citizen because they have already earned that legally. By the time the op has filed for divorce gotten remarried and filed for a cr1 and then a IO finally looks at it it will most likely have been over 2 years since they became a citizen and over a year since they were divorced. That is plenty of time to gather evidence of a bona-fide relationship. The reality is a few people in this thread are just relaying how they feel about the relationship timeline and not what is required for a legal immigration. Becoming a US citizen is a hard process the OP has already went through. They no longer need to prove anything. They already proved enough to the us government to get citizenship and all the rights that entails. Just because some people here disagree with that doesn't make it so.

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Filed: Timeline

Divorce not finalized. Living with BF. You can not file for new BF until your divorce is finalized and you have a divorce decree to prove no entanglements.

Only USCIS can tell if they see it as suspicious or not. Considering divorce is so commonplace now and there isn't really a strong foundation to a lot of marriages lately, USCIS has probably gotten used to it and don't care anymore as long as it's legal - which it will be once you finalize the divorce.

Edited by ManCharsey

You talk you teach, you listen you learn

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I actually disagree that the timeline is likely to be a big sticking point here. The biggest issue with it that I see is that there were marital issues while naturalizing based on marriage (3 year rule), and then divorcing very shortly afterwards. This is legal, though - technically the requirement for living in marital union only exists up to the date of filing. So long as the marriage is not dissolved prior to oath, it remains a valid application.

The only potential issue would be any claims made at the interview about the current state of the marriage. Although I doubt that will actually be an issue here, that seems like the biggest sticking point to me.

 

Since the new SO is not from the same country at the OP, it doesn't check the box for the common fraud setup of bringing over a "real" partner once getting citizenship. So no issue there. It doesn't have the appearance to me - at face value - of a fraudulent marriage scheme.

 

There is generally a 5 year bar between getting a green card based on marriage and being able to petition another spouse. However, the INA specifically states this applies to a 2nd preference petition (spouse of an LPR). See INA 204(a)(2)(A):

Spoiler

The Attorney General may not approve a spousal second preference petition for the classification of the spouse of an alien if the alien, by virtue of a prior marriage, has been accorded the status of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence as the spouse of a citizen of the United States or as the spouse of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, unless-

(i) a period of 5 years has elapsed after the date the alien acquired the status of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, or

(ii) the alien establishes to the satisfaction of the Attorney General by clear and convincing evidence that the prior marriage (on the basis of which the alien obtained the status of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence) was not entered into for the purpose of evading any provision of the immigration laws.

So this restriction does not appear to apply either.

 

Under the criteria set in place today, I don' think there will be a significant challenge in this case. Of course, a specific IO can be more strict and weight the various factors noted above more heavily than I would. They have discretion to determine if a marriage is bona fide.

At the same time, it sounds like they have been living together since Dc. 2019, and will be continuing to do so until whenever the interview is. The time spent together and evidence they can collect in that period should be sufficient to overcome many doubts, if compiled well.

 

22 minutes ago, jackanddeona said:

They don't have to prove they are a us citizen because they have already earned that legally.

No, they definitely will need to prove that they're a USC for the petition. That's a requirement for a CR-1/IR-1 petition.

They won't need to verify that they obtained citizenship correctly. USCIS could challenge it on their own with sufficient evidence, but I don't see that happening here (unless if potentially there was a misrepresentation made at the naturalization interview).

Timelines:

ROC:

Spoiler

7/27/20: Sent forms to Dallas lockbox, 7/30/20: Received by USCIS, 8/10 NOA1 electronic notification received, 8/1/ NOA1 hard copy received

AOS:

Spoiler

AOS (I-485 + I-131 + I-765):

9/25/17: sent forms to Chicago, 9/27/17: received by USCIS, 10/4/17: NOA1 electronic notification received, 10/10/17: NOA1 hard copy received. Social Security card being issued in married name (3rd attempt!)

10/14/17: Biometrics appointment notice received, 10/25/17: Biometrics

1/2/18: EAD + AP approved (no website update), 1/5/18: EAD + AP mailed, 1/8/18: EAD + AP approval notice hardcopies received, 1/10/18: EAD + AP received

9/5/18: Interview scheduled notice, 10/17/18: Interview

10/24/18: Green card produced notice, 10/25/18: Formal approval, 10/31/18: Green card received

K-1:

Spoiler

I-129F

12/1/16: sent, 12/14/16: NOA1 hard copy received, 3/10/17: RFE (IMB verification), 3/22/17: RFE response received

3/24/17: Approved! , 3/30/17: NOA2 hard copy received

 

NVC

4/6/2017: Received, 4/12/2017: Sent to Riyadh embassy, 4/16/2017: Case received at Riyadh embassy, 4/21/2017: Request case transfer to Manila, approved 4/24/2017

 

K-1

5/1/2017: Case received by Manila (1 week embassy transfer??? Lucky~)

7/13/2017: Interview: APPROVED!!!

7/19/2017: Visa in hand

8/15/2017: POE

 

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Filed: IR-1/CR-1 Visa Country: Canada
Timeline
7 minutes ago, geowrian said:

No, they definitely will need to prove that they're a USC for the petition. That's a requirement for a CR-1/IR-1 petition.

They won't need to verify that they obtained citizenship correctly. USCIS could challenge it on their own with sufficient evidence, but I don't see that happening here (unless if potentially there was a misrepresentation made at the naturalization interview).

Sorry you are correct. My point was more they don't need to prove the validity of previous relationship as they have already done so like you pointed out. Just poor wording on my part. Geowrian is probably the most knowledgeable poster I have seen and more eloquently described my view point as far as the validity of the application.

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