Child custody agreement?

[MFRittman 1]

What kind of child custody papers do I need for the green card interview as the husband of an immigrating spouse?  My ex-wife and I never filed any formal custody papers.  We had one son and he is staying with his mother.  My ex-wife has custody but we agreed our son could stay wherever he wanted.  He will be eighteen next February and will be graduating from university next June.  There is a child support agreement in the divorce papers.  I pay her $400 per month.

Edited August 28, 2020 by MFRittman

[Letspaintcookies 2,206]

What does that have to do with your wife's greencard? Did you heard somewhere that you need something like that? 

The interview is about how you and your wife function together. If they ask about your son then only to see what she knows about it and how the two of you handle that.

[MFRittman 1]

[Cilllah 470]

I haven't seen anyone need something before. However now I am thinking about it and I don't have custody papers as such but I have a legal letter from my home country that my ex-husband put together saying my child can (and has) move to the USA with me permanently. I wonder if that will be enough. We did a joint divorce and didn't have to go to court so no specific papers although I do have papers showing I had 93% of care for child support purposes.

[carmel34 3,529]

17 hours ago, MFRittman said:

What kind of child custody papers do I need for the green card interview as the husband of an immigrating spouse?  My ex-wife and I never filed any formal custody papers.  We had one son and he is staying with his mother.  My ex-wife has custody but we agreed our son could stay wherever he wanted.  He will be eighteen next February and will be graduating from university next June.  There is a child support agreement in the divorce papers.  I pay her $400 per month.

If you have no custody papers, you can't take them to the interview.  An original, court-certified copy of the divorce decree from the previous marriage should suffice.  Focus more on evidence to support that your marriage relationship is bona fide, like financial co-mingling documents, proof of living at the same address, etc.  And if in the interview questions come up about custody of your 17-year old son, both you and your current wife should be ready with an explanation.

 

Good luck with the interview!

[Eduardo Santana 0]

Hi @MFRittman. How did you interview go? Did you have to show any document about your child from prior marriage? I have exactly the same question today. Thanks

[MFRittman 1]

The topic never came up.