Case transferred to vsc for possible suspected awa related case? [merged threads]

[badwolfxi 54]

I was arrested back in highschool at age 17 in 2010 after the parents of a girl who was 14 filed a criminal complaint against me. The girl and I had sex earlier that week, it was consensual. The charge was sexual assualt of a child, I reside in the state of wisconsin where at age 17 you are technically considered an adult. It's confusing.

 

The complaint was that it was not consensual and many of the details were falsified. The false evidence became apparent after the investigation and later they dropped the charges to nothing. What remained of course was a court disposition and police reports.

 

I am now petitioning for a k1 visa for my fiancee and I've provided uscis with all the documents.

 

My question is, how likely is it that I could fall under the awa category? And what advice can you give me if this is awa?

 

 

 

Edited August 13, 2020 by badwolfxi

[evli1966 88]

Yes, expect  RFE because you were arrested.

Provide all court documents that the charges were dropped and there was no conviction.

 

The timeliness for the RFE response will be a lengthy wait.

 

Expect to have to appeal the decision and have another lengthy weight.

 

There is hope.

 

I was convicted and fell under AWA.

 

It took us 8 years, 25k in attorney fees, 20 to 25k a year for cost of living in Philippines and my travel there to be with my wife.

 

She has been in the states since 2016 and last October applied to remove conditions from GC.

 

Best of luck 

[Boiler 43,434]

Not a DIY situation

[NancyNguyen 1,657]

31 minutes ago, badwolfxi said:

I was arrested back in highschool at age 17 in 2010 after the parents of a girl who was 14 filed a criminal complaint against me. The girl and I had sex earlier that week, it was consensual. The charge was sexual assualt of a child, I reside in the state of wisconsin where at age 17 you are technically considered an adult. It's confusing.

 

The complaint was that it was not consensual and many of the details were falsified. The false evidence became apparent after the investigation and later they dropped the charges to nothing. What remained of course was a court disposition and police reports.

 

I am now petitioning for a k1 visa for my fiancee and I've provided uscis with all the documents.

 

My question is, how likely is it that I could fall under the awa category? And what advice can you give me if this is awa?

 

 

 

You need an experienced immigration attorney, it is not an easy process for you.

[mushroomspore 3,043]

42 minutes ago, badwolfxi said:

I was arrested back in highschool at age 17 in 2010 after the parents of a girl who was 14 filed a criminal complaint against me. The girl and I had sex earlier that week, it was consensual. The charge was sexual assualt of a child, I reside in the state of wisconsin where at age 17 you are technically considered an adult. It's confusing.

 

The complaint was that it was not consensual and many of the details were falsified. The false evidence became apparent after the investigation and later they dropped the charges to nothing. What remained of course was a court disposition and police reports.

 

I am now petitioning for a k1 visa for my fiancee and I've provided uscis with all the documents.

 

My question is, how likely is it that I could fall under the awa category? And what advice can you give me if this is awa?

 

 

 

Legally, minors are considered to be unable to give consent. Physiologically and psychologically, they're not developed enough to make informed decisions about their sexuality. That's why any sexual acts with minors are considered to be serious crimes. 

 

That said, the nature of the crime presents a major obstacle for your immigration process since you were arrested. You'll need a lawyer for this.

Edited August 13, 2020 by mushroomspore

[Villanelle 4,121]

We next consider whether the offense was “against a minor” and
whether it is one of the “specified offenses” listed in 42 U.S.C. § 16911(7).
There is no dispute that the offense in this case involved a minor because
the portion of the New Jersey statute under which the petitioner was
convicted includes an element requiring that the victim be a child.
However, under the Adam Walsh Act, an offense involving consensual
sexual conduct is not a “sex offense” if the victim was at least 13 years old
and the offender was not more than 4 years older than the victim.
42 U.S.C. § 16911(5)(C). Because offenses included in the definition of
a “specified offense against a minor” are a subset of those included in the
term “sex offense,” this age difference aspect of the definition of a “minor”
must be taken into account.
Cite as 26 I&N Dec. 304 (BIA 2014) Interim Decision #3801
312
The record in this case establishes the requisite age difference. Count
13 of the indictment specifies the birth date of the victim and states that she
was under 16 at the time of the offense. The petitioner’s birth date is
indicated in a presentence investigation report. These documents show that
the petitioner was more than 4 years older than the victim, and the
petitioner has produced no evidence to the contrary.

 

https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/eoir/legacy/2014/07/25/3801.pdf

 

AWA stuff is complicated. Generally you have 2 options to fight it. One is disputing it qualifies as AWA and the other is showing no risk. Based on what you said about her being 14 and him being 17 it probably wont be AWA because as posted above- over 13 and no more then 4 years age difference. But the specifics really do matter. If she was almost 14 then she wasnt 14. They are very literal with their numbers. A person previously was attempting to argue the above and it ended up their ages were technially 4 years and 2 months apart- so nope. 

 

You can expect for your case to be transfered to Vermont. Thats where they process AWA or suspected AWA stuff. Petitioner may get a biometrics appt. You may get a NOID for AWA. If you do you should find an experienced AWA attny to respond to it outlining the above about the age difference and quoting all the legal stuff that supports you are not AWA. That should end the AWA stuff and your visa will continue to be processed. BUT you still have to get through the K interview. The immigrant needs to know 100% what happened. Its best if they actually read the court documents and anything sent to USCIS about this because it is likely the Officer interviewing for the K is going to bring it up. They may deny the K under the broad couldn't establish relationship umbrella due to all this. It may be better to marry and pursue the CR. If they deny the K they will send it back to USCIS and it will die there, youd have to refile another K or do the CR. If they deny the CR you can get it going again. So in tough cases its recommended to avoid the K so you dont lose time and money and have to start over. If you do get a NOID for AWA reasons please make sure to use an AWA attny. Use google to find one. You may pay a bit more then you would for a standard immigration attny but honestly its going to be worth it. You can probably hire them on an hourly basis or a flat fee to respond to the NOID because thats all you really would need rather then them taking on your whole case. 

[Sandyl 128]

Our case was transferred to Vermont. My husband had something when he was a juvenile and its completely gone now. We filed without an attorney and we filed in 2016. Shortly after it got transferred to Vermont and we didn't hear anything until April of 2018, my husband had to go in for biometrics due to that. He went and in December 2018 we got an Intent to Deny because it was unclear if it was AWA. We had to provide them with all of the documents, documents from family saying there is no risk and such. We went to the KBI to get his record, he took finger prints and it came back as this person has NO criminal record. In July of 2019 we finally heard it was approved but I think ours was different because he was not under AWA and it doesn't show up anymore when asking for records. He was also a juvenile so "lucky" in that way.
For us, there was nothing because we simply didn't file the right forms/ right explanation or anything, we just added the forms from his PO and not even all of them. But I would highly suggest in your case to do this with an attorney. It's expensive but we waited about 3 years for my K1 to get approved.

 

If you are really AWA its probably going to be a long and expensive process. 

 

As @Villanelle said, she needs to know everything. I had to tell exactly what did happen at my K1 interview. I knew everything and read everything since I was visiting during the Intent to Deny but they will ask.

 

Edited August 14, 2020 by Sandyl

[badwolfxi 54]

Well our case was transferred to Vermont, I am the petitioner and my background is borderline awa. The transfer notice letter gave no information other than that it was transferred as part of the normal process. My fiancée and I would like to at least know what our chances will be for approval. So we want to wait until vsc processes our case.

 

I've look at past years processing times for vsc for the i-129f. They used to be pretty quick. I'm guessing because of covid and funding issues that they changed their processing times to 15.5-20 months. Does anyone actually think it could take that long until they process our case? Could the processing maybe go back to normal since USCIS will be increasing their fees and probably be funded through December?

[evli1966 88]

My hope is the case is not found to be AWA.

The time period for adjudication is much longer and a lot more information is requested.

Our case took almost 7 years for approval and we used an attorney to handle all filings.

But we were approved.

[badwolfxi 54]

30 minutes ago, evli1966 said:

My hope is the case is not found to be AWA.

The time period for adjudication is much longer and a lot more information is requested.

Our case took almost 7 years for approval and we used an attorney to handle all filings.

But we were approved.

When you first heard from vsc how long was it? did they basically just say they require you to send them the documents necessary for an awa waiver?

Edited September 28, 2020 by badwolfxi

[SalishSea 16,770]

1 hour ago, badwolfxi said:

Well our case was transferred to Vermont, I am the petitioner and my background is borderline awa. The transfer notice letter gave no information other than that it was transferred as part of the normal process. My fiancée and I would like to at least know what our chances will be for approval. So we want to wait until vsc processes our case.

 

I've look at past years processing times for vsc for the i-129f. They used to be pretty quick. I'm guessing because of covid and funding issues that they changed their processing times to 15.5-20 months. Does anyone actually think it could take that long until they process our case? Could the processing maybe go back to normal since USCIS will be increasing their fees and probably be funded through December?

Depends entirely upon the nature of the crime.

[evli1966 88]

18 minutes ago, badwolfxi said:

When you first heard from vsc how long was it? did they basically just say they require you to send them the documents necessary for an awa waiver?

They did a RFE in the first 4 months and we had like 30 days th to respond this included the waiver request. Then biometrics at 7 months then we received Intent to deny after a few years then we appealed. More Biometrics and another RFE then we were approved in 2016. 

There is no transparency no consistency except if you make 1 mistake in the filing you will get bounced.

[Lemonslice 4,553]

1 hour ago, badwolfxi said:

Well our case was transferred to Vermont, I am the petitioner and my background is borderline awa. The transfer notice letter gave no information other than that it was transferred as part of the normal process. My fiancée and I would like to at least know what our chances will be for approval. So we want to wait until vsc processes our case.

 

I've look at past years processing times for vsc for the i-129f. They used to be pretty quick. I'm guessing because of covid and funding issues that they changed their processing times to 15.5-20 months. Does anyone actually think it could take that long until they process our case? Could the processing maybe go back to normal since USCIS will be increasing their fees and probably be funded through December?

Usually, it is AWA, or not.  What would be "borderline AWA"?

[badwolfxi 54]

19 minutes ago, evli1966 said:

They did a RFE in the first 4 months and we had like 30 days th to respond this included the waiver request. Then biometrics at 7 months then we received Intent to deny after a few years then we appealed. More Biometrics and another RFE then we were approved in 2016. 

There is no transparency no consistency except if you make 1 mistake in the filing you will get bounced.

Thanks for the info... What you two have been through is so unfair but I'm glad you're together now. I don't know if her and I can do the same. we're both almost 30, plan on having kids...

We've already talked about plan B, she's a Filipino working in Qatar and I could easily move to her. But we just don't want to give up plan A until we know for sure if it's AWA.

[badwolfxi 54]

19 minutes ago, Lemonslice said:

Usually, it is AWA, or not.  What would be "borderline AWA"?

what I mean by that is the possibility that the new adjudicator at vsc may determine that my crime does not fall under AWA due to certain specifics of the law. One standout being the 4 year age gap. My case was 17 v 14. We are thinking that maybe the adjudicator in California just doesn't have the experience to determine whether it is AWA, I mean they don't deal with these cases, they send them out to vsc. So we let the specialists at vsc who are more versed in the specifics of AWA determine whether my crime falls under it or not.