Born U.S. Citizen: Can Past Marriage Block New Spouse Petitions Under INA 204(c)?

[mark1212 0]

I am a U.S.-born citizen, and I previously filed an I-130 petition for my ex-spouse (a foreign national) several years ago. We divorced before the petition was fully processed, and I never received a final decision from USCIS—I'm not sure if it was approved, denied, or if there was any finding of marriage fraud under INA 204(c). I didn't pursue it further after the divorce.
Now, I am remarried to a new spouse (also a foreign national), and I want to file a new I-130 petition for them. My question is: Does INA 204(c) or any prior marriage issue automatically prohibit me, as the U.S. citizen petitioner, from filing and getting approval for petitions for future spouses? Specifically, since I don't know the outcome of the previous petition, could there be a hidden fraud bar that affects my ability to petition now? If there was no explicit fraud finding, can I proceed normally? I am confused that the internet has mixed responses where its saying that the previous alien would be banned and not the US citizen from filing petitions.
Thank you!

[TBoneTX 49,360]

Welcome to the forum!

 

Others' advice here may differ from mine, which follows:

 

The key question is, did you write USCIS to withdraw the previous petition?  It sounds like you didn't.

If this petition was approved and no one followed up (setting a consular interview for a visa, e.g.), it eventually died.

 

Contact your U.S. Congressman's D.C. office and work with the "immigration liaison" there.  That liaison can probably learn from USCIS if anything became of the earlier petition.

 

Why are you concerned about a finding of fraud?

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Thread is moved from the "AOS from WS&T Visas" main forum to the CR-1 Process forum.

[mark1212 0]

@TBoneTX No, I never wrote to USCIS about previous petition because I never thought Ill get married again. I am pretty sure it never got approved because I didnt look into the process at all and Im not sure of submitting important stuff which makes me think it mightve lead to fraud or something given we never replied to uscis or cared to look into it because we were going through a divorce.

[appleblossom 5,869]

43 minutes ago, mark1212 said:

@TBoneTX No, I never wrote to USCIS about previous petition because I never thought Ill get married again. I am pretty sure it never got approved because I didnt look into the process at all and Im not sure of submitting important stuff which makes me think it mightve lead to fraud or something given we never replied to uscis or cared to look into it because we were going through a divorce.

That still isn’t telling us why you think fraud might be an issue though? When you say you ‘never replied to USCIS’, about what? What did they contact you about? Normally you don’t get anything from them until it’s an approval or denial. 
 

So did they send you a notice saying they intended to deny your application unless you could send more evidence of something? 
 

If you check the status of the petition now, what does it say?