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 49,374]

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?

---

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 5,870]

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? 

[mark1212 0]

6 hours ago, appleblossom said:

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? 

@appleblossom sorry for my wording, I meant to say that I never looked into the process again, changed my address so never got any receipt number or anything and basically completely neglected it. By not replying them I mean if they had sent me any docs for RFE or interview I would not know that at all.

[JeanneAdil 7,492]

if never received a notice that case was approved at USCIS stage,  you can check it there

 

If it was sent on to NVC and you received the embassy number,  check it here

note that if you never went thru with the I 184 and ds 260 at this stage,  the petition would have died 

 

https://egov.uscis.gov/

 

with your new I 130,  send a notice that you are cancelling the other petition as there was a divorce, send copy (not original) of the divorce papers

[NigeriaorBust 4,095]

 You can expect a bit more looking at your relationship if you are a serial petitioner.  Time between marriages helps.  I had 19 years between mine.  There used to be a number of people known to me that made a living off green card marrying.  Automation has ended that nonsense. Make sure to close out the old case before you file anything new.  When I filed the second time there was a requirement to explain prior filings when filing the new one in the form of a waiver for multiple filings.  but I was doing the fiancé petition at the time.  Make sure the new wife knows about the prior filing so she doesn't get the deer in the headlights response if it is brought up during her interview.  

[pushbrk 14,367]

8 hours ago, mark1212 said:

@appleblossom sorry for my wording, I meant to say that I never looked into the process again, changed my address so never got any receipt number or anything and basically completely neglecad ted it. By not replying them I mean if they had sent me any docs for RFE or interview I would not know that at all.

If you never got a receipt notice with a case number, there would be no way for you to check on the outcome.  The I-130 you now want to file will ask if you ever filed a petition for anybody else, and the result.  You can answer with the where, who, and when, and indicated you divorced and the result of the petition filing is unknown.

 

You've been asked at least twice already why you mentioned marriage fraud.  Why did that even come to your mind to mention.  That is the only potential problem I see with the new petition.

 

Another question.  Was the former spouse in the USA when you filed?  How about the current spouse.  In the USA, or what country?  What country of citizenship for the former spouse you filed for?  These are highly relevant issues.  You cannot receive reliable advice here without answering directly.