tomkean28

It was for an I-130 that was approved in April of 2000. We seperated and never pursued the petition. No Visa was ever issued. It's in the same country cuz that's where I was born. I have strong ties to the Philippines due to family and culture so I naturally meet people from there.

So I called USCS yesterday to get details on my ex-spouse's petition which I filed in 1999. I was told that it's an approved petition and I was asking if it was cancelled and he just kept telling me it was approved. I asked if I need to cancel it plus I was under the impression that it has been canceled as of 2002 or 2003. He just said that's why I need to state this in the I-129F and there was nothing further I needed to do. This confused me because 4 weeks ago when I called I was told it was cancelled in 2002 or 2003. I didnt get the case number or dates at the time so I thought Id call again yesterday to get it.

Is this the proper protocol? Do I need to contact the USCIS and request that that petition be cancelled.

Does it help to accompany your fiance(e) at their interview abroad? Does that help at all? Will you be allowed inside to speak to the CO or at least be in viewing range? I mean what better way to prove an ongoing relationship than be present to support your future spouse right? That sure as heck should be better than showing pictures right? Ha ha!

I spoke to 2 lawyers today. A neighborhood atty who specializes in immigration law that has been known to be a straight shooter told me not to worry for he has handled more complicated issues that didn't even produce an RFE. I also spoke to a big shot immigration attorney, somewhere in the 5K retainer range that told me I'll have an issue with USCIS here and the consular office abroad. Who to believe right? I think I better layoff the boards so I don't read stuff that'll spook me.

This is not an opinion but rather an observation from other similar posts. This would be because it raises flags over the relationship being genuine or romantically based. Do married men start to date single women every day? Maybe yes, sometimes, but the relationship is often or occasionally veiwed as having gotten off on the wrong footing in doing so. Also they Might think you met her, struck up an immigration deal and so annulled your current marriage. I guess the chances of falling in genuine and actual love with two K1 Filipina women in such quick succession are slim...obviously in your case this is not the way it is, but USCIS deal with trends and where fraud is performed, this is clearly something practised and they have to look out for it. I can see the source of your annoyance but I think to say 'it doesn't make sense to me why that would raise suspicion of fraud' is short sighted and you will have to be a lot better prepared than that to get successfully through this process. I wish you luck and hope you find the wisdom and strength to wait a while if that is what serves you and your fiancee best.

That statement refers to suspicion brought on when currently married people seek divorce and then turn around and file for a K1 Visa. First of, the requirement is you need to be free to marry right? Correct me if I'm wrong but I have never seen any law book that states it's illegal or unrightful to meet someone while your seperated or in the process of a divorce. I understand statistics but what I don't understand is you're required a condition... you meet that condition yet you become a subject of suspicion. They said you need to be free to marry, so you can only divorce or file for invalidity to dissolve current marriages. Now I ask you, what is short-sighted about that? Cuz I have another set of statistics for you. 100% of married people will get denied a K1 Visa. Please don't take that the wrong way. I'm just trying to make a point.

Ha ha! I guess the answer is that I am worrying too much! LOL

PLEASE HELP!

I just read a while ago here in VJ about a k1 denial in Nigeria. He met his fiancee in 2008. But his fiancee filed for her divorce in 2009 and got finalized in 2010.

I might be having the same problem as this... Please shed some light with my situation sisters...

Here's my story:

My fiance and I met online June of 2009. He first sent me a question if I knew this certain person who has the same family name as mine. Before replying to his inquiry, I searched first as to who our mutual friend is. She was my co-worker who happens to have lots of relatives living in California, the state where my fiance lives. I thought he was my co-worker's uncle because he's 14 years older than me and was a Filipino too. So I replied briefly and politely telling him, "no".... From there, he sent me another message introducing formally himself and the rest was history. (but it was only after 1 month that I found out that my co-worker didn't know him at all... Hahaha!)

We agreed to become official and exclusive on August 30, 2009. He came home again here in the Philippines after 11 years of absence on October 2009 and stayed for over 2 weeks.

The story of his divorce was this: The divorce was filed april of 2009. His ex-wife moved out of their house march of 2009.

I got pregnant immediately after our first meeting on October-November of 2009. He visited me 3x already before the filing of our k1 because his divorce got finalized just this April of 2011. The divorce took that long because of settlement issues, the ex-wife demanded more from him financially. So he was able to petition me just this June of 2011. He came to visit again last july and stayed for almost 3 weeks to celebrate our daughter's 1st birthday.

My concern is, do you think I will be having the same problem too as that of the Nigerian case that I mentioned? Oh God, please help. I will be having my interview on December 1 at thr Manila Consulate already!

The same Nigeria post got me all worked up and worried as I may be in a similar situation. I guess we'reall just gonna have to wait and see what happens.

Answer, "I know the I-129F says we were engaged on the 14th but it was really December 17. Sorry for the mistake."

+1 Apologize for the error and provide the correct date.

i agree with you that it doesn't make sense at all, but i just had to tell you that so you know what crazy things uscis/nvc look at. to be on the safe and sure side, just say you met in june and gather your docs around that time, right? it's not a suspicion of fraud per se but the technicality of still being married and "right away"

just to be on the safe side (although your fiancee is not in a fraud hot country).

anyway, another thing is don't show and mention the pre-nup photos you have because as crazy it may sound COs are sensitive when it comes to phontos that hint of marriage rites and celebrations, trust me on that one. show "neutral" photos instead such as those trips you took and mix it too with photos of you and her family, ffriends, workmates =)

i say better safe than delayed and, worse, sorry =)

Thanx for the tip. I'll surely watch out for it. I already put in a brief history of our meeting and relationship on the supplemental answer to question 18. I just hope the fact that we have seen each other 6 times by the time she gets an interview will disregard that that slight technicality. I mean, it's not easy to travel to the other side of the planet just so you could spend a few days together and not to mention the cost associated with it.

Frustration is really setting in! I wonder if we should just get married now and file a CR-1 instead as opposed to waiting 6 months or so to find out the USCIS have an issue with how and when we met.

Thanks for this post! Now I don't feel too bad about a short courtship and knowing I was in love on the second day. I pray you have favor and ample evidence to show CO.

Why should you feel bad about that? We were one of the lucky ones that knew it right away. Some people take years and some are still trying to convince themselves it'll get there. If relationships require tenure then what the point of falling in love right? Ok thats about as cheesy as I'll ever get.

if your previous marriages didn't involve K1 applications especially w/in the last two years prior to your recent application, then you should be ok (otherwise you might need to request a waiver through a letter). also make sure you didn't meet your recent fiancee while you were still technically married (divorce not yet final) as this has lately been a common problem encountered by a number of applicants (search for this last week's posts)

See now that's gonn abe an issue. I got the divorce ruling in March but did not get the decree in May, we met in April so yeah I guess i wasn't legally divorced yet when we met, then when We decided to go fil for a K1, I had a Null and Void marriage that was still hanging over my head so I filed for an Inavalidity of Marriage in July and got the annulment in September. That Annulment was from a relationship that ended in 2001 to a Filipina as well. I filed for an I-130 then that I did not pursue due to my ex being legally married when we did.

I have seen my fiancee 4 times so far since April, I'll see her again in December and probably a couple more times before her interview. We have travelled all over asia and all over the Philippines with itineraries and boarding passes to show for. In preparation for our nuptuals next year, we have hired a photograper to do pre-nuptual shoot for us so we should be able to present those in her interview as I have read that the CO would still ask her for photographs to show them.

I read the post about the whole being legally married while the couple met. It doesn't make sense to me why that would raise a flag or suspicion of fraud. It happens everyday. I'm not trying to justify, I'm just simply saying...

Dissolving this marriage may also come with complications. I filed for an Invalidity of Marriagfe aka annulment in the US for reasons of prohibited marriage due to bigamy which what this is. My ex was currently married when we got married. I did not have an attorney and the process was extremely smooth for me and was able to complete it in about 9 or 10 weeks. I was the putattive spouse and not the offender. Remember now that what the petitioner did is commit a crime. I could be wrong but I believe he's not gonna be able to file for invalidity because he was the one that committed the crime. They seriously need counsel.

Just a piece of advise... Get it done right! Aside from the annulment I was talking about I had spent the last couple of years in court due to a nasty divorce and custody batte and have spent enough money to pay for a new Lamborghini in cash. So much information and detail gets lost in court due to how attorneys and the courts itself interpret the law and these are professionals. Imagine having to explain your situation outside of that realm.

Get an attorney or get married legally this time, file for CR-1 and hope everything else before that gets overlooked.

I saw my fiancee 4 times in 7 months and we plan to spend the holidays together and hopefully be present at the day of her interview. We've only been together for 7 months now and I have a recent divorce and a recent annulment all of which took place this year.

I'm a bit worried about those 3 factors. 1) Recent divorce 2) Recent annulment (I filed for it just to make sure a VOID marriage does not become an issue with our app) 3) the fact that we were only together for a year by the time she gets an interview.

It's funny how things creep up in your head the moment you start waiting for your NOA2. Ha ha!

Even if this gets passed through NVC and ends up at the US embassy in the UAE. She's still going to have to come up with documents stating that she's single and free to marry. They were married in the UAE, there has got to be some paper trail somewhere... marriage license, marriage certificate in the UAE, if he did it right which I'm gonna guess he didn't, a legal capacity from the US embassy in the UAE. So you see, she's not single in her country, not on paper. Regardless of how the US views it, legal marriage or not, she's not gonna be able to prove she's single so there goes your K1. I mean lets be realistic here, are people really suggesting that they try to explain to the CO the whole story about how he misrepresented himself in the UAE and got married there while still married in the US so therefore it was null and void. God forbid if he had actually done this right in the UAE and had actually gone to the US embassy and swore-in in front of a CO to state he was free to marry when he got a legal capacity. And if they go in on the K1 and all these are found out, they could get banned for good.

A safer course of action could be that he goes back to the UAE now that he's legally divorced, get married, do it right and do it legally. Then he can file a CR-1.

Lots of technicalities, lots of fine lines that were walked and crossed. Even if the USCIS is willing to hear this, I'm afraid this may sit on someone's desk for quite a while.

Consult with an attorney. You may have a lot of issues here depending on how UAE and the US interprets your marriage. Fed law and most State Law (State law stomps fed law for the most part because the State will have jurisdiction over the persons of the USC).

Issue 1) Your husband married you while still married. This is bigamous in nature. Please understand that was not a personal opinion, that's how it's viewed by the law. This alone could complicate your application for a Fiancee or Spousal petition.

2) Your current marriage could be interpreted differently by UAE and the US. US law and most state laws DO NOT recognize PROHIBITED MARRIAGES and yours is simply prohibited in the US based on being bigamous in nature. I'm not being ignorrant or unsympathetic but I don't know if muliple marriages are legal in the UAE but if it is, here are your issues:

a) UAE declares you are legally married - K1 under this scenario no longer applies to you since you are no longer free to marry granted you are married to the petitioner, the us may then say you need to file for a CR-1.

b) If your marriage is NULL and VOID in the UAE an since it's also NULL and VOID in the US then you were legally never married but may run into some issues with your husband comitting bigamy which is a crime in the US, the severity of which depends on what state he lives in. Embassy finds out about this then they may start asking questions. And hiding this fact may also just turn ugly if found out. The issue is, there's gonna be some sort of paper trail on this.

There is also a difference between NULL and VOID/VOID AB INITIO or VOIDABLE. I don't know about the UAE but in the Philippines for example, this situation though classified as prohibitted and therefore NULL and VOID is actually addressed in court as VOIDABLE, meaning it's legal until you get the courts to annul it.

In this scenario, your marriage would have been NULL and VOID/Voidable but once his divorce got finalized, you marriage becomes completely legal.

You really should consult an immigration lawyer or maybe even a family lawyer. The concern is you go through the K1 route, waste 6-9 months then find out that's not the proper course of action then go through the same process with a CR-1 then get a ruling that you are not legally married.

I hope things work out for you guys. Good luck!

Tom

1) shouldn't be a concern/problem for as long as you have your docs in order

2)could be an issue because a) you met your fiancee while still technically married (crazy but there's an issue like this posted only yesterday (or today). maybe you can change your story a bit, say you met her in june fell in love in august or something similar just so you don't get caught in a seemingly silly technicality when you explain in the 129f how/when you met

3) shouldn't be a concern because you fixed it and have your docs (it was a fraud marriage, you didn't go through with the petition )

4)shouldn't be a concern because the first was void from the very beginning which made your 2nd marriage legal

you explain yourself pretty well and did everything you needed to do but if you can afford a lawyer, 2 heads are better than one =)

Yeah I read that one other thread that happened in Nigeria I think it was and that's what prompted me to start this thread.

The CO's are Americans right?

Were all these marriages to Filipinos?

If not, then you should be good to go; all is in order and you are "clear" to marry who you wish. I trust that your new fiance knows all the details about your past marriages?

If yes, then maybe an attorney that specializes in US-Phils marriages would be helpful. A concern would be how the US Embassy in Manila would view this type of history.....it doesn't bode well for your judgement of partners.....sri but just being truthful.

Nope. My ex-wife was American. I just read a thread that someone got denied because they met or got engaged while the petitioner wasn't legally divorced yet. I thought this might be a little similar or worse. By the time I filed though, all the past mess have been addressed legally since I didn't want any of my past mistakes to affect my future.

3) I'm also concerned that they might think I filed in 1999 knowingly the beneficiary was still married.

4) Also I wonder if the fact that the legal marriage took place without an annulment from the 1999 voided marriage.

What do you guys think should be my course of action? Should I get a lawyer ready with possible affidavits to fight this already? Is it possible at all to get someone from my local USCIS office review this and ask for advice?

I wonder if we should just get married deal file accordingly.

In 1999, I married a Filipina and filed for a I-130 that got approved, shortly, I found out she was previously married and still was married so we seperated after that and the petition expired in 2002 or 2003. I consulted an attorney at the time and was told it was an unlawful marriage that was not recognized by fed or state law so there's nothing further I needed to do and besides at that point I didn't think I was ever going to file for a K1 for anyone ever. In 2007, I got married. That marriage lasted 2 years and we seperated in the summer of 2009. In January 2011 I met my fiancee, I made it a point not to come out t see her till my divorce was finalized. The final divorce trial was in March and so was the verbal ruling. The degree was not signed by the judge till early May. I met my fiancee in person in April, so technically the divorce was still not finalized. Around June, I asked her to marry me and she agreed. So I started researching the posibility of the K1 and consulted an attorney again. I was advised that since the 1999 VOID marriage was involved in a cancelled petition that it would be better that I legally get it annulled by the courts. So that I did. I was able to get the annulment in Sept.

So these are my concerns:

1) That I had a divorce in May 2011 (Seperated 2 years) and an annulment in September 2011 (Seperated 11+ years).

2) That I asked her to get married in June, one month after the divorce and 3 months before the annulment.

You are right. You have to inform the city that covers your previous marriage that it was already void and annotate your marriage contract from NSO. Without doing this, no body knows you're already annulled or divorced here in the Philippines.

I dunno if it will affect your marriage in the Philippines if you want to do it here but if you do that, your previous wife's marriage to you will be wiped off as well but technically you are free to marry in the USA though.

I think it may affects a Philippine marriage since it hasn't been legally recognized but then again all I need is a Legal capacity from my embassy to get a marriage license so I will not go through NSO. My fiancee would have to but not me. I may still get itrecognized but thats the least of my concern honestly.

....

Submit proof of the voided/annulled marriage, that proves you are legally able/free to marry.

That is what USCIS and the CO will look for.

Yep! That I did. I think the only issue would be if we are to get married in the Philiipines where the annulment has not been filed with the city hall nor the NSO. Is that the correct interpretation?

I'm an American that was married to a Filipina 12 years ago. The marriage was in the Philippines. My ex-turned out to have been married in the past so the marriage was Null and Void. I filed for a petition for an alien spouse back then but due to this finding, we seperated and never followed up on the petition which was approved at the time by the way. I later on learned it expired in 2003 some time. I filed for an annulment in the US courts and got a decree that the marriage with the ex was invalid retroactive to the date of the void marriage. In other words, as far as the US courts is concerned, there was never a marriage.

I know that this annulment would need to be recognized by the Philippine courts as it applies to her if she ever has a need to do so but as an American, will the reviewing CO look into that as well? I mean the K1 Visa requires that the petitioner and the beneficiary are able to legally marry in the US right... which I am. Do any of you guys foresee any issues with this? Has this been brought up in the forums or has anyone heard of a similar situation and how the K1 app was handled? Oh I forgot to mention, I'm currently engaged to a Filipina and have filed for a K-1 visa.

The main things I'm looking at is that the K1 requires a marriage in the US within 90 days and the ability to legally do so by both parties. There is nothing in US courts that prohibits me from getting married especially since I had the marriage with the ex annulled. Also the fact that the US and most state laws do not recognize prohibited marriages in the US and most especially from foreign countries.

Thanx for any input or opinions.

I taped a ziploc bag on an empty paper and labeled the paper and the Ziploc bag. I think they require or prefer photos and not computer print outs someone correct me if I'm wrong...