erynaught

and technically tax payers etc aren't losing out by illegals paying less, so it doesn't really affect anyone negatively.

How do you reckon this to be true? The extra tuition out-of-state students pay is not gravy to the school ... the lower 'in-state' rate is subsidized by taxes USCs/LPRs pay. And this doesn't address other federal funding which the school likely receives to defray costs of research, visiting faculty, curriculum development, etc. I don't think even out-of-state tuition costs avoid the situation where tax dollars are being used to pay for, in part, the education of an illegal alien student.

Illegal alien students do consume educational resources making them unavailable to USCs/LPRs.

The OPs question doesn't make sense though ... the example provided of a NY USC/LPR attending school in Colorado having to pay out-of-state tuition makes perfect sense and is absolutely fair ... they are out-of-state students. They want to pay less for a college education, attend an in-state school. As a tax payer, I expect that some/most of my tax dollars will be used to help my local community, partly by subsidizing the education of qualified local (and legal) students. My federal taxes contribute to this to some degree, but local taxes is where the rubber meets the road. I would expect that out-of-state students attending my state's schools are not subsidized by my state tax dollars.

Better yet, make the cut for scholarships at a private school - for talented students, it is often cheaper to attend a well-funded private school than a public school as they typically have more merit-based scholarships available.

Most, if not all states, now require a PharmD in order to take the exam to become a Registered Pharmacist.

Whatever your degree, you will need to pay a service to evaluate and certify its US equivalence.

If you have reason to believe that the threat of leaving the country with your child is real, then would highly recommend:

1) If child does not have US or other passport, notify DOS and every embassy/consulate of spouse's country in the US that you do not give permission for your child to be issued a passport. Include clear facial photographs of child and spouse. Notarize letter.

2) If child does have a US or other passport, notify immigration and airlines at major aiports your spouse may use that you do not give permission for your child to travel abroad. Include clear facial photographs of child and spouse and passport information of both if you have it. Notarize letter. If a single parent attempts to board an international flight with a minor child, many airlines require a letter of permission from the absent parent, or a statement of sole legal custody or death certificate. If a land crossing or seaport departure is likely, I would ensure that people at those crossings are aware of who your spouse and child is and that you have not given permission for your child to travel abroad.

3) File for a temporary protective order and restraining order, preferably in conjunction with sole temporary custody of the child until all the issues are worked out for a permanent dissolution of the marriage.

As noted in a previous post above, once the child gets out of the US it can become very expensive and extremely difficult to bring the child back into the US. I would work myself beyond the point of exhaustion to ensure this didn't happen.

Never tried to manage my fiance ... but I think it would be a fruitless endeavor had I attempted to do so ...

A US passport is proof of US citizenship.

If an immigration officer told you that that was not the case then they were mistaken.

Not True.

Non-Citizen US Nationals may apply and receive a US Passport.

As public employees, I wouldn't expect much - some know, most don't; some care, most don't. Being on top of things and excellent customer relations are not the hallmarks of public service. USPS seems to attract the deadweight for some reason. You'd be better served to go elsewhere, or at least ask to speak to the Post Master.

Yeah, when traveling MNL to USA you're crossing the International Date Line, so you must subtract 24hours from your flight time in order to figure your arrival time.

Oops ... not exactly from the 'flight time' ... this would be incorrect (sorry) ... but when traveling Eastbound across the International Date Line you subtract a day in order to arrive at the correct date/time and when traveling Westbound you add a day.

Daylight Savings Time can muck things a bit, so be aware of this and whether both countries use DST and/or according to the same schedule.

Yeah, when traveling MNL to USA you're crossing the International Date Line, so you must subtract 24hours from your flight time in order to figure your arrival time.

Which one?

La Laguna, metropolitan zone between the states of Coahuila and Durango in Mexico.

Laguna (province), province in the Calabarzon region in Luzon, Philippines

Laguna, New South Wales, a village in New South Wales, Australia

Laguna, Santa Catarina, a city in Santa Catarina, Brazil

Laguna City, a private-housing estate in Kowloon, Hong Kong

Laguna Army Airfield, a military airport in Arizona, United States

Laguna, Imperial County, California, a former settlement in California, United States

Laguna, New Mexico, a census-designated place in New Mexico, United States

Laguna, former name of Satin, Texas, United States

Do you really think she'd need a visa if she was from either of the last four options?

$100 per day for Super8? Unbelievable. You couldn't pay me to stay at a Super8.

Marriott has some great properties for less than that rate ... for a long-term stay you could probably find something more like $65-75 per day - a small suite with basic kitchen facilities. As noted above, priceline and expedia will likely find something a bit cheaper.

For only a couple of hours of your time you'll do better than before ... good luck!

Lawyers are like Accountants - you don't need one unless you're in a very complicated, quirky situation.

If you can read, write and understand basic concepts, then filling out the immigration paperwork is easier than filling out your tax forms (which aren't that hard either).

If you can garner a free consult, then it may provide peace of mind to have them give a cursory review to your paperwork and any particular questions you have, but from what I've seen I think you can do all that and more on this forum.

It is worse because the tax brackets are not the same -- they are worse.

I stand corrected. 2013 marginal tax brackets after $73201 are worse for Married/Separate than Single. This, coupled with the reduced deductions/credits available, really coalesce to make filing Married/Seperately a very bad thing.

When I got my divorce, ex refused to sign Joint return. I didn't fit within the limitations to file Head of Household. So, I was stuck filing Married/Separate. Judge could not make her sign the Joint return, but he did award me the difference in tax from her portion of the marital estate. When she realized it was going to cost her thousands of dollars, she tried to backtrack but the Judge was not hearing it at that point - told her to 'lie in the bed you've made'

Not possible. Because you have the same amount of deduction for both

Very possible.

Filing Married/Separately is worse than Filing Single. Even though the tax brackets are the same, there are several valuable deductions and credits that are available to a person filing Single or Married/Joint that are not available to a person filing Married/Separately. For example, the Earned Income Tax Credit, write-off of college loan interest, American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning tax credits for higher education, certain types of casualty and capital losses, the right to make Roth IRA contribution if your separate AGI exceeds $10,000, etc, etc.

Of course, if you are married than you are not allowed to file single - must either file Married/Joint, Married/Separate, or, with certain limitations, Head of Househould.

Not true. The whole point of the public defender is to put your interest first. Public defenders do better jobs than many lawyers in defending you.

A good friend of mine was a Public Defender for many years before becoming a DA. She developed opinions of her clients. For those she felt were guilty, she saw her job as providing an excellent defense which kept the prosecutor in line so that the convicted had less recourse for appeal and the conviction would stick. I remember a few cases where she became quite attached and put in extra effort at her own expense because she felt they were innocent and being mistreated. She was often overwhelmed with work and would push through minor cases with a conclusion that was okay for the client, but perhaps not the best had she had more time and effort to spare. She also had a boss and would be told to expedite and conclude cases to clear up time for others. Priorities were often determined for her and not by her.

I agree that there are many great lawyers who come through the Public Defender's office (I apologize if my previous comment implied otherwise), however, depending on your situation you may not always be getting the best possible advice.

Regarding accepting the PO, I think the OP needs to consider what evidence they have against what evidence the opposing party has. If I felt I had a better than average chance of avoiding it altogether, then I would try. A PO (other than temporary) is never a good thing, but sometimes may not be a terrible thing to deal with either. Maybe the PD knows more about the case than the OP has relayed? Maybe the PD doesn't see the PO as a big deal and PD may not see/understand possible implications to future immigration? Maybe PD doesn't have the resources or time to fight the PD? These are things to question and consider.

So basically you think I should NOT go with what my Public Defender is saying (accepting the Order of Protection against me without admitting) and that I should fight the case by all means, right?

The Public Defender works for the State/County, not for you. Whatever they recommend will be in the best interest of the State/County; you're interest comes last.

Waiting this long before you seek the advice of a competent immigration attorney?

You need to stop whining and take control of your situation.

Had a half-container shipped from Charleston, SC to Rotterdam Netherlands for $500 and whatever could be stuffed in it that wasn't some sort of regulated item (pressurized gas container, firearms, etc.) Took 3 months for delivery though.

Why not travel with your fiance/wife to ensure she makes it through smoothly and has you there for support should there be a delay or other issue? Especially if she has never traveled via airplane or internationally before?

I avoid ORD and CDG like the plague; relatively easy to do with good alternatives nearby.

From what you have written, you have NO reason to trust this woman.

You need to focus on your daughter. If the mother is as bad as you describe, then keeping your daughter away from her will be a good parenting.

DO NOT allow your daughter back to Columbia for ANY reason. If you do so, you will likely never see her again. You have the advantage here in the US - use it ruthlessly. Act quickly and secure the long-term custody and protection of your daughter.

You should never be alone with this woman. In fact, the only time you need to see her again is in divorce proceedings, though if you're lucky she won't show up and you get divorce in absentia. Hire a lawyer. Great divorce laywers know ####### about immigration and great immigration laywers know ####### about divorce law. You need the great divorce laywer.

File a motion to keep her away from your home. Protect your assets. Record every call and conversation you have with her. Keep a journal of every little thing that has to do with her. NEVER let her be in your presence alone. To increase her chances of a successful VAWA claim she will work to have you arrested for abuse whether it is true or not. DO NOT provide this opportunity to her.

As far as immigration goes - even if she is successfull with the VAWA claim, it is administrative in nature only and has absolutely no impact on you. Let it go.

More mis-information. Purchase whatever type of ticket you want. There is NO restriction or requirement.

Everyone I know always buys a round trip ticket because that is cheapest and NEVER EVER had any issue.

You guys are inventing issues that don't exist. Stop.

Actually, purchasing a round trip ticket when you only intend to use one leg of the journey, usually the outbound, is a violation of the contract of carriage you accept when you purchase tickets from most airlines. This scheme is called 'throwaway ticketing'. However, an airline isn't going to make an issue of it unless they see repeated use of this tactic and their means of tracking this information is mainly through frequent flier programs. The OP doesn't sound like they do much traveling, so it shouldn't be an issue.

I would recommend that if they go the RT route and do not intend to use the return leg that they call the airline and cancel the return leg with the simple explanation that they got married and decided to stay.

As previously mentioned, book online and avoid travel agents - they're about as useless as newspapers nowadays.

If you have lingering suspicions then you should move one.

If you insist though, a surprise trip would probably be cheaper and yield the same result(s).

Continued suspicious behavior in someone I was dating would be a red flag and I'd confront and move on. Life is too short to deal with that #######.

I did hire a PI when I was going through my divorce. An excellent PI isn't going to come cheap. I spent about $15k on surveillance and subpeonas, but I reason that it saved me over $500k in alimony and child support. If the potential loss wasn't so high, I would have rolled the dice without the PI.

I wouldn't bother with someone I was dating. But it's your money. Do what brings you peace of mind.

The only potential problem will be the airline. While not illegal, it is against the contract of carriage of most airlines to purchase RT airfare for the purpose of obtaining a cheaper fair than a one-way ticket.

However, this would only be an issue if it was tracked by the airline - frequent fliers doing this on a routine basis have had problems in the past. For a one-off, I would worry about it at all. To be safe, call the airline prior to departure of the return flight and cancel that portion of the ticket.

Not sure they tend to ignore. Marriage does get into a routine, perhaps that is the issue. Life gets busy with kids, jobs and other family obligations, so it takes more of a conscious effort to keep romance alive. Even the daily kiss goodbye can seem more like a routine event and may not always be 'noticed'.

After years of conducting business in Manila, let me add that NOTHING happens on time in PI. NOTHING.

Alas, the person that files is the person that controls most and absolutely controls the pace. That's not you, so you are now in 'respond' mode.

From my experience, I'm not entirely sure this is true. I was the 'defendant' and the first two months were hell for sure as I ran around getting my head straight and pointed in the right direction. However, everything kinda played out how I expected and wanted after the first hearing. A perceived advantage is that the plaintiff gets to speak first at trial (should there be one), but I don't think it had any advantage in my trial. I had a prioritized list of five things I wanted and I ended up with all five (all of which were contested).

Perhaps I'd have a different experience if my ex had a better attorney.

Divorce is all about realistic goals/strategy/tactics. Make sure your attorney knows EVERYTHING. ALWAYS tell the truth. That's it.