UH60Chief

I know many have already said it, but I will provide my 2 cents. My wife and I had already gotten plane tickets and she quit her job. We were to have the interview in September 2013 and fly out in mid October 2013. We went in for the interview and she was denied the visa. This came as a shock but we made due(still trying to get the visa now). Not trying to scare you, but this can be a reality. I would wait until you are officially approved for the visa.

Jawaree,

I cannot thank you enough for pointing us in Lizz Cannon's direction. In the last 2 days, she has been extremely helpful and has given us hope. We decided to ditch our other attorney and hire her. She reviewed our case and seems to think we should have no issues obtaining an approval. Apparently our previous attorney was an absolute moron that had no knowledge of immigration law. I will document how this process goes along for anyone else that may find themself in this situation.

Jawaree,

Thank you very much for the advice.

I contacted Liz Cannon and plead my case to her. She thinks it will be easy to obtain a waiver so I am going to go with her. Our first consultation is tomorrow via Skype. I will let you all know how it goes.

Just a caveat.... I believe I posted this in the wrong topic section. I am a US citizen so I should have posted under "Bringing Family members of US citizens to America"

Hello everyone.

First off, thank you to anyone who reads this and gives advice. I have been on the Visa Journey for almost 2 years now and still really have no idea what to do. I have been researching and asking questions nearly every day since my wife and I started this whole process. I still feel as lost as I did the day we started. I will try to be as brief as possible.......

My situation: active duty military stationed in Germany. My wife is a local national. We initally filed the I-130 in February 2013 and the petition was approved in May. We went in for the Visa interview in September of 2013 and were informed that the visa was refused(denied) on the grounds of crimes reflecting moral turpitude under section 212(a)(2)(A)(i)(I). It stated that we are eligible for a waiver by filing an I-601. At this point, I decided it was time to get a lawyer.

The lawyer reviewed our situation in Septmber 2013 and said there was no way to prove "extreme hardship" and 15 years had not passed since the crime. To give a background of the criminal charges....at the age of 16(year 1999) my wife had 2 convictions involving the defacement of public property(vandalism). The real kicker is that her mother was the one who actually did the vandalization and brought my wife with her. Guilty by association I guess. She was only given community service as a punishment and has not had a single incident since then(she is now 31 years old). Next month will mark 15 years since the incident so we are now exploring the option of the I-601. The past year I have also incurred a major back injury in the line of duty which has left me 80% disabled. My wife helps me with basic daily tasks due to the immobility of my legs and right arm. Germany does not have any VA facilities so I would have to be in the US to be treated for my condition. So, the extreme hardship may work in our favor now as well. My wife is very involved in both the US Military community here in Germany and she helps out at animal shelters on the German side. We have 5 character letters from people that have known her for over 10 years and also letters of recommendation from high ranking officials in the US Army. She was evaluated by a prominent Psychologist to determine she is of no harm or threat to anyone and that these acts were just adolescent stupidity that was encouraged by her mother.

So now that I have blabbed long enough about our situation, here are my questions. The lawyer had advised us to wait until the 15 year mark(next month) and file a completely new application for the I-130 and green card. What I am wondering is why would we file a totally new application when we know it will get denied at the Visa interview and have to go the I-601 route anyways? From my understanding, the Consulate does not care if it has been 15 years, the I-601 approving authority is the only one that takes this into consideration. Is there some kind of affadavit the lawyer can submit with our application that can obtain a waiver with the Immigrant Visa? I am confused as to how this lawyer can make a difference. I have called the Conulate in Frankfurt and they said I can still file the I-601 under the refused Visa from last year. It seems like filing under the already refused visa would save a lot of processing time since we would have to go through the whole process again if we follow the advice of the lawyer.

I apologize for writing a novel for you guys, I am just very lost and trying to find answers. Nobody in the USCIS has been helpful when I ask questions. They just refer me to a seperate organization that supposedly handles all Visa questions and Issues. They have not responded to a single one of my emails and never answer their phone. If anyone has advice on what to do, you would have my utmost gratitude and appreciation.