Elf

This has been extensively discussed in your previous post.  My advice: Get on a plane and return to the US.....soon.  Regardless of the route you take, you will, likely, be questioned in secondary...

OP is American and understands American culture. You want a 16 year old to help with childcare? Sure, you do it. How you do it is, you get a local high school kid who can do it in the evenings or on weekends or in summer vacation and get paid for it. High school babysitters are pretty cheap.  You don’t import a minor to do it. 

Does nobody else have a problem with wanting to get a 16 year old to come from the other side of the world to help look after babies? The niece was expressly included for this purpose in the OP.

Jeez you guys don’t even read between the lines but off the edge of the page 
obviously they thought originally she’d have to leave when the visa expired, not understanding the difference between visa vs i94 expiry.  Why not stay for a longer visit if you  can? I did that when I had the time to do it. Without meeting anyone!!
leave it up to VJ to find nefarious motives for every simple question 

Second thread I’ve read in this forum today and second one to have this misinformation. You do not have to be married to the same USC who sponsored you for a green card. You just have to have been married to the same (ie one, not consecutive lol) USC for 3 years and have had a green card that entire 3 years. I personally know someone who got their green card through DV lottery while already having a USC spouse and naturalized through the 3 year rule.  Here is the relevant chapter from the uscis manual https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-g-chapter-3 - nowhere does it mention that you must have got the green card through marriage much less through marriage to the same person you’re basing the 3 year rule on.
 
(Also to be nit picky, “anyone” having had a green card for 5 years is not automatically eligible, as they have to meet the requirements for physical presence and continuous residence to be eligible..)
 
 

N-400 based on the 3-year rule is an option even if an applicant gained their LPR status through non-marriage-based paths.  There is no requirement for an N-400 applicant to be married to a USC from the start of their LPR status.  The only requirements related to marriage are for the N-400 applicant to be --
in a valid marriage with a USC -- marriage is legal where it was performed, legal in the US, and entered into in good faith (not for immigration benefits) living in marital union with their USC spouse for at least 3 years immediately prior to filing N-400 still married to their USC spouse up to the time of their US oath ceremony https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-g-chapter-2
 

The N-600 is for someone who has already become a citizen and who wants proof of his citizenship (most commonly for children whose parents naturalized and the children then became citizens automatically, they may want proof of their citizenship other than just a passport).

It doesn't apply to you, since 1. you're not a citizen, and 2. you will get your certificate when you take the oath. 

I am not sure why ppl think this may be a scam.
 
A scam would be:  "Hello, this is USCIS, can you please verify your identity?  Please tell me your name, address, SSN, mother's maiden name, name of your favorite pet, and also your credit card number and 3 digit code for secondary identity verification...."
 
A scam is not when USCIS calls to make an appointment over the phone and have you go to a USCIS BUILDING.
 

Usual prefatory remarks here -- I'm a lawyer, but not a Texas lawyer, and definitely not anyone's on here. All that being said: the judge is correct. He does not have personal jurisdiction over the absent spouse. I will not bore anyone with the topic of personal jurisdiction, but in general state courts are unable to "hale" into court anyone who is outside of their state, unless there is a long-arm statute on the books that permits them to do so, and thus establish PJ over the out of state person. Out of state PJ is not unlimited though, and in order to exercise it certain criteria must be met. This is the case here. If you look at the "Original Petition of Divorce" in Texas (accessible here: https://texaslawhelp.org/sites/default/files/2021-09/fm-divb-100_div_w_kids_petition_english_petitioner.pdf), it gives a thorough rundown of when a Texas judge may exert PJ over an out of state defendant in divorce proceedings:

Do any of these apply? Apparently not, if I am reading the OP's posts correctly. A quick consult with a TX family attorney is the best bet here if the spouse is not willing to submit to TX jurisdiction and file a waiver of service or answer. Looks like service by publication can get a little hairy in TX if there is any property involved and would not be a DIY proposition. 
 
Good luck. Contrary to popular opinion, attorneys are actually useful members of society every so often.

Ok happy you don’t care but you are not helping with my original question.
 
I think it’s important as I’ve needed it for jobs and also like having all of my original docs. Which is why I created this thread…

In this case, it WAS objectively rude for the IO to say that couples are expected to have children after a certain amount of time. He had no idea if OP is/was capable of having children or if they even wanted to. It's a personal decision to have kids or not and a couple isn't legally less deserving of approval if they don't have kids. If they have kids, great, show their birth certs to the IO. But for an IO to show their prejudice like that is highly unprofessional. 

And where are the statistics that prove that USCIS looks more favorably on couples with children? If that were the case, why was I never asked about children or why I don't want to have children? Why was my process super easy, all the way until naturalization under the 3-year rule? And why were my other friends who went through this exact same process as me who also don't have children were not asked about children either and why was their process so easy then? What about the couples who DO want children but cannot due to severe medical and/or psychological issues? 

Not true at all. 
My AOS we had no children together. No interview.  My ROC we had no children together. No Interview.  My N400 we had a daughter together and the IO did not count her at all or want to even see her BC. She wanted more joint/co mingled items. 
 
Every now and again we get someone with and IO who says and does silly things like the above. Good thing most of the time the files need to be approved by a supervisor and not he wing nut who says things like that. 

My ROC was also approved with no interview and we have no children and don't plan to. We were also never asked once throughout the whole process if we had children or were planning to. It's purely due to the individual IO and their bias. Some IO's do think that if a couple has children, it's "stronger evidence". But not every IO operates like that (and they shouldn't because the whole point is to be objective and adjudicate each couple on the basis of their unique circumstances) beause as pointed out, there are many couples who can't have children or don't want to. Not having children does not mean a couple is less in love or is less legitimate or is less bonafide than those do. 

I think you better prepare for married life outside the US as your wife was admitted to the US unlawfully if she entered as a married derivative beneficiary.  USCIS will discover that she was wrongfully granted LPR status, so she is not eligible to petition for you.
 

Update:
- Got a court order from the family court placing the boy with us.
- Then filed an SIJS (I-360) on the basis of the court order, and it was approved.
- Filed for AOS (I-485) on the basis of the approved I-485, under process. (Could've filed I-360 and I-485 concurrently, but opted to do it this way based on a lawyer' advice.)
 
Hopefully he'll get his GC soon.
 

The child is not a USC.  OP already stated that the father does not have the required years of US physical presence to be qualified to pass US citizenship to his child.
 

Please FORGET everything you know , knew before making your post. If possible read each response trying to tell you…MOM / YOU have NOTHING to do w dads N-400. 

File a complaint with the DMV department. Make an infopass appointment and get an ADIT stamp in the passport.  I don't see a need for an attorney.  This is not a criminal matter, imo. 

Unnecessarily rude.

Why not update your Driver's licence, just to have an easy-to-carry ID in your name?  

Service by publication is absolutely permissible under TN law and is probably a good choice here. As someone who spent months during 2020 trying to serve a Russian oligarch with a complaint, ask me how much fun it is to try to effect even substitute service on someone who's resident in Russia, even before the war. (Hint: it was not fun, except when we got the court to grant an order allowing us to serve the guy via email. That felt fantastic, because his US lawyers were [insert nasty plural noun].) Service by publication usually requires a showing that something more than "I tried" -- have you exhausted all regular means of service? Can you document your efforts? That's what they're looking for. The impossibility of service by regular means will help, too. 
 
A few other points to the OP: PLEASE seek competent local counsel. PLEASE! That your attorney didn't mention service by publication right off the bat is worrying. Yes, there are hoops to jump through, but you look likely to be able to jump through them. Ask people you know for personal referrals, and read Google reviews as well as Martindale-Hubbell for peer reviews. (Google reviews of lawyers tend to be more informative, in my personal opinion, than Yelp reviews.) 
 
Also, I looked at your timeline and you were married for under 18 months before you split. Now, I don't claim to know anything about TN family law (see my closing remarks below), but family courts are courts of equity. This means that the judge is empowered to weigh all sorts of different factors in deciding how to distribute the marital estate, and whether either party has a right to spousal support, and how much, for how long, and from where.
 
In your favor: short marriage, never lived together, little (if any?) financial comingling, likely little to no showing of financial dependence of one spouse upon the other, and (I'm guessing) your husband is still relatively young and capable of gainful employment at or around the same level of seniority and pay as before the marriage, notwithstanding factors outside of his and your control like the war. Working against you: that you were married at all, and I'm guessing no prenup. Theoretically, your husband may be entitled to a portion (not necessarily half, and unlikely to be given the factors I listed above) of the real and personal property you acquired during the duration of the marriage. This means normal earnings from a job, investment dividends, cars and other big-ticket items, and any real estate. It doesn't mean any inheritances or personal injury proceeds, plus anything you brought into the marriage or anything you designated as your own separate property. Of all that, the salary and investment earnings are the most likely targets, but even then -- you were only married 16 months before the date of separation to someone you never lived with as your spouse.
 
You aren't required to give him a better life -- the court needs to ensure that he is not worse off economically for marrying you. A judge isn't going to make a person in a 16-month marriage pay for the other spouse's education, give him a leg up, or set him up for life. Particularly someone who (forgive me if I am wrong) is likely not a squillionaire.
 
In my personal opinion, do not pay this man money to go away without letting the court shepherd you through this a little. It could be you can walk away with an order of dissolution without needing to pay him a penny. Is he planning on having local representation? How's he going to pay for that? Contingency fee agreements are not a thing under TN law as it relates to "domestic relations" matters such as obtaining a divorce or alimony so he needs to pay. He's blowing smoke up your heinie (legal term) and trying to get you to cough up without him having to spend anything. Stuff that. Once you serve him, whether by publication (affordable) or court order permitting service by email (less affordable, requires much more attorney work), he's in the case. If he's a no show, he gets no chance to make his case -- but that's his problem, not yours.
 
Right now, start gathering all your evidence. That you didn't support him, that there was little to no financial comingling, what he was earning before the marriage, etc. Find a good local attorney with at least some experience of international divorce. Paying him now to go away, when you don't have an order you can enforce in court, is just opening a tap that he isn't going to want to turn off. The courts are here to help enforce rights, yours and his. Take advantage of them.
 
Touchy-feely stuff: I know this feels like junk right now. I have been divorced twice, and they both felt like hell for different reasons. (Note: do not marry your first boyfriend after you divorce -- rebound divorce is real!) But it truly does test your mettle and can be transformative. Big girl pants time now. You can do this. 
 
Closing remarks in disclaimer: I am a lawyer, but not anyone on here's lawyer, and I'm a California lawyer and definitely NOT a Tennessee family lawyer, so everything I just said is just plain ol' "I'm trying to be helpful in a, you know, friendly capacity" so don't rely on anything I said in court -- seek qualified local counsel. And to the OP specifically: your soon to be ex sucks. I'm glad you figured it out before you had to suffer through marriage together.

You stated he was only allowed 20 minutes for each interview. How is this his fault? Why are you blaming him when he has absolutely no control over how much time he's given for interviews? I know you're frustrated but you're taking it out on the wrong person. Seriously. Where you work aren't you at the mercy of your supervisors? I know I am. It's no different for this guy.

USCIS is completely funded by the application fees, like the post office is from the sale of stamps and postage. Your taxes do not fund their salary's.
 
Is USCIS federally funded?     Unlike most other agencies, USCIS is “fee-funded,” meaning that its funding comes primarily from fees charged to those applying for immigration or naturalization benefits, not taxpayers.Apr 8, 2022

Taxes don't pay their salaries, the immigration fees pay their salaries.