Teemo

Had my interview on 8/26, they gave me the same letter "held for review" and said it could be up to 120 days, but then the IO told us "it does not take that long." 3 days later my case was approved. So it should be fast. But sometimes things fall through the cracks or they just take forever on stuff. It sucks but doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong. Definitely do infopass/call USCIS/file a request etc. Don't even let your lawyer do it, do it yourself, you'll be far more engaged and persistent than he will. 

To put it bluntly, your marriage seems like(removed) and the USCIS called you out on it. It's applications like yours that slow down the system for everyone else. Deserved denial, an appeal won't help unless and until you have a bona fide marriage, where you know, family actually attends your wedding and you have real conversations not made up ones. 

Had my interview on 8/26, they gave me the same letter "held for review" and said it could be up to 120 days, but then the IO told us "it does not take that long." 3 days later my case was approved. So it should be fast. But sometimes things fall through the cracks or they just take forever on stuff. It sucks but doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong. Definitely do infopass/call USCIS/file a request etc. Don't even let your lawyer do it, do it yourself, you'll be far more engaged and persistent than he will. 

I traveled 7x using advance parole in the last year, and am a long time overstay. No problems getting in all 7 times. Secondary inspection every time but was quick and painless. 

You should FIRE that lawyer who didn't object to the original petition to go through without any REAL evidence.  I understand a lawyer wants to make money but he should have some ethics knowing that the petition would most likely be denied without evidence of bona fide marriage.  
 
I think your wife needs to do some more research if she believes that it is "culturally normal for a Muslim man to marry a Christian woman 21 years with 2 children old than him."

To put it bluntly, your marriage seems like(removed) and the USCIS called you out on it. It's applications like yours that slow down the system for everyone else. Deserved denial, an appeal won't help unless and until you have a bona fide marriage, where you know, family actually attends your wedding and you have real conversations not made up ones. 

Honestly, we are good.  While it slowed us down a little, we had an amazing wedding with Rose's family in attendance.  All told, I am actually happy it worked out this way.  To be able to share that experience with Rose's family was worth the extra time required.  Now I get to wait with my wife instead of my fiancee.  

I got approved for my green card via AOS on 8/29! Interview on 8/26, PD of December 4, 2017, in Manhattan. Loooong wait but so relieved and happy. My review of the interview is here: https://www.visajourney.com/reviews/view-dos-cis-reviews.php?entry=26971
 
Good luck to everyone!

@Teemo Thank you so much for your response. This gives me so much hope! I appreciate you, and good luck with everything! 😊

I traveled 7x in the last year on advance parole as a long time overstay and never had any issue. I did a ton of searching on this forum and others and could not find someone with issues using valid AP to re-enter. It's not zero risk, but it's minimal. Matter of Arabally has not changed and this issue has not changed. 

Karine is a master manipulator.  She lends him her phone to use the translator app and he looks at her messages and sees that she talks to other men in English.  So probably Americans.  He confronts her (in front of mom who doesn't understand a word).  She gets angry and storms out.  And mom of course blames Paul and thinks that he mistreats her daughter.  If Paul knew how to put together 3 words in Portuguese he would be able to tell mom why he yelled at her precious little angel.   Maybe then mom (and probably dad) would understand some of the issues, not just the lies that their little angel tells them.  They believe he's an (emotional) abuser.  He is a complete weirdo, yes.  But he has a point with being angry for her talking to other men in English.  She's either looking for a new guy, looking to cheat, or looking to hook.  No other reason for a married woman in her situation to speak to American men.
 
Then she leaves him in the other town and goes back to mommy and daddy's town to start the divorce.  He follows her there.  They met at a restaurant to talk about their relationship and he brings up the talking to men thing and she starts again about him being bad person and mistreating her.  In other words, she wants to do whatever she wants and if he calls her out, he's a bad guy.  I bet she's doing cam shows (on a computer Pole paid for i'm sure) and desperate sick losers are paying to see her naked.  That's how they "help". 

My guess is that Maria has come down with a level 3 contagious disease and has been put into Quarantine in Ukraine CDC-type facility.  She's not allowed to leave for at least 3 years.  And she cannot have visitors but she can receive Western Union and the place has good wifi for chatting.
 
Maria:  "If you really loves me, you will wait for me, my husband.  [And keep sending money]"
Caesar:  "Of course my wife, I will never leave you.  Till death do us part, [even if we never meet.]"
 
 

Entry with AP is always at CBP's discretion. They can choose to not do so and you're stuck with it. The other issue is if AOS is denied while abroad, in which case AP is automatically revoked. So there certainly is a concern/risk, but so long as AP was properly issued and there's no good reason for them to not let you back in (i.e. undisclosed criminal record, new crimes abroad, etc.). then the risk is incredibly small.

Well, we could do a lot of things because of isolated incidents. We could never take an Uber because an Uber driver killed a passenger one time. But it's not so rational to do so. Matter of Arabally is settled case law, unless it gets withdrawn which would be all over the forums.  It has been in effect for years. I researched this so much and got very comfortable with it. It's not a loophole or a mistake or something temporary. If you leave and use AP to return, you have not "departed" the US and are not triggering the bar. I used it 7x and my long overstay never came up. Sounds like you were scared of not getting in because of some security issue. I understand it's scary. It was scary for me too, which is why I spent so much time researching it. There is no upcoming travel ban that would happen with 1 day notice. Trump learned his lesson there within 48 hours. He couldn't do it again even if he wanted to. It's not rational to use this as your argument. The only rational argument against it is "I can absolutely do it, but it's scary and not worth the stress and mental toll." That resonates. But hopefully my experience doing it 7 times can give others some comfort. 

Dumb. AP is AP. Yes if you go to Iraq or Syria you might have a problem. But that is because of reasons other than the AP, it's because you might present a security risk. I went to a Muslim majority country for 11 days using AP. One of the 7 times I used AP. All were routine to get back in, perhaps on this visit I got one more question "Why did you go to this country."
 
Are you still using this one incredibly isolated incident (an illegal and confusing travel ban that got reversed 48 hours later) to scare everyone out of using AP?

No more mistakes going forward!  Way too important to make silly mistakes. Triplecheck everything. Luckily this shouldn't cost you anything, in the AOS interview they'll ask you to correct it. 

You've missed the joke 3 times now. He said watch your wording (with a crying with laughter emoji) because she said cash in "hand jobs." Hence the lesbian reply. 

There never was a reference to anything to do with the LGBTQ community from @geowrian answer. He/she was letting you know that jobs that are "cash in hand" jobs are taxable income. If you file a for a tax year and do not divulge that income you are now creating tax fraud. Just saying.
 
BTW, the US IRS is not bias to where their money comes from.

Then what was he referring to?

To everyone saying nobody said anything bad about lgbtq, I never said that anyone did! Lol!!
 
Some commented that I should have done a spell check because me writing “cash in hand  jobs” looked funny / insinuating the sexual meaning. And I laughed it off saying well we are lesbians anyway so whatever..  get me?  I’m having fun with it.  Miscommunications guys x 

She said she may have the last two years but the job before that she didn’t make any money as it was her own business in music and had zero income and she lived off her parents hand outs for a year while she focused on music. So if there’s nothing to file that would be fine for that year right?!! Some jobs before that were minimum wage cash in had roles that she believes were way below the taxable income .
 
 
oh and we are lesbians so I don’t care about the typo cause we don’t touch men ahahaha 

It's not an issue for the K-1 itself as only current income and/or the most recent year's tax return is typically necessary for the I-134.
 
For AOS (after arrival in the US on the K-1 visa) to get the green card, she must have filed federal tax returns for at least the previous 3 years (so long as her income was above the minimum threshold to file).
Sounds like she needs to start filing the back returns.
Failure to file and failure to pay taxes are an IRS issue, but each have a penalty involved that only gets worse over time.
 
You might want to watch your wording 🤣

You've missed the joke 3 times now. He said watch your wording (with a crying with laughter emoji) because she said cash in "hand jobs." Hence the lesbian reply. 

The OP shouldn't have an issue getting back into the country with a missing or damaged green card - if they can get to the border. The issue is how would they board the flight? Without proper documentation, the airline won't board them.
 
In your case, the valid AP is sufficient for the airline to board you.

Presumably OP's friend will fly back to the US from the Dominican Republic. For flights, before even reaching CBP, travelers encounter airline staff at boarding. Odds are the airline staff won't accept a damaged GC.