bledgeway1

On 9/21/2018 at 3:49 PM, Damara said:

OMG why did you file under hardship??? The attny you went to is clueless. FIND A NEW ATTNY or attempt to fix this yourself. You need to get divorced. File for divorce and try to request USCIS to change you from hardship to divorce waiver. They may or they may not. If they dont you need to refile/pay again under divorce. 

Very few people need to file under hardship. It is incredibly difficult to prove and you have to prove the marriage and the hardship. Filing under divorce you only need to prove the marriage. Post back if you need more help. 

Thanks for reply - already divorced, it was finalized in Feb 2017. 

I'm currently in process of finding out if sticking with current I-751 is viable....someone mentioned to me that even though I had applied to prove both marriage and hardship that evidence supporting only one of these claims would suffice. I'm double checking that though. If not, I'll be refiling the I-751 without filing for hardship part.

I am currently in the process to have the conditions removed on my 2 year green card. The original filing method was spouse sponsored. However, the marriage broke down and we sat down with an immigration lawyer to discuss different options for filing the removal of conditions because a divorce was imminent. As we have a 5 year old daughter, I was told that filing using a hardship waiver/exemption was the best and most logical step. I filed 18 months ago. Two days ago (15th Spet 2018) I received a response citing insufficient evidence that the marriage was entered into in good faith and insufficient evidence that deportation would result in extreme hardship to myself or my child. 

In order to receive the conditional 2 year green card, we already had to submit evidence that the marriage was entered into in good faith, and we endured a stern and thorough interview process. Our problem is that we don't have a great deal of solid evidence to support this - we were married in a courthouse due to me having just finished college (we had been together 4 years prior to marriage) - we decided to put off the ceremony until we had the finances to include both families and do it as we wanted, so there is no picture/video evidence which would strengthen our case. We've also never had joint ownership of any house or a joint tenancy agreement on any apartment. This is due to me having no credit history in the US at the time. When we tried to buy a house together the mortgage company would only lend the money to purchase if I agreed and signed documents stating I had no ownership or equity in the house. In fact, getting financed on anything has been a constant stumbling block during my time here - nobody will finance me at a fair rate (I'm paying 13% interest on a car loan).....but this is another story.

The only "joint" things we have are a tax return we filed together. We also have copies of state licenses which show the same address - and my ex wife has me listed on a life insurance policy she took out through her old job. 

Regarding the lack of proof for extreme hardship - we have a court ordered consent judgement and joint stipulation. It outlines that we both have 50/50 custody of our daughter and neither parent has more rights than the other. We have a schedule whereby we each have her 3.5 days out of the week. All education, health and other decisions are made together. All finances and costs are split equally. We have documentation showing this. I don't understand how they can view deporting me as being anything other than extreme hardship. Psychologically it would break us both. I'm worried they view the court documents merely as an attempt by me to flout the law and they believe I'm nothing more than an absent father who supports financially from time to time - nothing could be further from the truth. All of the dealings between my ex-wife and myself are civil and amicable. The needs of our child are put first.

In their letter to me they do outline several additional ways to show extra evidence. Here are some which are relevant to my case:

- Potential effects of your deportation on your children and their dependence on your support, such as education, lack of familiarity with your home country, language issues, financial and health requirements
- Major disruption in your family life
- Potential psychological impact of deportation on yourself and your children

We are in the process of scheduling a therapist to interview our daughter and give a detailed professional assessment which we can then submit. As far as major disruption to family life goes, my life is based here. The 2 bed apartment I rent for my and my daughter, my car note, all other bills and commitments are all here.

If there is anybody who has constructive advice or has been in a similar situation I'd appreciate anything you think would help the situation. Is there something obvious that I'm overlooking?

Thanks for reading.