InhaleExhale

The best thing that can come of out of OP's extremely unfortunate--and in my opinion unfair but laws are laws etc--experience, is that it can be referred to when people throw out "overstays are forgiven for spouses!" spiel. 
 
Sure, but the major caveat is that you cannot come into contact with police or immigration officers. And many people think that translates to, "don't break any laws," which means they've never been in a car accident in the US, at fault or not. Let alone just being asked for identification in general--just coming into contact with any representative of the law can put your status in question. This is why some people refuse to act as witnesses. 
 
OP - thank you for posting your horrible experience, and I do think people can learn from it. I hope it gets sorted out sooner than later. 

I NEVER advised anyone that they should not keep a copy of the NAO1.  They should.  It helps to show "authorized stay"........I think you should use correct terminology when speaking about immigration.....THAT was the point.

My point was that terminology is important........You said "It would be a good idea to keep a paper copy of the NOA1 too.  This proves one is in status.  "     My point was that "authorized stay" does not equate to legal status.....
 
Filing the I-485 does not grant legal status.....whether filed before or after expiration of the I-94......legal status would come after approval of the AOS.
 

Like your Green Card must be carried at ALL TIMES. In the shower? In the back yard? What about if I walk to my mailbox and leave it in the house for 30 seconds? 🙄

Authorized stay does not indicate "in legal status"
 
 
From https://www.truvisa.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-lawful-status-period-of-authorized-stay-and-unlawful-presence/72"
USCIS Period of Authorized Stay by Attorney General
This comes into picture if your visa or i94 has expired. If you have already filed for a valid extension of your visa or i94 extension before any of them expired, and the decision is still pending with USCIS, you are considered ‘out-of-status’ but in ‘period of authorized stay’.
This period of authorized stay continues until the USCIS issues a decision on the pending case. If the application or petition is approved with an extension or change of status, the period of ‘out-of-status’ (from the date your visa expired to the date of USCIS decision is automatically converted to ‘Lawful status’)."

Is it actually legal for a "foreign" government to take away your government issued id's and passport? It doesn't sound right. 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I was only 12 days over which was a soon as I could with the marriage licence going missing first. Im paying the price even though I tried everything I could to get it off on time and now i face losing everything. 

Nobody was familiar with it. There was a lot of phone calls and googling going on, and I felt like I was trying to talk my way into something or ask for a favor to skirt the rules every single time. Airline check in, entering/exiting other countries, hell, even entering the US! The worst was probably during exit controls in Iceland where I had three people in this booth looking at my passport, expired card, and extension letter for about 20-25 minutes shaking their heads and speaking to each other in exasperated Icelandic. It really felt like they thought I made the whole thing up. I legitimately worked through it in my head what it would look like if I couldn't make it home on that flight. There was also the US immigration guy who didn't believe my ROC was still pending because "these things get processed in three months or less, unless there something really wrong with your application" paired with a suspicious sideways look. Or when I lost the letter and had to go beg (it's what it felt like) USCIS for a stamp, and they only gave me six months because "you shouldn't need more than that".
I have anxiety so that was probably worse for me than most people, but I wouldn't want to go through that again.

I filed with a divorce waiver so slightly more nerve-racking than the normal process. It cost money to file, I also paid for a lawyer to help me gather evidence for my specific situation, and collecting evidence took A LOT of time and printing.
I filed December 2015 and was approved February 2017 with no interview. In the meantime I had an expired green card and had to explain ROC every time I traveled, which was a lot, and when I got a new job. I also had to deal with the uncertainty of not knowing whether it'd be approved, so I didn't buy a house when I had the chance, and made other decisions with an eye on having to leave. Mentally, it was way more expensive than monetarily.

Hi! I used a lot of vj information to filed for aos and I wanted to share with you my experience and my aos package.
 
I'm from Argentina and I came to America in November with a J1 visa (summer work travel program), after dating my husband for a year, we got married on May 7th. According to my visa, I had to go back home before June 30th and even though I married a US citizen and I knew if I overstayed it was going to be waived, I was still so worried that I filed for AoS asap (June 19th).
A few things I'm going to say before I talk about my application is that I think 50% was pure luck, it was filing at the right time and date. The other 50% making sure nothing in my application could make the officer doubt and ask for more information or evidence. I made sure everything was disclosed and explained, it must have been either a pain in the ### or a blessing for whoever that took my case cause it was 400 pages long lol. Also the fact that my office was Reno helped a lot, I went twice for biometrics and interview and there was no one, the parking lot was empty, so they're pretty low on cases there. I didn't get help from a lawyer 'cause I considered my case was simple, it wasn't worth the money, we were on lockdown so I didn't have much else to do but getting obsessed with sending the perfect application, visiting hundreds of VJs topics and watching youtube videos. 
 
Another thing, specifically for I130 is that I was scared because my husband and I are in our early 20s, we got married a year after meeting each other, 7 months out of those 12 we were in a long distance relationship, he still lived with his parents, we both had part time jobs, we don't own anything, so we had to prove our love by telling them our story. How meant to be we are, how we clicked instantly, how we talked 3 hours a day every day, how I told him he could come to visit me and the next day he went to get his passport and bought flight tickets to see me, how we can't imagine being away from each other, that we did it for 7 months and we don't want to do it ever again, how we have plans for the future, etc. Our bonafide evidence was full of stories and we attached them with tickets, passes, reservations, photos, invitations. By the time of the interview we did gather a lot of primary evidence and the officer that interviewed us was more than pleased.
 
 
 
This was my package main cover letter
 
 
I had to explain a few things when I filed:
1. During a road trip all my forms of identification were stolen, so I lost my passport with my visa stamp and my country ids. Thankfully, I was able to get an emergency passport and sent that in the package with an explanation of what happened and secondary proof that I was here legally such as letters from my sponsors, employers, job reviews and flight tickets.
 
2. I was given an extension of my visa because of the pandemic, so I sent a letter from my sponsor that explains the extension and extra information on why I was given this extension (the borders of my country were closed and all my flights were canceled)
 
3. My husband was a dependent of him mom for 2017 tax returns so we wrote a letter that his mom signed.
 
4. I944 was intense haha, we couldn't get IRS transcripts before sending the application because at that time IRS offices were closed, so we sent the biggest WE TRIED letter, where we stated that we received no answer from IRS so we were going to send 1040s and W2s.
 
5. We didn't have a credit score or report because none of us has credit cars, loans, car, leases, anything. We're still pretty young and we haven't thought all that out yet (we should soon). So we explained that, we sent transunion letter saying we didn't have any of that, screenshots of the experian website saying they couldn't find me and I tried to get a credit card online and I didn't qualified.
 
6. For Education, I did an evaluation of my college transcripts with a NACES authorized agency (IEE), also I graduated from college but I came to America before i could sign my diploma so I don't have my diploma with me and that's the way I can prove I graduated, what I sent to prove I graduated was a certified letter by my college that stated that I did in fact finish college. The evaluation agency wrote that my degree was incomplete because they didn't accept the certified letter but I sent everything in my I944, cause why not.
 
7.I didn't send proof I know how to speak Spanish because that's my native language and in my transcripts from school we don't call Spanish classes that, we call them Language classes. I wrote a letter swearing I know Spanish and that's it.
 
When I filed I was afraid that my husband's tax return were going to look bad, because in 2019 he made a little over the percentage he had to make to sponsor me, in 2018 he made half of that percentage and in 2017 he was a minor and was a dependent of his mom. Still I sent all that information because if I disclosed it first it means I'm ahead of any questions they can ask us. That's just my mindset, I know a lot of people believe it's better to just put the last tax return information and that's fine. Also when we filed, my husband was unemployed and so was I (pandemic related), so we sent his last pay stubs and that's all. (He did have a part time job but that didn't make enough to support me at that time and he didn't file for unemployment)
 
Another thing is that (PLEASE DONT DO IT) I worked in the past unauthorized, this was way before I met my husband and I didn't think of the consequences, I had no idea at some point it could come back to bite me. So, I disclosed it, I said from what date to what date and in I485 I said yes to working unauthorized and violating the terms of conditions of my nonimmigrant status.
 
 
So this was my timeline
 
 
and here's what I sent the June 2020 filers group and hour after the interview:
 
 
 
And that's it. Right now, I have a job offer and I'm waiting for my green card to arrive. I'm excited about the winter, being with my husband without having to think of visas, uscis, forms, is great. I did get only the conditional green card, so in 2 years I'll have to do this again hahah.
 
I hope this long post helps you, please let me know if you have any questions, this was my experience, probably had a few mistakes, it's not perfect, I was just very lucky this process went as smoothly as it did. Thank you thank you thank you VJ members for answering all my questions and giving me so much information!
 
 
 
 

The policy memo is a jumble of information and can be hard to decipher. Any petition can be denied. The memo has a footnote referring to another memo which explains a bit more. Generally they process at the service centers and will RFE for as much info as they can to make a decision. They then approve, send for interview or deny. If the RFE responses are not enough they will send it to the local office for an interview. There are limited cases that are denied by the service center but those cases are denied for fraud or misrepresentation. Often in cases of suspected fraud they do interview- so for the service center to deny w/o interview it would be because they have some sort of documentation to support and there would be nothing you could say in an interview to 'change their mind'. No one is ever denied for failing to establish bonafides w/o having an interview. Does that make sense? Its kind of like the concept of 'due process'. USCIS does not take denials lightly. Its a complex set up where they have to internally justify things because you can appeal the denial. So again the only way they are going to deny w/o interview is if they have something specific. If they are denying based on 'judgement call' it would be after they interview you. 
 
You send your petition to the service center. It will be checked by the mail room for general completeness (signatures/payment) they dont actually look at any of your evidence. It will sit until someone picks it up. It can sit anywhere from 30-60 days to 8-12 months. Theres no way of knowing when someone will pick it up. Currently they have a huge backlog so I wouldnt expect anyone to get to your package quickly. When they do pick it up-that person will see you dont have the final decree and RFE you for it. You then get the 87 days to respond. Most likely you will have your final decree (even though its going to take you 6 months to get it) before this 87 days is up. IF by some chance your case moves quickly and you get this RFE before the final divorce then you reply to the RFE that you dont have the decree yet. They will not deny you because of that. As posted divorce is not a reason for denial. So the Officer at the service center has your case, they RFE you for the decree, you dont have it. Their options are to approve you (which they cant) deny you (which there needs to be a reason for denial besides not producing the divorce decree) or send you for interview. So you will be sent for interview. There will be a wait for an interview slot to open. It may be a long wait because again they are backlogged. So you will most definitely have your decree to bring to the interview. If you dont have it at the interview then you can try to reschedule the interview if you are close to getting the decree, but if you are not (some places have a 1-2 year divorce process) then you have to go to the interview where they will have to deny you and it will be sent to court where you can present your divorce decree. You want to avoid this if possible. Start the divorce asap. Due to the backlog and overall timelines of things you should have the final decree to submit with the RFE. Or you can file jointly and switch to a waiver once you get the decree- just as I said make sure you switch promptly and are not accidentally approved as a joint because you failed to switch.

Yes, it is good. Rationally thinking of course it is good. I try to keep that in mind when the emotional pain comes up. Thank you for reminding me of this  

Sorry, missed this. Your original post is too long and contains extra not necessary info  and I can’t be bothered making sense of it... so my brief summation and advice is this: 
Divorce is not a reason for I-751 denial, and this has been demonstrated in case law, and written in current USCIS policy.
Divorces don’t happen overnight...so of course there will be a period where you are living apart but still married. 
 
if you file by yourself with a divorce waiver, you can file at ANY time - it does not have to be in the 90 day window. This is specifically referenced in the instructions.
yes it may result in some additional hassle and scary letters or mention of NTAs or denials, but the fact remains you are permitted at any time until a final order of removal is made by an immigration judge (at which point you are no longer a permanent resident).

 

Concentrate on you, and what is best for you - not what you feel is best for immigration purposes.
Again, I will repeat - a marriage failure and divorce is not a reason for I-751 denial or termination of your permanent resident status. 
You have rights, and have a multitude of different legal avenues available to you, and further options depending what happens.  
 
 
 

Actually, it's good that you found out now, rather than after 10 years of marriage.  This realization now is saving you a lot of time in your life.

Ok so being honest I skimmed a lot of this because theres a lot of stuff posted that is IMO N/A. I could go through it and directly address why its N/A but I dont think its necessary. Instead Im just going to skip to the bottom line. There are a few key things you are confused about- hence all the N/A questions and concerns-
 
Your ROC window opens in Feb. Your marriage is falling apart. You are wondering if it is better to remain in it to fix it or walk away now. Right? Ok. 
 
Scenario 1- You keep working on the marriage. Around Dec your ROC window will open (its 90 days before the card expires). If you are still together you need to file a joint ROC. This requires his signature at the time. It will also require him to  attend a joint interview. Based on what you posted your spouse is verbally abusive, unpredictable,  canceled therapy. So ask yourself- is this the type of person you can depend on? Doesnt seem so to me. People dont change. When someone shows you who they are you best believe them. If you want to keep at the relationship then keep at it. File the joint ROC in Dec if things are still good. The interview may be 1- 1.5 yrs later. If things get better- great. Go to the interview. If things get worse or at any time you want to walk away- then you walk away and switch to a divorce waiver.
 
Scenario 2- throw in the towel now. File for divorce. Make sure to file ROC in the 90 day window regardless if you have the final divorce decree. You fill it out as a divorce ROC and include a letter that you dont have the decree yet. Eventually they will RFE you for it- probably months after filing, maybe sooner, maybe longer. When they do if you still dont have the final decree you respond telling them that. They will then schedule you for an interview. That will take months to happen. At the interview if you still dont have the decree then they will send your file to the court where you will get time to present it. Some places take 1-2 years to get final decrees done. 
 
The bottom line is whatever you decide theres an immigration process for it. You should not base your life decisions on which immigration process is easiest- that borders on fraud. But I understand wanting to know the impact of your life decisions on the immigration process you will be faced with. So if you keep at the relationship but live separately for a while (or even throughout the whole ROC process) you will 100% have an interview because of the living separately and your spouse must be fully supportive during the interview. People have been approved when separated but they are always on very good terms and there is still trust between them. I dont get that feeling here but its up to you. If you go this path and it doesnt play out well you will have to switch to the divorce waiver and depending on the time frame of when you walk away and being able to get the final decree you may end up having to go to court to complete the divorce ROC. If you have faith that things will get better and are OK with it possibly being that it doesnt work out and you end up on a more difficult ROC path- go for it.  

Hey, sorry I didn't reply earlier -- I must have missed that. geowrian gave you great advice.
 
The most important thing is that YOU dictate when or if you want to be divorced and let the immigration issues pan out. I'm so sorry he was abusive to you. You need to take care of yourself, first and foremost. Please do what you need to stay safe -- physically, mentally and every way. Gather your documents that you need for both your divorce and for ROC through the divorce waiver. I know you're worried about the ROC on your own but there are so, so many success stories on here. Please focus on the divorce right now and unhooking your life from his. Your self-preservation is the most important thing, more important than thinking about ROC which you don't even need to think about until next year. Don't think about "how will USCIS see this?" think about "how do I see this?" Do you see your life as being somehow better NOT filing for divorce right as soon as you can? 
 
I know you are in a lot of pain now -- I have been there too. It's a terrible club to be part of, the divorce club, but it's worse to be in the "I'm sticking it out because of immigration" club. Take care of yourself. ❤️ 

I don’t see any fraud? Marriages fall apart. People change their minds and move on. I have been through a divorce. I never got married with the intention of getting divorced (I can’t imagine anyone does) but it didn’t work out. Hey ho. 
 
Unfortunately you have not helped yourself by claiming the green card is your property (it’s not, no matter what you think) and telling her to leave (you can’t make her leave, no matter what you think). You can’t make her surrender her green card. I’m not surprised such comments were met with the treats of a restraining order. You sound very controlling. Just let her go. She doesn’t want to be married to you anymore. No point wasting any more energy on it. Divorce, protect your assets, move on. 

That is an unexpected twist! You are entitled a 10 years GC and you didn't even need to go through ROC.
 
As @mindthegap mentions, that is an easy mistake to correct. 

Hold up... three years?
If you had been legally married for two years or more at the time your permanent residency was approved, it should have been IR-1 ( a ten year card), and not CR-1 (a 2 year card) and you should not have had to file an I-751 to remove conditions in the first place....making this whole thing largely a moo point.
 
What exactly does your permanent resident card say under category? And does it have an expiry date of two years after the ‘resident from’ date? 
Either something is missing in this story, or USCIS made a mistake issuing you CR-1 instead of IR-1 (which does happen from time to time and is easily correctable). 

Conditions being lifted would likely be in close to 2 years (or sometimes much longer). They have over 6 months until they are eligible to file for it and then at minimum a year for ROC adjudication (sometimes over 2 years...and who knows with the pandemic and furloughs...).
 
If you file jointly, an interview would require you both to be there (barring certain reasons for being unable to do so, like a deployed spouse). If he refuses to attend the interview (or worse - decides to tank it on purpose or claim fraud at it, which people have done), expect an I-751 denial.
The main thing is not living together. When you file jointly, they will almost certainly want to see evidence of living at the same address up until the point of filing, then again from filing to interview (or RFE). Once they see you don't live together, expect scrutiny.
This is the riskiest option IMO.
 
The only relevant way you can file solo is via a divorce waiver. You can do so without the divorce being final yet, but USCIS will eventually send an RFE for it. Failure to provide one requires that they deny the I-751. They can't keep holding it until you get divorced.
 
One can file jointly then switch to a divorce waiver once actually divorced. Just tell USCIS about the divorce in a timely manner.

Heya OP,
 
I just wanted to say I'm sorry about what's happened, and to wish you all the very best. 🙂

I got divorced in California and we ended up getting our petition bifurcated. Basically that meant that while the dissolution of the marriage took place at one stage, the money stuff was handled separately. It took a long time. But I want to stress that we had a messy divorce that isn't the norm -- he told me he was filing (and he did) but he took his time doing it, and I let him control it in the beginning. If I'd known better I would have borrowed money to file it myself! We also had considerable assets to divide, and he was a jerk during that.....
 
Anyway what I am trying to say is that if your husband is going to be reasonable about the divorce, it should take about 7 months, yes. You might be eligible for what is called a summary dissolution. There are very specific rules but look into it. It is clean and simple and is basically a walkaway -- no one takes anything from the other, no support, etc. You can't have any children involved and you can't have significant joint debts or assets. It could be possible though.
 
I cannot stress this enough: get a good lawyer unless you are doing the summary dissolution. They will hold your hand and fight for you when your fight feels gone. This is a tough time but there are SO many of us who have come out the other side with the lives we deserve.  
 
Edit: info on summary dissolution: https://www.divorcenet.com/states/california/ca_summary_dissolution

Who said it's a big red flag? Divorce happens with both immigrant and non-immigrant families. The waiver is nothing uncommon.
Not living together by choice and claiming an ongoing bona fide marriage does seem like it could raise some questions. The timeline of living together is something they do look at.
 
tldr version: Don't base or adjust your decision to stay in a marriage or not on immigration.
 
1) No - they don't care if you're still married or not unless you are filing a case with them.
2) See the tldr above. Address the marriage issue separately than that of the immigration issue. If you want to divorce now, go for it and file as such.
You can file the I-751 anytime within 90 day window of the card expiring (assuming that date is correct - it should be 2 years from the date you obtained permanent residency), OR sooner if your divorce is final before then.
3) Not IMHO. What matters is showing that it was entered into in good faith, not really how or why it ended (just that it ended if filing with a divorce waiver).
The exception would be if there was a finding of marriage fraud in the process...that would presumptively indicate not a bona fide marriage or USCIS as well.

Thank you for your sweet reply and the hugs ❤️ I am much better now than I was half a year ago 😕 
If you ask me what is right for me at this point then right for me would be to NOT stress whether to get divorced now. If I didn't have the ROC window opening I would wait and let everything kind of cool down for a few months after I have moved out. At that point we would both have more clarity as well as more calmness in dealing with each other I think.
Really the only reason I am considering doing it now is because I read a few times already that one should get divorced if they don't live together anymore and that USCIS could look at it with suspicion why we did not get divorced if the marital relationship is over. USCIS may wonder why we file jointly when we have been conducting ourselves as separated for more than a year (it will be more than a year of termination of marital relationship once I file)? I also read on a few lawyers websites that they had couples who weren't sure whether they want to stay married or not but for the sake of the clean ROC they got divorced and re-united later.
I think I have sufficient evidence of the bonafides of us.
Here in CA getting it takes about 7+months to get the decree. I strongly believe I do have to worry about my immigration even though I wish I had more time to process our marriage.
Hmmm...

Hey there -- first up: BIG HUGS. This is a terrible time but I want to say it is better that you realize now there is no point in continuing after trying to fix your marriage when he refuses to take part in solving your problems. I stuck around too long in a marriage that was abusive in almost every way except physical. I thought if I just kept trying and loving him more and in the ways I thought he wanted that eventually things would work themselves out. They didn't. Well done for getting out now before you do more damage to yourself. ❤️ 
 
You do need to tell USCIS when you move out, but you do not need to tell them right now that you are getting divorced. When you file with the divorce waiver, that is when you tell them.
 
Get divorced ASAP if you want to be divorced -- the divorce waiver exists for situations like yours. You entered into the marriage in good faith, it broke down like many other "domestic" marriages do. Gather all the evidence you have of your joint life together --taxes, rental agreements, insurance, credit cards, bank accounts, etc. Everything that shows you had a "real" marriage. However from what I read on here, you are better off waiting until you have your divorce judgment/decree in your hands before you file, especially since your window doesn't open until next year. 
 
It doesn't make a difference who initiates the divorce. Your husband is a schmuck. You do not need to convince him to divorce you for USCIS to approve your ROC. Do what is right for YOU and worry about immigration things later.
 
Good luck and be kind to yourself. This isn't going to be easy, but it will be the right thing to do. You can do this!!!