Shane H

Shane, I have sent you a personal message on a lawyer that is based in Southeast Michigan. My wife and I used him, and we even had a more complicated case than yours, and he helped out greatly and she came to the States back on June 5 of this year.

Thanks for the advice. Muchly appreciated. Thanks to everyone else as well.

Shane, definitelky get a consultation with an immigration lawyer and DO NOT leave the U.S. until this is all resolved.

I don't plan on it unless I absolutely have to. I don't think that could help matters where they stand right now.

I guess my question now is if anybody knows a good lawyer in Wisconsin or Michigan. I've only dealt with a lawyer once in my life (house purchase) and that was in Canada so that does me no good now.

Uh oh.

Yes, I'm currently in the US. I did not apply for a tourist visa.

I'm not sure if it matters but my wife and I both have an apartment lease agreement together, I obtained a tax ID number when she filed for her taxes this year (last year I guess) and I've been issued a driver's license.

Boy, I wish I had found this a lot sooner. Anyway, I'll try and arrange a timeline here to maybe help out anybody who can maybe help me out (it would be greatly appreciated).

Background info: my wife (US citizen) and I (Canadian citizen) met in 2004 and decided to get married at the end of 2005. Neither of us has a criminal background of any kind. We both live in the UP of MI. If any other information is needed, please don't hesitate to ask.

May 25, 2006

-Admission to the US as a visitor (my wife and I didn't get the fiance stuff completed in time to go that route) through Portal, ND.

June 10, 2006

-My wife and I are married in the US.

November 7, 2006 (I know, we're HORRIBLE procrastinators, which is probably working against us and always will)

-I-130 Petition, G-325A forms and I-102 form (since I wasn't issued an I-94) are mailed off.

January 8, 2007

-Request for evidence for I-102 form. They're asking for proof that I legally entered the country. I passed through a border checkpoint so I figured that this should be on their computer records somewhere. The 3 options for this request are: 1) Submit all evidence requested. 2) Submit some or none of the evidence. 3) Withdraw petition. Since I don't have any evidence, we submit without any evidence.

June 21, 2007

-Denied I-94 (I-102 form). They won't approve of it because there's no evidence of my legal entry into the country. This is required for the I-130 to be approved.

My wife and I have no idea what do now. We're both living off of her income and barely scraping by. We've thought about getting a lawyer to help out with things but that's really not in the budget. I figured I would try posting here to see if anything can be done ourselves. Maybe we've gone about this all wrong from the start but we've read through a lot of different stuff on the USCIS website and this seemed to be the way to go for us. please, anybody!