cjgator

This is such an important and overlooked area you have brought up, Happy.. My own sense of it is maybe because, not only are so many blinded by love at the outset, that also many have not been through a divorce that resulted in an alimony judgment, so even if they do read the fine print, they have no clue what to expect.
I personally think the single most important piece of advice that can be offered to someone (particularly the sponsor) going through a process like this, is an education on what signing that I-864 really binds you to. I know about too many cases where, if the relationship between the immigrant and sponsor was going south, while the approval/AOS process was still ongoing, the soon-to-be immigrant picks a fight with the sponsor spouse and gets the police to come to the house on a domestic issue. Then, that person goes and files a VAWA petition, uses the manufactured police report as evidence, gets approved for VAWA, leaves the spouse, and then uses that signed I-864 to hit up the sponsor spouse for federally-approved alimony, for what could, in theory, be a functional lifetime. People really need to understand what that I-864 means. That document allows a spouse to seek spousal support (alimony) in the event of a marriage failure, for a period of time far longer than what most state courts would ever award in a traditional (U.S. Citizen/U.S. Citizen) divorce.
For all of you here who have faced genuinely violent issues with your spouses, and had/have a well-founded basis to pursue VAWA, my case examples are not directed at you, and I am very sorry for the pain you have endured, during what should have been a wonderful journey for you. It is a sad reality, however, that Federal regulations put in place to protect abused immigrants, have also been liberally used as an avenue to break the backs of loving and well-meaning U.S. Citizen spouses, by nefarious individuals, who used these trusting individuals solely as a vehicle to get into this country, and get their life started, at the sponsor's expense.
-CJ

This is such an important and overlooked area you have brought up, Happy.. My own sense of it is maybe because, not only are so many blinded by love at the outset, that also many have not been through a divorce that resulted in an alimony judgment, so even if they do read the fine print, they have no clue what to expect.
I personally think the single most important piece of advice that can be offered to someone (particularly the sponsor) going through a process like this, is an education on what signing that I-864 really binds you to. I know about too many cases where, if the relationship between the immigrant and sponsor was going south, while the approval/AOS process was still ongoing, the soon-to-be immigrant picks a fight with the sponsor spouse and gets the police to come to the house on a domestic issue. Then, that person goes and files a VAWA petition, uses the manufactured police report as evidence, gets approved for VAWA, leaves the spouse, and then uses that signed I-864 to hit up the sponsor spouse for federally-approved alimony, for what could, in theory, be a functional lifetime. People really need to understand what that I-864 means. That document allows a spouse to seek spousal support (alimony) in the event of a marriage failure, for a period of time far longer than what most state courts would ever award in a traditional (U.S. Citizen/U.S. Citizen) divorce.
For all of you here who have faced genuinely violent issues with your spouses, and had/have a well-founded basis to pursue VAWA, my case examples are not directed at you, and I am very sorry for the pain you have endured, during what should have been a wonderful journey for you. It is a sad reality, however, that Federal regulations put in place to protect abused immigrants, have also been liberally used as an avenue to break the backs of loving and well-meaning U.S. Citizen spouses, by nefarious individuals, who used these trusting individuals solely as a vehicle to get into this country, and get their life started, at the sponsor's expense.
-CJ