JimVaPhuong

Did you bother to read the section of the Foreign Affairs Manual I provided the link for? If you call the embassy then you will be talking to a customer support airhead who probably will have no idea what the correct answer is. The CO is going to follow the Foreign Affairs Manual - it's their bible. The FAM spells out, in detail, what they will consider as satisfactory secondary evidence when a required document cannot be obtained.


9 FAM 42.65 N6 UNOBTAINABLE DOCUMENTS
a. If a required document cannot be procured without causing the applicant or a family member actual hardship, other than normal delay or inconvenience, it may be considered “unobtainable,” and you may permit the applicant to submit other satisfactory evidence in lieu of such document or record, per 22 CFR 42.65(d). You should use this authority sparingly.
b. If you find that a required document is unobtainable, you must complete and sign Form FS-552, Certificate Regarding Documents Required by 22 CFR 42.65(b) Which Are Unobtainable, and attach to the Form FS-552 secondary evidence and/or a certificate from the appropriate authority, if obtainable, showing that in this particular case the missing document was never properly recorded.
...
9 FAM 42.65 N7 SECONDARY EVIDENCE IN LIEU OF SUPPORTING DOCUMENT
INA 222(b) (8 U.S.C. 1202(b)) prescribes the documentation required of applicants. It will be rare that a document listed as available in Visa Reciprocity and Country Documents Finder is unobtainable. If, however, you are satisfied that a document is unobtainable, the officer must require substitute documentation or secondary evidence. 22 CFR 42.65(d)(2) requires the consular officer “to affix a signed statement describing in detail the reasons for considering the record or document unobtainable and for accepting the particular secondary evidence attached to the visa.” (See 22 CFR 42.65(d).) In these cases, the applicant must submit proof of the unavailability of the missing document; for example, a statement from the local authorities that records for the year in question were destroyed by fire, or proof of the attempts made to obtain the document. When accepting substitute documentation or secondary evidence, you must complete Form FS-552, Certificate Regarding Documents Required by 22 CFR 42.65(b) Which Are Unobtainable, upon which the officer will make the statement required by 22 CFR 42.65(d)(2) and attach the Form FS-552 to the visa.
...
9 FAM 42.65 N8 APPLICANTS SUBMITTING OTHER SATISFACTORY EVIDENCE OF GOOD CONDUCT
If an applicant has presented a comprehensive police certificate fully meeting the requirements of 22 CFR 42.65© from the applicant’s country of principal residence, you need not require a police certificate from other places of former residence, provided the applicant presents other satisfactory evidence of good conduct . For example, it has been held that proof of membership in or affiliation with a reputable religious organization in a religious capacity during periods of foreign residence may be accepted as such evidence. However, if you have reason to believe that a police or criminal record might exist in the foreign country, which would render the alien ineligible to receive a visa, you must require the alien to obtain the police certificate. If the police certificate is not obtainable from the local authorities, the alien must present other convincing evidence that he is not ineligible to receive a visa.
Please read that chapter in the FAM. You will learn much more than would ever learn by calling the embassy, unless you happen to have to unbelievable good fortune to actually speak with a consular officer.

If your divorce is final (i.e., you have the divorce decree) by the time you have to file, then you can ask for a waiver of the joint filing requirements based on your divorce. Just tick box "d" in part 2 of the I-751. As long as you can provide the normal proof of "good faith" marriage, you should be able to remove conditions and get a 10 year green card.
Note that the divorce must be final - you can't ask for this waiver if you are separated or the divorce is still pending. If you can't get a final divorce in time, then you may be placed in removal proceedings, but you can always ask the immigration judge to postpone until you have your final divorce. These requests are almost always granted.

A friendly suggestion - spend a few moments researching your answers before posting responses that are neither helpful nor accurate. You can learn an amazing amount of information about the immigration laws and processes by researching answers to other people's questions. Besides, it's a lot of fun!

CSPA isn't something you apply for. It kicks in automatically when a derivative beneficiary might age out while waiting for USCIS processing. The way it works is that they calculate the derivative beneficiary's effective age on the date a visa number becomes available. If that effective age is under 21 then the alien retains derivative status, and is eligible for the immigration benefit.
To determine the effective age on the day the visa number becomes available they will start with their actual age on that date, and then deduct any time spent waiting for USCIS to approve the petition. What they will NOT deduct is any time spent waiting for the priority date to become current. Since there is currently about an 11 year wait for the F4 visa category, your brother is definitely going to age out. There is nothing you can do to prevent it.

Again, your answers are too vague to give specific advice. You say they wanted an explanation for why you didn't give the right answers. What were the questions? What were the circumstances of the interview? Did they separate you and your wife and ask you both the same questions, and your answers didn't match? Or were these simple questions where the answers could be found on the documents you submitted? You're asking us to tell you what the heck is going on and how long it will take when we currently know a lot less about your case than you do. You're going to have to provide details about what has happened, starting with what kind of visa the immigrant used to enter the country, and when they entered. After that, tell us when the marriage occurred, when the AOS was submitted, what was the immigrant's status when the AOS was submitted, what happened at the first interview, what happened at the second interview. Try not to leave out any important details.
There is no "timeline". USCIS can take as much time as they need to make a decision. However, a NOID generally means they've already made a tentative decision, and they're just giving you one last chance to save your case. If you don't respond adequately to the NOID then I suspect you'll get an answer rather quickly, and it will probably be that you've got 30 days to voluntarily leave the US or be deported.
The majority of people have the same short interview you had, and they are approved. Either there is something about your case that the immigration officer found highly suspicious, or you were not at all prepared for the interview. 15 minutes is enough time for the immigration officer to make a determination in the overwhelming majority of cases.
There are plenty of people here who have gone through the process, and can give you an idea what to expect, but you need to describe your situation in much more detail first. Until you do, nobody can determine if they've gone through the same thing as you.

Your situation is quite serious, and you've not provided nearly enough information for anyone to give any reasonable advice.
You could be denied or approved within days or weeks. Or, you could end up waiting more than a year for a final decision. It depends entirely on what problem the immigration officer is having with your case, and what (if anything) they need to obtain before making a decision. If the only thing they're waiting for is evidence from you then you can probably expect a decision reasonably quickly.
A NOID after the second interview is serious business indeed. In order to overcome this you should have responded with a flood of new evidence. If you've already given them pretty much everything you've got then your chances are probably not very good at all.
Now, would you care to go into more detail about your situation? Which one of you is the immigrant - you or your wife? What sort of visa was used to enter the US? How long after entering did you marry? What what the status of the immigrant at the time the AOS petition was submitted? What exactly happened at the first interview, what questions were asked, and what sort of evidence was presented? Ditto for the second interview.
Your answers to these questions will allow people to give more focused and educated advice. Your experience will also help other people who might be facing similar problems.

Did you bother to read the section of the Foreign Affairs Manual I provided the link for? If you call the embassy then you will be talking to a customer support airhead who probably will have no idea what the correct answer is. The CO is going to follow the Foreign Affairs Manual - it's their bible. The FAM spells out, in detail, what they will consider as satisfactory secondary evidence when a required document cannot be obtained.


9 FAM 42.65 N6 UNOBTAINABLE DOCUMENTS
a. If a required document cannot be procured without causing the applicant or a family member actual hardship, other than normal delay or inconvenience, it may be considered “unobtainable,” and you may permit the applicant to submit other satisfactory evidence in lieu of such document or record, per 22 CFR 42.65(d). You should use this authority sparingly.
b. If you find that a required document is unobtainable, you must complete and sign Form FS-552, Certificate Regarding Documents Required by 22 CFR 42.65(b) Which Are Unobtainable, and attach to the Form FS-552 secondary evidence and/or a certificate from the appropriate authority, if obtainable, showing that in this particular case the missing document was never properly recorded.
...
9 FAM 42.65 N7 SECONDARY EVIDENCE IN LIEU OF SUPPORTING DOCUMENT
INA 222(b) (8 U.S.C. 1202(b)) prescribes the documentation required of applicants. It will be rare that a document listed as available in Visa Reciprocity and Country Documents Finder is unobtainable. If, however, you are satisfied that a document is unobtainable, the officer must require substitute documentation or secondary evidence. 22 CFR 42.65(d)(2) requires the consular officer “to affix a signed statement describing in detail the reasons for considering the record or document unobtainable and for accepting the particular secondary evidence attached to the visa.” (See 22 CFR 42.65(d).) In these cases, the applicant must submit proof of the unavailability of the missing document; for example, a statement from the local authorities that records for the year in question were destroyed by fire, or proof of the attempts made to obtain the document. When accepting substitute documentation or secondary evidence, you must complete Form FS-552, Certificate Regarding Documents Required by 22 CFR 42.65(b) Which Are Unobtainable, upon which the officer will make the statement required by 22 CFR 42.65(d)(2) and attach the Form FS-552 to the visa.
...
9 FAM 42.65 N8 APPLICANTS SUBMITTING OTHER SATISFACTORY EVIDENCE OF GOOD CONDUCT
If an applicant has presented a comprehensive police certificate fully meeting the requirements of 22 CFR 42.65© from the applicant’s country of principal residence, you need not require a police certificate from other places of former residence, provided the applicant presents other satisfactory evidence of good conduct . For example, it has been held that proof of membership in or affiliation with a reputable religious organization in a religious capacity during periods of foreign residence may be accepted as such evidence. However, if you have reason to believe that a police or criminal record might exist in the foreign country, which would render the alien ineligible to receive a visa, you must require the alien to obtain the police certificate. If the police certificate is not obtainable from the local authorities, the alien must present other convincing evidence that he is not ineligible to receive a visa.
Please read that chapter in the FAM. You will learn much more than would ever learn by calling the embassy, unless you happen to have to unbelievable good fortune to actually speak with a consular officer.

Is graffiti "free speech"? Not if it isn't your wall!
Your right to free speech ends where it infringes on the rights of others. "Free" doesn't mean "free of cost". You have the right to say whatever you like, providing it's not libelous or slanderous, but you don't have the right to use somebody else's podium to say it. If you want to exercise your right to free speech, then lease your own server and put up your own forum or blog. If you post here, you do so with the permission of the people who run this site, and you agree to abide by their rules when doing so.

Let me translate this for you.

No. Date of petition approved - priority date = time eligible for CSPA age deduction. You can deduct only the time spent waiting for the petition to be approved. You cannot deduct time spent waiting for the priority date to become current.
Again, did it actually take 8 years for your petition to be approved?

Yes, you can submit a petition for an IR2. The child is your immediate relative because you married her father before she was 18. However, since you're not the biological parent of the child, and the child's biological parent is an LPR and not a US citizen, your step-daughter will not automatically become a US citizen when she arrives in the US with her IR2 visa. She'll become an LPR. She'll have to follow the same rules as any other LPR to maintain her residency and not lose her green card.
Your husband can also file a petition, but since he's not a US citizen he would be filing for an F2A visa. Family preference visas have annual numerical limits, and there's a waiting line. Currently, the wait is about 3 years. There is no wait for immediate relatives of US citizens, so it would be much faster if you petition for her than it would be if your husband petitions for her.
How long has your husband been an LPR? If he got his permanent resident status through his marriage to you, then he's eligible to apply for US citizenship three years after becoming an LPR, presuming you're still married at the time. Once he becomes a US citizen then his daughter will become a US citizen automatically when she's been admitted to the US as an immigrant (i.e., she enters with an IR2 visa), and she's in the physical custody of her US citizen biological parent. Once she's a US citizen then there are no rules about maintaining residency - she can leave the US anytime she likes, and return anytime she likes.
Maybe you can file for the IR2 now - it takes a little under a year, usually. Your husband can work on becoming a US citizen as soon as he's eligible. That would probably be the best solution for your situation.

It's difficult to gather definitive statistical data on enforcement of the affidavit of support.
I can say with some confidence that the federal and state governments very rarely take enforcement action on an affidavit of support because of an immigrant who collects means tested public benefits. Several years ago the state of New Jersey tried to crackdown on sponsors of immigrants in an effort to recover some money and bolster their state treasury. After about 300 cases were filed a federal judge ordered them to stop. That was the most sweeping crackdown I've ever heard of. I don't believe I've ever read a case here on VJ where a sponsor was sued by the government because the sponsored immigrant collected means tested benefits, and there is very little on the internet about cases like that. From that I conclude that it almost never happens. Even so, the I-864 has been tested and upheld in court, so it IS enforceable. I'd hate to be one of those rare exceptions where it was actually enforced.
There is some small amount of cases on the internet regarding the immigrant taking enforcement action on an affidavit of support. Again, I don't have any statistical data. The anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that family courts in many states don't like to consider the affidavit of support. They have guidelines in the state's family code regarding how to determine spousal support which they are obligated to follow. Those guidelines often allow for consideration of a prenuptial agreement, but the affidavit of support doesn't constitute a valid prenup because it wasn't signed by the immigrant spouse. I've read a few cases where the affidavit was used successfully in family court to establish the basic spousal support amount, but I've read many more cases where the immigrant spouse sued in a separate civil court proceeding. The results of these suits are mixed, and seem to depend heavily on each state's laws. I've read cases where family court judges refused to consider the affidavit. I've read other cases where family court judges ordered spousal support equal to 125% of the poverty guidelines for one person. I've read cases where a civil court judge told the immigrant that they weren't a party to the contract, and they should get the federal government to sue the sponsor on their behalf. I've read other cases where the civil court judge ordered payments equal to the poverty guidelines. I've also read both family and civil court cases where the judge basically agreed that the affidavit was enforceable, but called it a wash because the immigrant's income was already over the poverty guidelines, and that's the only thing the sponsor promised to ensure.
If I were in your boots, I'd pull the affidavit of support. You didn't promise a green card when you said "I do", and you have no obligation to follow through and help your "partner" get one now. The only motive the law permits is that you have a legitimate spousal relationship, and you want your spouse to remain with you in the United States. The relationship doesn't exist anymore. Without it, there is no basis for getting a green card. If you continue to cooperate with getting your spouse a green card then you are, essentially, participating in fraud.

Neither "gross" nor "net" are appropriate terms here. The IRS uses the term "total income". This is the amount you have to live on before taking into account personal deductions, exemptions, credits, and taxes. For someone who is self-employed this is the amount you have left after your schedule C business deductions. In other words, it's the taxable income your business pays to you. Line 22 on the 1040.
Anyone you claim as a dependent on your tax return is also a dependent for an affidavit of support. However, your child is always a dependent for an affidavit of support, regardless of who takes the tax deduction for them.

This doesn't detract in any way from the total screw up by the SSA employee, but...
Try different banks. Some banks will allow someone without an SSN to open a limited account. The main reason an SSN is required is because transactions above $10K must be reported to the IRS, so an SSN or ITIN is required. Some banks will restrict the account to transactions of less than $10K, and allow someone without an SSN to open an account.
Most states require proof of legal presence in order to get a driver's license or state issued ID card. I believe there are only three states left that don't. A Social Security card is not proof of legal presence. Some states will allow you to get a driver's license or ID with an I-94, but it will expire when the I-94 does. In most cases, you have to wait until you have either an EAD or green card.
I was able to get my wife and step-daughter on my employer's medical and dental insurance without an SSN. I'm not aware of any statutory requirement that would compel an insurance company to require an SSN. It may be a convenient way to track members, but I don't think they can legally require it.
Not having an SSN is a setback, but it's not a show stopper. If you'd like to vent a little frustration about the situation with the SSA then set your sights on a bank and start kicking up a fuss about getting a joint account. After that, go after your insurance company.

If you get a CBP officer who knows what they're doing with a K1, then you shouldn't be at the immigration counter more than 5 or 10 minutes. Customs will probably take as long as it always does at that airport. Where you'll probably spend the most time is at baggage claim.
I learned a little trick from watching the airport personnel in San Francisco, Taipei, and Ho Chi Minh city. If they handle bags the same way in Manila and Tokyo, then this may also work for you.
I noticed that the first bags that were checked in for a flight got placed on the first luggage cart, and got loaded into the baggage hold of the plane first. Conversely, they were the last bags to come off the plane when it arrived at it's destination. The people who checked in early for their flights, and only flew one leg, ended up waiting the longest at baggage claim for their bags to come onto the carousel. First in, last out.
If I checked in late for my departing flight in HCMC, then my bags were among the last to be loaded onto the plane. When I changed planes in Taipei, my bags were among the first to come off the plane (I actually watched this happen) and among the first to be loaded onto the next plane. Consequently, my bags were among the last to come off the plane in San Francisco, which left me standing at the carousel for almost an hour (a 747 can hold a LOT of luggage!).
On my last three trips, I was able to work this out to my advantage. I checked in for my flight as soon as they opened the check-in counter. When I arrived in San Francisco, my bags came onto the carousel within 5 minutes of the time the carousel started. Just remember - first in, last out, and the order is reversed each time you change planes.

Those are not "estimated times based on numbers". There are annual numerical limits for each category of family preference visa. This means that there is a quota that cannot be exceeded in any year, and an additional limit on the maximum percentage of applicants in any category from any single country. The beneficiary cannot get a visa until a visa number is available for them, and that won't happen until their priority date is current.
This isn't simply a matter of bureaucratic processing. Only a limited number of visas will be issued each year. How long your son will have to wait depends on how many people are waiting in front of him.
Other people's experience will be totally irrelevant to you. The progression of the cutoff dates is constantly changing. Just a little over a year ago the waiting time for the spouse or minor unmarried child of an LPR was only a few months. It's retrogressed since then, and now it's over 2 years. The waiting times people quote you now are based on the current visa bulletin, but those times could get shorter or longer before your son's priority date becomes current. The wait time now is 7 years for someone filing today.. This time of year in 2006 it was 5 years. This time next year it might only be 4 years. This is why someone elses experience is not relevant to you. How long it will take depends on when you file, and what happens to the cutoff dates between now and when a your son's priority date finally becomes current. That depends entirely on how fast they use up the visa numbers.

Prima Facie is Latin. It literally means "on it's face". What this means is that, at first glance, you appear to have enough evidence for your case to proceed. It doesn't mean your evidence has been ACCEPTED as FACT. It doesn't mean "you're almost there". It means you've gotten past the first step. If the evidence you submitted is subsequently found to be factual, then your case will be approved.

VAWA applications are denied if the applicant can't show enough evidence that the abuse actually took place. VAWA applications receive extra scrutiny because they are frequently used by immigration scammers who don't want to wait it out in a sham marriage to get their legal status, and are looking for a shortcut to an unconditional green card. Most VAWA applications are approved, though.
Most appeals are denied because the applicant usually can't present any new evidence to change the initial ruling.

If your divorce is final (i.e., you have the divorce decree) by the time you have to file, then you can ask for a waiver of the joint filing requirements based on your divorce. Just tick box "d" in part 2 of the I-751. As long as you can provide the normal proof of "good faith" marriage, you should be able to remove conditions and get a 10 year green card.
Note that the divorce must be final - you can't ask for this waiver if you are separated or the divorce is still pending. If you can't get a final divorce in time, then you may be placed in removal proceedings, but you can always ask the immigration judge to postpone until you have your final divorce. These requests are almost always granted.

A friendly suggestion - spend a few moments researching your answers before posting responses that are neither helpful nor accurate. You can learn an amazing amount of information about the immigration laws and processes by researching answers to other people's questions. Besides, it's a lot of fun!

If your divorce is final (i.e., you have the divorce decree) by the time you have to file, then you can ask for a waiver of the joint filing requirements based on your divorce. Just tick box "d" in part 2 of the I-751. As long as you can provide the normal proof of "good faith" marriage, you should be able to remove conditions and get a 10 year green card.
Note that the divorce must be final - you can't ask for this waiver if you are separated or the divorce is still pending. If you can't get a final divorce in time, then you may be placed in removal proceedings, but you can always ask the immigration judge to postpone until you have your final divorce. These requests are almost always granted.

A friendly suggestion - spend a few moments researching your answers before posting responses that are neither helpful nor accurate. You can learn an amazing amount of information about the immigration laws and processes by researching answers to other people's questions. Besides, it's a lot of fun!

Prima Facie is Latin. It literally means "on it's face". What this means is that, at first glance, you appear to have enough evidence for your case to proceed. It doesn't mean your evidence has been ACCEPTED as FACT. It doesn't mean "you're almost there". It means you've gotten past the first step. If the evidence you submitted is subsequently found to be factual, then your case will be approved.

File an EOIR-29 "Notice of Appeal" with the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). If you're lucky, you'll get the denial overturned. If that fails, the next step is to file an appeal with the District Court of Appeals. Failing that, keep moving up the appeals court ladder until you either win your case, have an appeals court refuse to hear your case, lose at the US Supreme Court, or run out of money to pay your attorneys.
If your case is likely to garner your attorney a lot of free publicity (something attorneys really love) then they might take the case pro bono, which means free of charge. Otherwise, I'm guessing the "run out of money" option will kick in before you get to the District Court of Appeals.
At any point along the way, you can give up and go back to your home country, or wait to be deported.
The BIA appeal is relatively inexpensive, but most appeals are denied, and most people never go any further.

Sorry, I've been really busy the past few days and haven't been able to to check in. I got a couple of PM's to look at this thread.
You've already gotten some very good advice, and links to some threads containing a lot of information.
1. According to Marc Ellis, the consulate in HCMC has started including this statement on their denial letters. They are aware of the potential consequences of a denial under paragraph 6C of INA 212, and they received a lot of criticism for not giving the beneficiary a heads up about what they were facing, so they began adding that statement. The links provided earlier in this thread give some detailed information about this.
In a nutshell, the consulate has sent the petition back to USCIS with a recommendation that the approval of the petition be revoked. Their reasoning is that the relationship exists primarily for the purpose of evading immigration law, which means that (in their opinion) the beneficiary was never really eligible for a visa, and the petition should never have been approved. The beneficiary's file is flagged with a marker that Marc and other immigration lawyers refer to as a "P6C marker", because it refers to paragraph 6C of INA 212 - the section on material misrepresentation; i.e., fraud. If the approval of the K1 petition is revoked then the P6C marker becomes a finding of fact - your fiancee will be guilty of fraud in the eyes of the US government. This will make her permanently inadmissible to the United States unless you can overcome the inadmissibility with an I-601 waiver. Those waivers are hard to get, so you want to do whatever you can to avoid this happening. If you receive a notice from USCIS that they intend to revoke the approval of the K1 petition then you must respond with evidence.
2. The Vermont Service Center will probably readjudicate your returned petition. You can't stop that process. An accusation has been made against your fiancee, and they won't take any other action on that petition until a decision has been made about that accusation. You could send a letter withdrawing the petition, but they wouldn't withdraw it until they reaffirmed it. You could send another K1 petition, but that won't be approved until the first K1 petition has been closed. You could marry and file a CR1 petition. They would approve that petition, but your fiancee won't get an interview until the K1 petition is closed. If the consulate receives the CR1 petition before a decision is made on the K1 petition then they'll sit on it until the K1 petition is closed.
Most people in this situation go ahead and get married and file a CR1 petition. If you choose to do this just be aware that she's not going to get the visa until a final decision is made on the K1 petition, and be prepared to respond with a truckload of evidence if you get a Notice Of Intent to Revoke (NOIR) for the K1 petition. You want to prevent the approval of that petition from being revoked.
3. This has been covered extensively in this thread. The issues that caused the K1 visa to be denied will also be issues in getting a CR1 visa. You have to address these issues.
4. Yes, this is an issue. The consulate suspects you may be using your status as a US citizen to act as a personal immigration portal. The fact that your fiancee wasn't aware that you'd sponsored your ex-wife strongly confirms that suspicion to the consulate.
There are several issues here. Your previous K1 alerted the consular officer to the possibility that you might be hooking up with foreigners just to help them immigrate to the US.
You made only two trips to Vietnam and got engaged. How long did you stay each trip? How much time elapsed between the trips? How much time went into preparing for your engagement ceremony? Did anyone else from your family travel to Vietnam for the engagement ceremony? Was the ceremony formal, or informal? How many people attended the party afterward? The consulate tends to frown on "modern relationships" unless they're convinced they are genuine. The much prefer people who follow Vietnamese traditions, and who take those traditions seriously. They don't like to see engagement ceremonies that are put together in a hurry, that are overly informal, and that don't involve a celebration with a large number of people (typically over 100). They like to see one or more members of the petitioner's family attend the ceremony since it represents a connection between two families and not just two people.
The consulate also likes to see relationships that develop over a period of time. Nothing will set them off faster than someone who meets their Vietnamese fiancee on the internet, travels to Vietnam the following month, has a hastily arranged engagement ceremony, and files an I-129F as soon as they return to the US. The more time you invest in the relationship, and the more trips you make to see your fiancee, the more convinced they will be that the relationship is sincere. Trying to rush things at the consulate in HCMC is the kiss of death.
Here is the contact info on Marc Ellis' website:
http://www.marcellislaw.com/contact.html

Consulates are allowed to consider local social customs and norms when they evaluate the bona fides of a relationship. Older men marrying younger women is relatively common in the Philippines. Older women marrying younger men is not very common in Morocco. In this case, the age difference was only two years. I doubt it was a significant factor in their denial.
It's a battle between two agencies of the US government who have competing authority. USCIS adjudicates petitions based on fairly well defined criteria. The consulate handles visa applications, which includes evaluating the bona fides of the relationship, which is much more subjective. The process doesn't end when a consulate denies a visa. As long as there is an approved petition then there is a presumption that the beneficiary is eligible to apply for a visa. The consulate doesn't have the authority to revoke the approval of the petition after they deny a visa, so they send the petition back to USCIS with the recommendation that the approval be revoked. Department of State policy is that the consulate can only do this if they have new evidence that, if USCIS had known about it, would have resulted in the petition being denied initially, or if the consulate believes USCIS clearly erred based on evidence which was known when the petition was approved. USCIS sometimes disagrees with the consulate's assertion that the petition never should have been approved, and they reaffirm the petition approval. Other times they agree with the consulate's assessment, and that's when they send a notice of intent to the petitioner.
When Congress crafted the laws I think their intention was both practical and to add a sense of fairness to the process. It's practical because USCIS doesn't have offices in every country in the world where they could interview beneficiaries, and isn't in a position to understand local social customs, whereas Department of State has embassies, consulates, and US interest sections in most countries in the world. It adds a sense of fairness because the process isn't entirely controlled by one department of the US government. I don't think Congress anticipated that the two agencies would be competing for authority, and that US citizens and their foreign fiancee's and spouses would be caught in the middle.

Not precisely. Getting married within 90 days is the only requirement in order to be eligible to adjust status based on a K1 visa. It doesn't mean you are "legal" if the I-94 expires. "Out of status" means you have no lawful status as defined in the INA - you're not a non-immigrant, you're not a permanent resident, you're not a citizen or a national of the US. You're an alien whose permission to be in the United States has expired. What separates you from someone who overstayed their visitor's visa is that you would be eligible to adjust status, even though your I-94 had expired.
As Haarp425 stated, you begin accumulating unlawful presence when the I-94 expires. You stop accumulating unlawful presence when the AOS petition is accepted, but that doesn't restore you to lawful status. What it does do is grant you permission to remain in the US until a decision is made on the AOS petition. In other words, you're "out of status" but not "unlawfully present".

If your divorce is final (i.e., you have the divorce decree) by the time you have to file, then you can ask for a waiver of the joint filing requirements based on your divorce. Just tick box "d" in part 2 of the I-751. As long as you can provide the normal proof of "good faith" marriage, you should be able to remove conditions and get a 10 year green card.
Note that the divorce must be final - you can't ask for this waiver if you are separated or the divorce is still pending. If you can't get a final divorce in time, then you may be placed in removal proceedings, but you can always ask the immigration judge to postpone until you have your final divorce. These requests are almost always granted.

A friendly suggestion - spend a few moments researching your answers before posting responses that are neither helpful nor accurate. You can learn an amazing amount of information about the immigration laws and processes by researching answers to other people's questions. Besides, it's a lot of fun!