AandD

Easy to say for someone with a spouse from Canada. Both the US citizen and Canadian spouse can cross the border fairly easily, and even cross by land if they're close enough. What would you suggest for someone with a fiancee or spouse from a third world country half way around the world? There's practically zero chance the foreigner is going to get a B2 visa to come to the US, so any visit is going to require the US citizen to schedule time off from work and spend upwards of $1000 to book airfare to the foreigner's country. Many people only get a couple of weeks vacation each year, so you're basically saying someone like that is going to have to wait three to five years before they can file a petition. On the other hand, someone who is wealthy and can vacation anytime they like could meet these requirements in a matter of months, so now the system unfairly favors the wealthy, far beyond simply providing a guarantee that the foreigner won't become a public charge in the US. In reality, the odds of a wealthy person being scammed are even higher because they're going to be targeted by gold diggers as well as green card scammers.
Live together? Ok, then that means the USC has to quit their job and move to the foreigner's country, presuming they can get a visa that would allow them to do that. Some countries are also pretty strict about what sort of work a foreigner is permitted to do. For instance, most of the Americans who live in Vietnam teach English, presuming they've got a college degree and an English teaching certification, as well as a rudimentary grasp of Vietnamese. How many Americans would want to give up their middle class career in the US and become a low paid English teacher in a foreign country? How does that benefit them if their ultimate goal is to live in the US with their foreign spouse?
What if the foreigner is in a country that prohibits opposite sex couples from cohabiting unless they're married? Ok, I guess they'll have to get married. But what if they're not the same religion, and the country also prohibits mixed-religion marriages? Does the USC now have to convert to the foreigners religion in order to get a visa for them?
So, let's presume the worst case. A USC meets someone online who lives in a third world country with restrictive religious laws. They quit their job and move to the foreigner's country. They convert to the foreigner's religion, marry and live together for a couple of years. Eventually, they file a petition, and get the visa. The foreigner enters the US as an immigrant, and because they've been married more than two years they get a 10 year green card. Now the new immigrant files for divorce and walks away. Who would have seen this coming? How is this any different from a foreign fiancee who comes to the US, marries, and puts up with the marriage long enough to remove conditions? All you've really done is changed the layout of the playing field so the players have to take a different route, but you haven't moved the goal posts. They can still get what they want - an unconditional green card - by taking a different route. For the foreigner, this route is actually easier because, other than being married to an American, their life doesn't change much while they're waiting for that immigrant visa.
There's no way you can apply a fixed set of rules like that for evaluating the bona fides of a relationship at the visa interview. Something that might seem reasonable in one country might be absurdly oppressive in another. That's why Department of State leaves it up to the individual consulates in each country to determine what is reasonable in that specific country.
I think a more rational and effective approach would be to move the goal posts. For example, conditional resident status for five years with no divorce or abuse waivers for removal of conditions, and no eligibility for citizenship until the conditions have been removed. A scammer has their eyes on that prize - the 10 year green card - and they know their options for getting it. If you move that prize further away, and eliminate the shortcuts for getting there, many will not bother to try. This will automatically make it easier at the consulate stage because the CO will know that the odds of the person on the other side of the window being a scammer is a lot lower.

Many states (maybe most) have mandatory arrest laws for domestic violence. If someone calls the police and claims they were abused, and the police see any evidence of physical abuse - scratches, bruises, etc., then they are compelled to make an arrest. If she is ever alone with him then he can smack himself around and call the police and blame it on her. If he knows she's alone, even if she's not with him, then he can do the same and she won't have an alibi. This is a serious risk, and if he's getting guidance from people who understand the law then they'll be able to tell him how to pull it off. There are web sites that specifically instruct immigrants how to do this.
She needs to lawyer up, and she needs to make sure she's never alone.

You've been scammed. Leave now. Go back to your grandmothers house. File for a divorce. Have no further contact with him. If he can't get a green by marriage then he'll try to get one through VAWA, which means claiming you abused him. Don't give him an opportunity to manufacture any evidence of this sort, like calling the cops on you.
DO NOT GO TO THE GREEN CARD INTERVIEW!!! I can virtually guarantee you would be subjected to a grueling Stokes interview, given his serious history with immigration. You DON'T want to go through this.
I can recall only one or two cases where the evidence of fraud was more clear than this one.

Being a relative of a US citizen is the ONLY basis on which a VWP entrant can adjust status. That's why VWP entrants are listed in the category of people who cannot apply for adjustment of status, and being an immediate relative of a US citizen is given as an exception. Be very careful trying to extract an understanding of immigration law from the form instructions. There are a great many people who thought everything they needed to know was contained in the form instructions, and immigration attorneys make very good money trying to help these people out of the mess they make for themselves.
Adjustment of status after entering with any sort of non-immigrant visa or entry pass is an exception to normal immigrant visa processing, and not just an alternative to it. It is meant to be used in unusual circumstances where it would be impossible for someone to return to their home country for immigrant visa processing, or where someone's circumstances had changed substantially since arriving in the US and it would be needlessly bureaucratic to force them to return to their home country for immigrant visa processing. What you're talking about is planning this in advance as if it were some sort of easy shortcut around the normal immigrant visa process. This is called "preconceived intent", and it's illegal. USCIS can't read your mind and determine what your intentions were when you entered the US, so it's the job of the US consulates abroad and the CBP officers who work at the immigration desks at the ports of entry to try to detect people with preconceived intent and stop them.
You are now the spouse of a US citizen. You may be asked about your marital status when you enter the US. If you tell the truth then the CBP officer may refuse to admit you to the US because they consider you a risk for preconceived intent to adjust status. Alternatively, they may ask you if you intend to adjust status. If you say "no", and subsequently submit an AOS application, then your AOS application will be denied, and you'll be barred from returning to the US for material misrepresentation.
If you'd like to test your theory about intent not being an issue then I suggest you arrive in the US using the VWP and tell the CBP officer that you intend to adjust status based on your marriage to a US citizen. I guarantee you will be denied entry.
As a VWP entrant, you are required to give up any right to appeal any decision by any US immigration officer. If you are denied entry to the US then you will not be able to use the VWP again. If you are denied AOS then you will be immediately removed from the United States - there will be no deportation process, and no hearing in front of an immigration judge. Any decision by any US immigration officer is final - no review, and no appeal.
If you intend to immigrate to the United States then follow the proper and legal process, and obtain a spousal immigrant visa. You'll avoid a lot of potential headaches, you'll get your green card soon after arriving in the US, and it's cheaper!

Al,
Our thoughts go out to you at this difficult time.
We VJ members pride ourselves on being supportive and we hope you dont worry too much about the peasants trying to sharpen their knives at your expense

Just dropping in to say:
Stay positive Sept. folks. You have had a long wait but each day is one less day to wait.

Just dropping in to say:
Stay positive Sept. folks. You have had a long wait but each day is one less day to wait.

Very Professional, Sir.

Perhaps the stupidest post I have ever seen anywhere at anytime. Polite discourse prevents me from articulating a wide variety of adjectives that could be used both to describe the post and its source. I think we can all use our imagination to fill in the blanks in this regard.
To the OP . Hand in there, and trust the process. Never give up, despite what you may read.

I want to make something clear here...
I did not write my congresswoman to grant special favors... I simply asked her the same question I asked here. I asked her if this was a clear case of denial, or if there was a chance to appeal...
I feel that some of you maybe blinded by the comfort of your own situation and cant see that there maybe room for possibility, so I just went to the source... my government...
I know what the law states and I am pretty certain that there are folks that got into this country on much serious offenses, or maybe even got here for other reasons other than marriage.
I am happy that all of you had everything lined up, according to the laws for your marriages...but there is nothing wrong with exhausting all options, or, "pulling straws" as you would call it for something that i believe in.