phaman1984

First let me response very diplomatically to the instigators,

Until today, I have been overwhelmed by the positive support offered by respondents to my posts. I humbly ask that those of you who wish to throw a shadow over my situation or my use of the English language please move on. I thought I was clear in my request for ideas that would help and have little use for your soapboxing. If you would like to go after me, my wife, our situation or my choice of words, let's keep it between us and off this post. That is to say - flame my mailbox and not my post.

For those of you who are not completely aware of our situation, I met my future wife in 2003 in Moscow, Russia while she was an art history student at Moscow State Univ. In 2004, she moved to St. Petersburg, Russia for a very good job. There was a lot more opportunity for me in Moscow (I was living there and working as a restaurant consultant) so I courted her by visiting her every other weekend, and she would likewise visit me in Moscow. We got engaged and decided to move to the US in 2006, where we got married in December of that year. Due to the IMBRA miscommunications of 2006, her arrival in the US was delayed by 5 months. The plan was for her to finish her degree at Hunter College in NYC. For those of you who were born abroad and studied here, you know very well the differences in educational systems and can empathize with someone struggling with adjusting to the methodology here. And going from Moscow State to Hunter is roughly like going from an Ivy League School to a community college (no offense to those holding CC degrees). She also faced extreme difficulties finding well-paying work in her field without a green card or degree. Her original green card application was denied because I took a tax-write off in Russia which led me to submitting an affidavit of support showing negative income despite the fact that I was employed and well paid. I had to get a co-sponsor, which was much more difficult than you would believe and is a completely other story. By the time we got the green card in April '08 we realized that we were facing the difficult situation of her either slogging through a program in a school she hated or separating once again as we had in 2004 so she could get a quality degree, after which she would come back and join me and look for a job. Since we had made the sacrifice before, we decided it was the best choice to make it again. We chat/phone/e-mail each other nearly every day since she left in August '08, and I have been to Moscow 3 times since then and she spends basically all her non-school time in New York. I will be going out to San Francisco this month for training, but will in all likelihood be back in NYC in the fall when we can finally be together again. You will note that as much as we care about each other, school and work opportunities have come first with the hope that they will pay off in the future, since neither of us had much money when we met. So,

For those of you who have given us support, now and at other difficult times, we thank you and are considerably more confident that we will, in fact, be approved. That being said, keep the positive energy and ideas flowing!

PS I will try to update my timeline, but am not completely at ease with the new site.

I would advise you to hire an immigrant lawyer if you haven't already had one (or at least book a consultation session to see what options you have) because your case is a little more complicated than usual in that your wife has been out of the country for more than 6 months while on her conditional green card. I'm not sure if you can remove her conditional status in this case (is she not currently in the US, is she?). You might as well wait for her to finish school, and reapply for the original green card which could repeat your painful journey for the last couple years. But never abandon this removal procedure, and consult with a lawyer to see what appropriate steps you can take. I have seen more complicated cases that got approved. As I said before, you will eventually get it, but it just takes time. I hope you will get approved soon, I know how hard long distance is.

We are in a quite similar situation where my husband goes to school in a different state, and I can't quit my job in this economy. We submitted the same amount of paperwork as yours and got approved quickly. I wrote in the cover letter the details of our situation explaining why we are not living together, how we communicate to keep our relationship alive, and also our concrete plan to reunite in the near future. Travel documents (air tix, boarding passes, pictures, etc.) and communication records are very helpful. I think it's a matter of trust. Just be honest, and USCIS will understand.

All the best to you. It will take some time but I think you will get approved eventually.