Termination of Conditional Status

[lovegirl 0]

Hello everyone, I imagine I might get a bit of exasperated sighs for this post but here is the situation and any advice would be helpful.

In 2005 my British husband and I went through the K-1 process. After marriage,we applied for AOS and conditional permanent residence was granted to my husband. His resident card expired in May 2008 and during that time we had to move back to the UK and stupidly abandoned the immigration process. (Never applied for Removal of conditional status)

We received a letter in June 2008 explaining that we didn't petition for removal of conditions, so therefore, his permanent residence status was terminated. They also stated...

"in accordance with Section 216 © (2) (b) of the Act, you may request review of this determination in deportation proceedings."

At the time we didn't think anything of it because we had already left the country so he didn't technically overstay. I am not really sure how deportation works...are we still under proceedings even of we aren't in the country?

Fast forward 4 years, to the present day, and we have plans to move back to the States. I was going to file the I-30 via DCF at the Embassy here, but when I started looking at the paperwork and digging out all of our old stuff, I got the feeling that maybe we did something wrong along the line that will make it very difficult now.

Does anyone know the consequences of not applying to remove conditions even if we had left the country before expiration? Can this mishap effect our next choice to apply for the I-30?

Any advice would be great, I am not sure if we have done something wrong or unforgivable or if it would be okay to just file the I-30. I hope to get in contact with the embassy today and see if they have any advice, but it would be great to see what everyone here has to say.

Thanks for the help.

Edited August 20, 2012 by lovegirl

[Penguin_ie 5,986]

**** Moving from AOS to General Immigration forum ****

If you left before the 2 years on the conditional greencard were up, everything should be fine. However, the fact that you got that letter means it looks like the USCIS records do not reflect that. Did you tell "the government" (USCIS/ US embassy in UK or whoever) that your husband was abandoning his greencard? Did you reply to the deportation letter stating you'd already left?

I think the best thing you can do is "tidy up" before re-applying. As you already are planning- call the embassy; try to find some evidence (credit card statement of the plane ticket, passport stamp, lease of UK home etc) that you have left the US before the greencard was up.

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

If they deported your hisband , which they probably did if you didn't repond ) then you will technically need a waiver for the deportation. The problem is you have to prove it is difficult for you to live in your hisband country as part of the waiver. I am sure someone who has been there done that will pop in. You need to find out if they deported him on paper and look into correcting that ( if you can )

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

If you are eligible for British citizenship, do that before you and your husband move back to the US.

In case you change your mind again and want to live in the UK in the future.

See the pinned thread in the UK forum called "Before you Permanently Move to the US".

[Harsh_77 716]

From your post it seems you never reported to USCIS that you were moving to UK and as per their records it still shows your husband was in US and hence he was put into deportation proceedings.

Before you file for DCF, I would recommend you get this thing sorted out by contacting the US consulate in UK.

You might have to send the passport stamps or any other documents you can think that shows your husband left US before his 2 years were up.

Once you have sorted out and you should be good to apply for DCF and might want to check for UK citizenship as recommended by other poster. I am not sure how it works for USC with dual citizenship as I believe you are the USC and living in UK now.

[lovegirl 0]

Thanks everyone!

No we didn't contact anyone to let them know we were moving. (stupid, i know!)

Thankfully i have already completed the British Immigration and am now a dual citizen to the US and UK!! Yeah!!

Back to the Issue...

I called the embassy and to be truthful, they weren't that helpful. The lady on the phone didnt feel well equipped to advise me fully but she thought he may have a ban on him, or be ineligible to become a permanent resident. That really scared me but she advised me to email the embassy and query them. So after she gave me a special code, i wrote the following...

"Hello, we are looking for some advice concerning our abandoned immigration process.

My husband, Philip, was granted permanent residence to the US in May 2006 after successfully completing the K-1 visa process and the Adjustment of status. In August 2007 we moved back to the UK for work purposes and did not inform the USCIS/embassy of our decision to move. To be honest we were quite stupid about it and thought since we were out of the US then it wouldn't matter.

Now we are looking to move back to the US and we thought we could just file the I-30 via DCF but when we started filling out the paperwork and looking at our old immigration papers, it occurred to us that maybe we messed up big time.

So can you give me any advice if we can fix the mistakes we made? Is my husband banned from America and if so for how long? Are we allowed to start over with the Immigrant visa process? What should be our course of action? etc.

I would appreciate any advice you can offer and am so sorry we didn't pay enough attention to the immigration process.

Looking forward to your reply,

Megan and Philip Davies"

They responded with this sort of vague email...

"Dear Ms. Davies,

Thank you for your email.

Lawful Permanent Residents (also known as "green card holders") who have been resident outside of the United States for more than one year without obtaining a reentry permit are considered to have abandoned their status. If your husband wishes to return to the United States to reside permanently, he will be required to obtain an immigrant visa. Please visit our website at http://london.usembassy.gov/immigrant-visas.html for further information on how to apply.

Sincerely,

Consular Information Unit

U.S. Embassy, London

CONS/CIU/NJ"

This seems like a generic response and does not tell me much about our case. Now i am not sure who i can talk to in detail about this because when i talked to them on the phone (for 1.23 a minute!) they couldn't really help me and the email doesn't really answer my specific questions????

I know it seems straight forward, file the i-30 via DCF and go for it, but what could be the consequences to our application be, due to our past mistakes?

Does anyone have advice on who i can actually contact to discuss our particular circumstances?? They haven't even told me what his current status is so i don't now if we need to prove that we left the US before the green card expired!!

Thanks again!

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

In the email you sent, you failed to mention that you did not remove conditions and that his card was conditional and that you got that email. Isn't that what you are asking about?

If you left the country and abandoned residency, you were not required to remove conditions. I wouldn't worry about it.

[Dave&Roza 748]

Show proof that he left the country prior to the GC expiring and that you left with him--borading passing and exit stamps in the passport (an entire copy of his and your passport might do the trick). Once that is all taken care of file for the spousal visa.

Good luck,

Dave

Edited August 23, 2012 by Dave&Roza

[lovegirl 0]

Just to post a quick update, i found the number for Immigration courts and used the automated system to find out that my husband had the "order for removal" placed on him by a judge in November 2008.

Is that the same as deportation?

Also, some have you have suggested -and i agree- to clear up this mess before we file I-30 ...but does anyone actually know who i need to contact (i.e. UK EMbassy?) or what sort of forms i need to file?

Thank you!

[lovegirl 0]

Just to post a quick update, i found the number for Immigration courts and used the automated system to find out that my husband had the "order for removal" placed on him by a judge in November 2008.

Is that the same as deportation?

Also, some have you have suggested -and i agree- to clear up this mess before we file I-30 ...but does anyone actually know who i need to contact (i.e. UK EMbassy?) or what sort of forms i need to file?

Thank you!

I am actually going to start a new post with all of the "correct" information. Thanks for being patient.