Worries, Concerns...

[Æäʵ²»·²]

Hi everyone. I have searched up and down for a possible answer but yield null.

 

I am divorced. In Jan. 2000, I met the ex. We were married in Jun. 2000. I filed for CR1 in Nov. 2000. The process lasted until Sep.. 2004. In Nov 2004, she came to US. Because the marriage had been more than two years, she received a permanent green card. However, she immediately started acting up and sought for divorce. She left me in Jan and returned to China. She was never heard from again. All the divorce paper works were returned to my attorney as undeliverable. I filed for divorce (she only sought but never filed) in Jan 2004. In May. 2005, the divorce was finalized and she was absent at the hearing.

 

In July 2006, I met my current gf and I am planning to see her in Dec. 2006. If everything works out, then I would like to file for a K1.

 

My questions are: 1) Is there any regulations/law that will hold my previous "short" marriage as grounds for future refusal? 2) Will the consulate deny my plead based on previous similiar cases? 3) Is there anything special I need to do to battle and win?

 

Thank you all so much and best wishes to everyone.

[NewDay2006]

Hi everyone.  I have searched up and down for a possible answer but yield null.

 

I am divorced.  In Jan. 2000, I met the ex.  We were married in Jun. 2000.  I filed for CR1 in Nov. 2000.  The process lasted until Sep.. 2004.  In Nov 2004, she came to US.  Because the marriage had been more than two years, she received a permanent green card.  However, she immediately started acting up and sought for divorce.  She left me in Jan and returned to China.  She was never heard from again.  All the divorce paper works were returned to my attorney as undeliverable.  I filed for divorce (she only sought but never filed) in Jan 2004.  In May. 2005, the divorce was finalized and she was absent at the hearing.

 

In July 2006, I met my current gf and I am planning to see her in Dec. 2006.  If everything works out, then I would like to file for a K1.

 

My questions are: 1) Is there any regulations/law that will hold my previous "short" marriage as grounds for future refusal? 2) Will the consulate deny my plead based on previous similiar cases? 3) Is there anything special I need to do to battle and win?

 

Thank you all so much and best wishes to everyone.

238783[/snapback]

I hope you won't hae any problems. My situation was similar in ways. My ex left 6 weeks after coming to the US in oct. 2005. .I resumed my friendship with a former girlfriend in Janurary 2006 the divorce was final In May 2006. I married my current wife in June 2006. I did know her for almost 2 years, but mostly friends.

 

I understand your concerns, I have them also.... I guess I might be a barometer for you in the future.

Edited August 20, 2006 by NewDay2006 (see edit history)

[warpedbored]

I think the one year gap between divorce and meeting your current beau bodes well for you. You may hit a few bumps in the road because of it but you should be alright in the end.

[SmilingAsia]

It's not only the time gap between your previous marriage and meeting your current SO.

When you are bringing a 2nd alien to America, you tend to raise the concerns of VO, but everything can be explained. Be patient and handle with care.

[Æäʵ²»·²]

Thank you for your support and kind words. It's definitely going to be a road full of bumps. As long as there are no regulations/laws baring me from doing so, then I will "fight" till the end. Thanks....

[NewDay2006]

I guess I will simply have to wait for Red flags to start popping up? I did submit letter from 2 years ago with the petition

[NewDay2006]

I guess I will simply have to wait for Red flags to start popping up?  I did submit letter from 2 years ago with the petition

238999[/snapback]

I'm confident we will be fine.... mostly because I love her. I went down the wrong river, now I'm on the correct path

[Brian121247]

I have a somewhat similar situation in that I was married to a Russian woman who became depressed and then psychotic, and then returned to Russia.

 

I sponsored her for a K-1 and she arrived in May, 2002. We were married in July, 2002. She started coming unglued in August, 2004, during our record hurricane season in Florida. I had to commit her to a local mental health crisis center twice. She left for San Francisco in September to visit her brother and get her Russian passport renewed at the embassy. She ended up in a mental ward for a week at a hospital there. In spite of my and my family's attempts to persuade her to stay in the hospital, and my promise to support her recovery if she returned to our home in Tampa, she left the hospital against medical advice and got on a plane to Moscow in October, 2004. We were divorced in December of 2004.

 

Since I knew that she had left, and wasn't still in the U.S., I did not bother to notify the government of her departure. And they never asked. In 2005, after her conditional residency had expired, I got 4 notices from the INS and Homeland Security: one acknowledgement of her change of address filed in 2002 when we moved to Tampa, and 3 identical "Welcome to America" letters. That was my total communication with them. In all the forms and documents I saw during the K-1 process, I never saw anything that said I had a legal obligation to notify the government if the marriage failed. If I knew that she had violated U.S. law in any way, it certainly would have occured to me that I should notify the government to legally protect myself, but no violation occurred.

 

The reason I bring all this up is for background to my present situation. In December, 2005, I filed a K-1 petition for my current fiancee, who lives in Shenzhen. I dutifully noted the previous K-1 petition on the form. The CA service center approved it in March and sent it to the NVC, where it has languished ever since.

 

About 3 weeks ago, I visited my congressman's local office to ask for help. His assistant told me that the government was probably holding my current petition because I never resolved the first petition. Although they would have seen my divorce decree with the notation that a copy was sent to my former wife at her address in Russia, the government would assume that I have two active K-1 petitions at this time. I have no idea if this is really the problem. I was told by a woman at the NVC that the FBI was doing a background check on my fiancee, not on me. I doubt that this is completely accurate.

 

At that point, I decided to hire the lawyer who had helped me with the first K-1 visa. He specializes in K-1 visas, and he was very helpful previously. He is just starting the process of representing me and contacting the government to see if he can find out why the petition is being held in administrative review.

 

A few months ago, I read a newspaper article stating that over half of the aliens in America who are listed as illegal actually came here with valid visas. The vast majority are presumed to be Mexican. Since they were required to make a round-trip to Mexico and back every 6 months or so, when it became a problem and there seemed to be few consequences, they just stopped doing it and allowed their visas to lapse. And the government NEVER TRIED TO KEEP TRACK OF THEM! After reading that, I realized that our government did'nt have any idea of the location of my former wife. I had vaguely assumed that she would have had to show her passport at the airport when she left for Moscow, and there would be a record. But now I realized that the only countries that checked passports and visa on both arrival and departure (in my experience) were Russia and China, not the U.S.!!

 

So I provided my lawyer with a lot of evidence of my first wife's admission to mental institutions, the large amounts of money that I paid to get her teeth fixed, emails from her Russian sister-in-law describing her crazy behaviour in San Francisco, and a statement from my relatives describing our marriage as valid and our attempts to support her. He told me that he would take care of notifying the government of my circumstances and press them for info about the delay of my petition. It will be interesting to see what he finds out.

 

In summary, I assume that most other men who have had a problem with a foreign wife DID notify the government when the marriage failed, unlike me. So the government MAY have a record of that. Or not. Based on my experience so far, any problems caused by former marriages to foreign women will come up at the NVC stage when the FBI computer flags your name. If the petioner already has furnished a lot of info about former relationship(s), it may not be a problem, but I wouldn't count on it. I think people in this situation are in the minority, so unfortunately, there isn't much anecdotal information on previous experiences. And there doesn't seem to be any efficient way to find out at this point what the problem might be, or a really reliable way to furnish more info directly to the people doing the investigating to resolve the problem (if you knew what the problem is).

 

I feel foolish in that I didn't realize the potential problem after my first wife left the country and I didn't notify the government. I knew where she was, and at the time, I wasn't thinking about marrying another foreigner. The government didn't show any interest in her status. I remember wondering when I got the "Welcome to America" letters if I should write them a letter, but figured that I would get some official form any day then asking me for details when she didn't show up to adjust her status. I vaguely thought that they never asked me where she was because they knew she had returned to Russia. Well, this was all pretty stupid thinking on my part, but I had more pressing things on my mind, liking paying off all the debts I had incurred in supporting her.

 

I feel sorry for my first wife because I could not help her when she was here. I'm sure she's not getting good treatment for her illness in Moscow. But I'm glad that I met my current fiancee because she has reminded me of the happiness that a loving and well-balanced woman can bring to my life. Now I just hope that my lawyer can resolve any problems and get the visa petition moving again.

[SmilingAsia]

If your ex returned to her native country, you should try your best to get evidence that she is in her mother country, not in US as a illegal immigrant.

Thus you can convince VO you didn't get paid for bringing your ex to America.

[Brian121247]

Hi Eunice,

 

I agree that establishing her location is probably a concern of the government.

 

The evidence I have that she left is circumstantial - emails from her from Moscow, and from me to her. I have an email from her son stating that she got back and was staying at the time with her mother.

 

I could get a statement from her brother in San Francisco that he put her on the plane to Moscow. He may have had some subsequent contact with her since her return, but I wouldn't be surprised if he hasn't.

 

My lawyer has an office in Moscow, so I presume he could collect some evidence if he thinks it's necessary. I guess I'll follow his advice on this since he is very experienced with K-1 visas, particularly in terms of Russia and Eastern Europe. He also has an office in Guangzhou, and is familiar with that consulate.

 

It may be that the government is trying to establish her whereabouts now via the background check. If I knew that for a fact, I could address the issue. I'm counting on my lawyer to find out the problem and then address it.

[NewDay2006]

It might just be a case of the Goverment draggng thier feet. I notified the government when my ex left understand questionable circumstances. I never did hear anything from them. I don't know if I will have problems in the future with my current wife, but I will just have to deal with it, since I'm somewhat powerful in the situation to the degree, I must be patient and wait and see what will happen down the road. Good Luck.

Edited August 22, 2006 by NewDay2006 (see edit history)

[SmilingAsia]

Hi Eunice,

 

I agree that establishing her location is probably a concern of the government.

 

The evidence I have that she left is circumstantial - emails from her from Moscow, and from me to her. I have an email from her son stating that she got back and was staying at the time with her mother.

 

I could get a statement from her brother in San Francisco that he put her on the plane to Moscow. He may have had some subsequent contact with her since her return, but I wouldn't be surprised if he hasn't.

 

My lawyer has an office in Moscow, so I presume he could collect some evidence if he thinks it's necessary. I guess I'll follow his advice on this since he is very experienced with K-1 visas, particularly in terms of Russia and Eastern Europe. He also has an office in Guangzhou, and is familiar with that consulate.

 

It may be that the government is trying to establish her whereabouts now via the background check. If I knew that for a fact, I could address the issue. I'm counting on my lawyer to find out the problem and then address it.

239503[/snapback]

Evidence of your ex's location

We call it "thinking of bandits" (fei yi suo si):

If your ex is willing to co-operate: Holding a local newspaper, have a pic taken, show the date of newspaper on the pic. Have another pic taken showing the background is Moscow.

The two pics and the newspaper can be the evidence and proof that she is in Moscow.

[Dean Hall]

But now I realized that the only countries that checked passports and visa on both arrival and departure (in my experience) were Russia and China, not the U.S.!!

 

Where are you getting this from?

 

The US always checks passports both incomming and outgoing.

 

You may not have realized it because you never see a uniformed official doing it, but it is done, none the less.

 

The airline agency will ask for the travelers passport, and the airline swipes the passport, and that data is transmitted to immigration.

 

It is also the airline that removes the I-94 document stapled in your spouses passport when they travel back to their home country.

[Brian121247]

I don't think my wife's Russian passport had anything to "swipe," but I'd be happy if they recorded her departure in some way.

 

Since her emails indicate that she still is mentally unstable, I don't think she'll be much help in establishing her location for my benefit.