What if the petitioner has a malicious plan to get rid of the recipient……

[CarlaM 0]

Sorry to read of this woman's situation.

The husband is trying to manipulate her by saying don't come back. It is easier for him if she is 5000+ miles away.

I would suggest she goes where she has a place to stay and opportunity to make money. I think she could get a police escort to retrieve her belongings from their home, but others know more about that.

Finally, I don't think she needs an attorney - if she has you to investigate the specific questions.

Good Luck!!

True. I had the police to come and help me to get my stuff out the house I shared with my husband, and I got a police report about this incident that was used later on as evidence for immigration. Police officers witnessed I was taking nothing but my clothes, that way he could not acuse me later on of stealing

Edited April 5, 2009 by carla-justin

[Carlos and Jocel 2]

I would like to assist one of my Cambodian friends who has some major problems regarding the two years CR1. We have just heard about her story last night. We decided to write on this board, whether we could find any solutions for her, in an addition for her to visit the attorney's office. (If the attorney's visit is useless, please provide your comments as well.)

My friend Poh, is currently visiting her family in Cambodia. Her green card will be expiring in early June, 2009.

A few months ago, she signed the form to remove the conditional status, I-751 while she lived in Missouri – sometimes in February. When she moved to Texas, a few weeks later, she flew back to Cambodia due to her mother’s sudden illness in order to take care of her in the hospital. Her husband indicated that the package had been mailed to the appropriate office.

She received an AR11 from her husband while staying in Cambodia. She signed and sent the form back to Texas. Her husband indicated that he would send the AR11 form to the DHS. She continues asking her husband regarding the NOA.

Before leaving Texas, she planned in having her husband and his daughter visited her in Cambodia in June for vacation and travel back to the States together. Hopefully, she will receive either the approval letter or the request for interview letter. She has a good faith that her husband will take care of all the tasks for her while she is taking care of her family.

Last week, she called the DHS office regarding her case. Since she did not have the receipt number, she could not talk to any live individual. She contacted her husband and asked whether he had received the NOA regarding I-751. He said that he still did not receive it yet.

A few nights ago, she received an email from her husband stating that he would like to terminate the relationship and will not follow-up anything regarding the I-751 with DHS. He also said that if she comes back to the States, likelihood, she will have to go back to Cambodia because the green card will be expired. She will not be eligible to live over here. (She still has several of her possessions and belongings over here.) She was in shock and crying non stop. She reviewed overall situations and felt that her husband might not even send the I-751 petition to the DHS as he previously stated at all. This is because her husband could not even provide any tracking evident regarding the case. He said that he had just dropped the package into the regular mail, without having making any photocopies. Her husband only said that he spent over $500 for the fees, nothing much had been provided in details.

Afterward, she talked to my wife and my wife relayed me the message. We believe that the husband lied to her in the filing of I-751. The email that the husband sent was an evident to support that claim.

We recommended her to come back to the States as soon as possible before the green card expires. I said that by staying over there she would lose her fighting chance. I said that she should be able to contact the lawyer and present all of this information.

The questions that I have:

1. Husband did not file for any divorce and made a surprise termination, would this be considered as a deception and can be prosecuted? He used the situations toward his advantages because he realized that his wife’s green card is expiring. (He did not file the divorce but waited like a cold-blood killer.)

2. What will be the wife’s fighting chance? She believes in good faith that the husband acted honestly by sending all of the I-751 required paperwork to the DHS. That’s why she left for Cambodia and faithfully waited for him to come to visit and go back together, after receiving an NOA.

3. I believe that coming back to the States at this moment, she will have a better fighting chance because her green card is not expiring yet. However, her husband stated that if was useless for her to come over here because she would have to go back in June, after her green card has been expired. Do you think it will be a wasteful trip for her?

4. I do not know her husband’s motive. If there would be a divorce, he should be filing long time ago. I felt that this is a cold-blood execution practice. By lying that the paperwork had been sent and continues to procrastinate to make her believe that everything is still a OK, I believe that was like a criminal activity of deception. She told me that she would not go to Cambodia, if the situation had been turning out like this. Did the husband’s conduct be considered any types of deception and could be prosecuted in the court of law?

5. Even though the husband’s email stated that he did not involve with another woman, we believe that he was performing a “CYA” act, just in case his email will be used in the court of law. I had never heard that the husband would like to divorce his wife by sending out an email, just in time before her conditional green card is expiring. He expects that she would not be able to do anything in a short period of time. Would you provide some comments on this one?

I do appreciate all of your expertise inputs. I will assist her by assembling them together. We encourage her to go back and brave herself in any situations. There will be severe headaches but she will have a great fighting chance with the justice system available to her. We even think about prosecuting the husband of the act of deception as well.

Thank you for sharing your comments and I do apologize if this message is too long. I would like to provide as much details as possible. My wife in Thailand will visit Panom Penth and her next week. Hopefully, we will have some great inputs from the great people from this board. Thank you again.

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To bad to hear this but PETITIONER can cancelled the Benificials visa as he is the one petitioned her. But he should have been forward and told her that he no longer wish to have the relationship instead of hiding in the bush. She does need to try to go back in the states and there alot of agency that might be able to help her. Deceiving is hard to proof, your words against mine type of thing, if the husband is very violent to her mentally or physically abusive, she have the chance to stay in the states. But if the husband don;t want her to be around, he should have filed for divorce because now both of them have to wait for the hearing...etc...! This is not the 1st time I heard this or seen in VJs, alot of similar acts have been posted and some have not but we knows it happen.

[Old Dominion 26]

I hope that when she returns, the OP will be there to help her -- go with her to get her belongings and if necessary, call the police to vouch for her. Her husband cannot have her green card withdrawn or cancelled, nor her visa to return to the U.S. If he was her sponsor, then he is obligated for another eight years to the U.S. government to reimburse for any public assistance she may need and receive. To repeat, her husband cannot take any action against her. He can file for divorce, and if she wants to contest it, all of these lies may be held againt him so that he will be required to pay support or alimony to her. Otherwise, there is nothing she can do to punish her husband for being a liar.

[Nahathai_Ike 0]

My wife and I thought of the following:

1. The reason that he did something like this is to allow himself to file a divorce without any fight or contest and can create some stories that the wife left him. We thought that it had been carefully planned.

a. The wife bought a one-way ticket back to Cambodia, with the promise from the husband that he and his daughter will join her over there and come back together to the States with the NOA in hands.

b. With that reason, the divorce will be very easy because he could prove to the judge that the wife left him with a one way ticket and no chance for him to make any compromise.

2. When the husband files for a divorce with a no show or no contest, there will be no argument for any additional alimony. The lawyer's fees could be made at a minimum.

3. The couples had never gone to any counseling session and the wife even signed the joint tax return to allow the husband to file as married in February. The wife had not perceive anything that the entire plan had been carefully crafted.

We suggested her to come to the States as soon as possible. Right now, we heard that she had already purchased the ticket to come back within 10 days. We will keep updating the situation. (In a mean time, the friends had already contacted the immigration and divorce lawyer regarding to this case.)

What we felt regarding the deception was that -> the husband continues to insist that he sent the package (I-751) through the US mail WITHOUT tracking information (trying to save $.65 for delivery confirmation) and did not remember what else that he put into the package. He sent an email to the wife that she should not worry because everything would be alright and the approval letter should come into the mail. Instead, he did not even file the paper on the behalf of himself and his wife.

Later, he sent email to his wife yesterday that, if he helped her, he would be getting in trouble with the DHS. So, he said good bye to her via email. We felt that it was very odd for the situation to turn out this way. I believe that he would like to file for a divorce and the wife will not not show up. So, it would be considered as no contest and he could minimize all of the lawyer's expenses. The court will grant him anything under his terms.

We felt very glad to hear that she is coming back to fight in this case.

[Old Dominion 26]

From everything that has been written, she is doing the right thing. Now she can assert her rights.

I agree, based what the OP has written, that this was all planned fairly carefully as a way for her husband to get her out of his life completely. Maybe he had his reasons to be so hateful and sneaky. Counseling before divorce is no longer encouraged by the courts or by attorneys, as it is so common in the U.S. There is probably no need for him to file anything with DHS and it's not even worth trying to persuade him to do so.

In general, it seems that she has some good friends ready to help her through all this, and it seems she has reasonable grounds to get a financial settlement in the divorce. So many southeast Asians come here, get dropped by idiot spouses and left on their own, and have made no friends to turn to. Your friend is indeed fortunate.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

One way that might help determine if the husband did send in the I-751 or not. You indicated that the I-751 was supposedly mailed in February yet it sounds like her green card is expiring sometime near the end of June. The I-751 cannot be sent in more than 90 days prior to the expiry of the greencard. February 28 would be 90 days prior to the end of May, not any time in June. If the application was sent in more than 90 days prior to the green card expiry it would be rejected and returned by USCIS to the mailing address. If her husband says he mailed it in February for a June green card expiry and has heard nothing since, then there is a good chance that he is lying that he sent it off.

I think the advice for your friend to return here and make an infopass appointment at USCIS is a good plan. USCIS will use her A number to determine if an I-751 has been filed for her. Once she determines it has or has not been filed she will know better how to proceed. She can obtain transcripts of jointly filed tax returns on her own and she will need evidence of joint financial accounts (bank statements, credit cards, etc.) to file the I-751.

Good luck to her. Her husband appears to have behaved very badly and she may well be better off without him if that is the way he treats her. I am not sure she will have much legal recourse, except she may wish to divorce him based on his actions against her instead of waiting for him to divorce her.

Edited April 5, 2009 by Kathryn41

[Nahathai_Ike 0]

Another update,

Poh received an email from her husband today while she is still in Cambodia. The husband stated that he will be filing for the divorce this week. He will use the address in Cambodia as her address for the paperwork to come here.

She also found out that he filed the tax return (married file jointly just less than a month ago -> March 9, 2009) by using her signature that she signed in February before leaving the States. He stated that he mailed the I-751 package WITHOUT any tracking number to DHS in the middle of February in Texas.

A strange thing that happened was that, if they mailed the package in Texas, why did the husband send her an AR 11 form (change of address) to Cambodia? They were no longer in Missouri during that time when they filed the paperwork.

The sad part was that, he decided to divorce her by writing an email, instead of going face to face.

Poh believed that the reason that he was rush into filing was because she informed him that she will go back to the States. He will try to do his best from preventing her from entering his apartment. He said that he had already packed her belongings and ready to ship the boxes to Cambodia.

He was in a hurry, which we were very surprised. He told her in the email that he was sorry that their marriage did not work out.

If we have any more updates, we will post in this section, just for your information.

[Bobby+Umit 161]

I would recommend that your friend come back to the US ASAP to pursue the divorce and file for herself.

She should start making a copy of all paper work, emails, etc.. for her case. Marriage license, etc..

He cannot stop her from coming back into the apartment, the police will escort her if she goes there to file a complaint. (does she have any proof of residency?)

She should get a lawyer, and perhaps file for divorce herself, contest his divorce filings. (all in all - get a lawyer)

[Ning 619]

My wife and I thought of the following:

1. The reason that he did something like this is to allow himself to file a divorce without any fight or contest and can create some stories that the wife left him. We thought that it had been carefully planned.

a. The wife bought a one-way ticket back to Cambodia, with the promise from the husband that he and his daughter will join her over there and come back together to the States with the NOA in hands.

b. With that reason, the divorce will be very easy because he could prove to the judge that the wife left him with a one way ticket and no chance for him to make any compromise.

2. When the husband files for a divorce with a no show or no contest, there will be no argument for any additional alimony. The lawyer's fees could be made at a minimum.

3. The couples had never gone to any counseling session and the wife even signed the joint tax return to allow the husband to file as married in February. The wife had not perceive anything that the entire plan had been carefully crafted.

We suggested her to come to the States as soon as possible. Right now, we heard that she had already purchased the ticket to come back within 10 days. We will keep updating the situation. (In a mean time, the friends had already contacted the immigration and divorce lawyer regarding to this case.)

What we felt regarding the deception was that -> the husband continues to insist that he sent the package (I-751) through the US mail WITHOUT tracking information (trying to save $.65 for delivery confirmation) and did not remember what else that he put into the package. He sent an email to the wife that she should not worry because everything would be alright and the approval letter should come into the mail. Instead, he did not even file the paper on the behalf of himself and his wife.

Later, he sent email to his wife yesterday that, if he helped her, he would be getting in trouble with the DHS. So, he said good bye to her via email. We felt that it was very odd for the situation to turn out this way. I believe that he would like to file for a divorce and the wife will not not show up. So, it would be considered as no contest and he could minimize all of the lawyer's expenses. The court will grant him anything under his terms.

We felt very glad to hear that she is coming back to fight in this case.

Her immigration status doesnt seem to be in doubt. Her husband may have tried to make her believe he has some influence over that status to intimidate her. He doesnt.

The biggest problem I see in all of this has to do with ignorance of the divorce laws. What needs to be done will be dependent of which state she lives in. Many states have no fault divorce laws so who did what is irrelevent. The legal fees will be paid by him because she has no income so why not get a lawyer? What support he has to provide is going to have to do with the length of the marrige.

The friends she has are her biggest asset. Those friends need to remove the emotion from the situation & concentrate on the legal questions as to the divorce. That is where her future will be determined, not in worrying about what ever this jerk thought he would be able to pull off & how he intended to to get it done. His number 1 mistake was believeing she wouldnt come back.

Done right the court will teach him a lesson in American legal means & methods. It wont take a competent lawyer long to bring some relief to her in this situation.

[Nahathai_Ike 0]

The sad part regarding the story was that the husband would like to get rid of his wife when the adjustment of status was near and during the time that she could not be there on a face-to-face basis.

He intends to send the "Petition for Dissolution of Marriage" to Cambodia and have her signed something like "Entry of General Apperance, Waiver of Personal Service of Summons". He hopes that she will be confusing with the legal terminology and signs these forms and mails back to him.

This is because her GC is already expired and it will be no chance for her to come back and fight for her right in the court of laws. He can say anything that he wants in the petition, including the agreement in his terms.

The lesson learned from this case, is that -> the recipient should wait as long as possible for the NOA to arrive before traveling out of the country. This is an assurance that he/she will have more time to consider on the case. The second thing that we learned, was that, sometimes the predator had evil plans created long before and the situation warranted these plans to be implemented.

Poh did not know anything that these things were coming while she was out of the country. She had a good faith that her husband and his daughter would come to visit her on their vacations while she had been waiting, with the confident that they would be traveling back to the States together.

The husband continues to avoid talking about the case. No tracking number nor specific information on the case of her life. (Sent out these I-751 without any tracking information or could not remember what evidences were enclosed within the package.) He stated that he put the package in the US post office box with enough postage for delivery.

We were glad that Poh started to think that something was wrong that she had not yet received the news regarding NOA. When asking her husband to contact DHS, he continued to avoid and said that he was too busy to check with them. We told Poh that how come the husband did not even have 15 minutes to follow-up with "THEIR" case, (both had to sign). He lied by telling her not to worry that the GC should be in the mail. Now, he had already started the divorce procedures.

We encouraged Poh to go back and fight. This will be her decision to make. We hope that she will be traveling to the States soon.

Thank you all for your wonderful contribution to this topic. We know that Poh owes a lot of gratitudes toward your comments and encouragements that you all have been giving to her. Thanks again.

[Old Dominion 26]

Perhaps it is best for Poh and everyone else to stop trying to talk to her husband. He will not tell the truth nor say anything to make her feel better. Wherever that divorce material is being sent, it can be rejected by whomever receives it. By then she will be in the US and be able to have her own lawyer follow up in a way that will delay everything until she is ready to fight for her rights.

Did you mean to say her GC is already expired? At first, it was going to expire in June. Maybe I misunderstood. Anyway, if she can catch the next flight here, she should board it.

Good luck! There is no more rotten a person than someone like her husband who is obviously very very passive agressive and needs help.