Divorcing after Conditional Green Card

[worldcitizen 0]

sorry for the craziness that is going on in your life, and i am there with you. circumstances different but looking to file divorce. how do you pull your affidavit of support? is this even possible after you've received a conditional green card? any answers would be great. thanks everyone.

[payxibka 10,047]

sorry for the craziness that is going on in your life, and i am there with you. circumstances different but looking to file divorce. how do you pull your affidavit of support? is this even possible after you've received a conditional green card? any answers would be great. thanks everyone.

no you cannot... you can only "pull" it if the case has not yet been decided upon

[worldcitizen 0]

ok i understand.

what is the best way to protect myself then? obviously i will look into legal advise, but curious if there is anyone out there with personal experience and how they convinced the immigrant spouse to leave and not get stuck honoring the Affidavit of Support.

[payxibka 10,047]

ok i understand.

what is the best way to protect myself then? obviously i will look into legal advise, but curious if there is anyone out there with personal experience and how they convinced the immigrant spouse to leave and not get stuck honoring the Affidavit of Support.

what do you think your obligations are under the affidavit of support?

[worldcitizen 0]

my obligations are to provide immigrant spouse with income over 125% poverty level for 10 years, he becomes a citizen, or if he leaves the country after our divorce. i am the breadwinner and he makes minimum wage. he will not be able to survive in the us without me. i am hoping he will just not contest the divorce and go back to his home country, but i want to plan in case he does decide to contest and they grant him a regular green card. i want to know what i can do to protect myself. i have been documenting a lot of things. he hasn't become physically abusive, but he is emotionally, mentally, and verbally abusive.

[payxibka 10,047]

my obligations are to provide immigrant spouse with income over 125% poverty level for 10 years, he becomes a citizen, or if he leaves the country after our divorce. i am the breadwinner and he makes minimum wage. he will not be able to survive in the us without me. i am hoping he will just not contest the divorce and go back to his home country, but i want to plan in case he does decide to contest and they grant him a regular green card. i want to know what i can do to protect myself. i have been documenting a lot of things. he hasn't become physically abusive, but he is emotionally, mentally, and verbally abusive.

Please re-read the I-864... you do not quite have an understanding of your obligations

[worldcitizen 0]

basically, if he goes for public assistance, i can be forced to support him.

if we divorce and he leaves the country and loses his conditional green card status, i will not be responsible for him.

[payxibka 10,047]

basically, if he goes for public assistance, i can be forced to support him.

if we divorce and he leaves the country and loses his conditional green card status, i will not be responsible for him.

and only if the government pursues you....which is quite different than being required to support him at 125% poverty level.....

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

You are mistaken.

Your obligations under the affidavit of support are basically in a contract between you and the US Government. It's not a contract between you and your husband. If your husband becomes a public charge, the US Government could theoretically ask you to reimburse them. That's not a common thing, trust me.

If your husband moves out and has a head and two hands, he can work and he's expected to take care of himself. There might be obligations on your part that will be determined one you divorce him in regard to spousal support, but since your marriage seems to be very short, even that's unlikely. You definitely are not obligated to provide him with funds to live a life at 125% of the poverty level, and he can't just ask Uncle Sam for money and they write him a check. What we're talking about are "means tested benefits" and they are really hard to come by.

Relax and file for divorce if you're at the point already.

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

Plus a LPR can't receive "Means Tested Benefits" until they've been an LPR for 5 years and which point he can file for Naturalization (which would void the I-864).

[antoneya 9]

sorry for the craziness that is going on in your life, and i am there with you. circumstances different but looking to file divorce. how do you pull your affidavit of support? is this even possible after you've received a conditional green card? any answers would be great. thanks everyone.

From your timeline he has another 4 years to go before he can apply for any benefits. That is a long time so by than he will have given up and have gone back to his country or his should have found himself a stable income to support himself to not qualify for any benefits. Also I don't think the government is going to go after everybody unless they are broke and need every penny they can get...hope you don't live in CA...lol!

I just scrolled up to look at you location, sorry just noticed you are in CA!!!!

Edited June 4, 2010 by antoneya

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

Also I don't think the government is going to go after everybody unless they are broke and need every penny they can get...hope you don't live in CA...lol!

I just scrolled up to look at you location, sorry just noticed you are in CA!!!!

But the contract is with the Federal Gov't not the State!

[antoneya 9]

But the contract is with the Federal Gov't not the State!

I'm not sure how it works, the contract is with the Feds, but any benefits you get is given to you by the State who gets their money from the Feds. So maybe the state goes to the feds and then they come after you.

In any case getting back to topic, The OP has another few years to figure this all out. For the time being take care of what you need to do now so that you can move on with your life.

[Indy90 21]

Has anyone ever heard of people having to reimburse the government because they had signed the I 864? Like someone else said, I know that it is uncommon, but does it ever really happen?

[worldcitizen 0]

thanks all. i have been very sick the last three months, not related to my bad marriage. anyways, i appreciate the info and i have been doing my own research.