Abandonment of Green Card

[belinda63 3,038]

I just want to say I am sorry one of the drones at USCIS gave you bad advise. I did not mean to come across as sharp.

Sadly you were given bad advise which resulted in a lot of lost time and an inadvertent overstay for your wife. Hopefully your journey will be smooth from this point on.

[Boiler 45,516]

Sounds like she was refused entry rather than deported so no need for a waiver.

The actual coding they used will tell you one way or another.

It should be a fairly straightforward IR1, usually DCF is quicker if you can show German residence. Sounds like you are now US based.

If a waiver is needed then it will add time, cost and other issues. I certainly would spend the money to at least have a one time consultation with a US lawyer.

For others GC's used to be issued with no expiry date, however as has been pointed out the clue is in the name, you have to permanently reside in the US.

Edited July 16, 2010 by Boiler

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

Sounds like she was refused entry rather than deported so no need for a waiver.

The actual coding they used will tell you one way or another.

The doc they gave her specified she was refused entry because of the previous overstay and she would need an I-212 Waiver to be admissible.

[sachinky 465]

If you're in Germany or hold legal status in Germany, I'd recommend filing for Direct Consular Filing. This will take about 4-6 months as opposed to the Consular Processing I-130 which will take about 6-8 months. Could be more with the waiver figured in.

Both of those routes will result in an IR-1 visa which will 'activate' a 10 year Green Card at POE. This time, she will need to maintain her primary residence in the U.S.

I'd suggest a consultation with an attorney just so you're clear on the waiver issue.

And we don't call the USCIS 800 #, the 'misinformation line' for nothing.

Edited July 16, 2010 by sachinky

[mustafa1232 3]

thanks for taking the time to help,

I meant to say that the I-130 will be filed and then the rest as you listed so well. I hope that I will be able to submit the I-130 today and somehow expidite the process.

Another questions - it has been suggested that form IR1 or CR1 is one way to go. After checking on that here:

CR1 Info Immigrant visa for a Spouse of a U.S. Citizen (IR1 or CR1) - An immigrant Petition for Alien Relative.

This would appear to be a way to allow my wife to enter the country so that we could then complete the paperwork. Is that correct?

(But then at the POE she may still be denied entry?)

I hope the local USCIS office can help in a few hours. btw.. I have made initial contact to a lawyer so I will see how that can help soon I hope.

hi dont panic this is not a big issue your case is so simple and easy if you look your case at court and law point of view in that scnerio you have only left one choice there is no left other choice.take your wife case in usa civil court and fight your wife case in court and your main head line OF your case is LACK OF AWARENESS OF GREEN CARD LACK OF IMFORMATION ABOUT GREEN CARD OR YOU THOUGHT GREEN CARD STATUS IS A PERMENENT STATUS RESIDENT OR IMMIGRATION OFFICER MENTALY TOUCHER YOUR WIFE OR THREAD OF DEPORTATION TO SIGN ED THE ABANDOMENT FORM BY FORCE and iam advice you please collect all evidence and rock solid proof for example if you prove in court that you are a very busy in your life or your concentrate other issue at that time this done by mistake because lack of awareness about green card and iam strongly suggest you dont waste your time and money to filed i-130 again for your wife there is a lot of chance uscis denied your i-130 petation if uscis denied your petation you dont have other choice left you lost your one and only last chance or option so iam strongly suggest you dont lose your last option so take care and save your last chance untill the whole situtation is not come in your favour and iam 100 percent sure if you prove in court that you and your wife is innocent us civil judge give you justice and give your wife last chance to begin new life in usa inshallaha and there is a lot of chance that us court remove your wife denied entery in usa and give your wife permission to use visa waiver

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

... take your wife case in usa civil court and fight your wife case in court and your main head line OF your case is LACK OF AWARENESS OF GREEN CARD LACK OF INFORMATION ABOUT GREEN CARD OR YOU THOUGHT GREEN CARD STATUS IS A PERMANENT STATUS RESIDENT ...

Don't even waste your time on this, ignorance of the Law is no excuse for not following it.

USCIS allowed her in once so that you could try to fix her status, you took the wrong path and were denied.

She left the US without having resolved her status so USCIS denied her entry as she is now inadmissible for (I assume) 3 years or until she gets a I-212 Waiver.

For you to win in a civil suit you'd have to prove that USCIS applied the law to your wife improperly. A moron drone at USCIS telling you to file the wrong form doesn't fit that as they can easily say that you didn't give them all of the details or they can even deny that one of their employees would give you that advice. Bottom line you have to PROVE that USCIS did something wrong, simply ACCUSING them won't hold up in court. Even the surrendering of her previous Greencard is within the INA Statutes as the cards are the property of the US Government and hers was long expired.

You can lose even more time & money by trying this first or you can just file the I-130 get the proper process moving along ASAP.

[sachinky 465]

I strongly urge you to NOT listen to Mustafa's 'advice.'

[wshc 46]

Update:

the trip to the local USICS office was totally useless. I had the same person that I had last year that told us we could use an I-90. Of course that was not remembered. There was absolutely NO effort to understand my situation and not any effort, not even a slight effort to offer assistance. I have received better information on line than I received at the USICS today. The total session was under 10 minutes, there was not even enough concern or interest to ask to see my paperwork, although I let it be known that I had it all. (I had it all e-mailed to me just for this meeting.)

The last time we were there the last advice given by this person was that if we don't like the procedure we could always get a lawyer. Today, after I asked how I could escalate this process, to possibly the supervisor. The response was that I could always talk to my congressman about this matter. What is this for advice?

Posts:

I noticed quite a few post, again thanks..let me answer some of the questions in those:

I am considering DCF and think that is the quickest route, but it will have to be done in Germany where I will have almost no influence on the way it goes. As I am still a German residence (I think). That means, I have the unbefristete Auftenhaltserlaubnis (unlimited work and living permit), still own a house there (my older children live there still), pay bills there and bank accounts and am a registered business still with the finanzamt(IRS)and still file German income tax. (I work some contracts in various Eurpoean countries and payment is easier for the customer if the company is German.) Of course now my wife is stuck there so she officially is again a resident there too. Our intention is to be permament in the US but maintain close ties to Germany, maintain the house etc.. so that we can visit the kids, family and friends often. Germany will be like a second home. (That will really confuse the government burocrats in a few years.)

To the post that mentions that we will need to maintain her primary resident in the U.S., that is understood now, and is no problem because just as in Germany, we have a house, own property, have children here also in school, as well as all of the bill paying :-( and bank accounts in the U.S. and of course file US income tax, although up to now most income has been exempt.

Mustafa, thanks for the input and you are right. Unfortunately a he said/she said against the government is a no win situation. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, and I don't see much prospect of any decision maker using common sense and overuling that.

Next step:

A consultation with an attorney is next on the agenda, and also my wife is going to consult an attorney in Germany.

In General:

I don't mind the paperwork, fees etc... but the waiting times are totally unacceptable. Where is our government on this. This is 2010, we have computers. This is prehistoric. It was faster in 1990 when we did this process the first time. Luckily when my wife and I met we were in the same country in Europe and I was assigned there for a few more years so there was no separation as I have seen and read about in this forum. Why does our government think it is acceptable to more or less force people to live apart from each other. Should love be limited to people of same citizenship. (Sound like a case for the ACLU.) Who is in charge of this agency? Can't they do this more humanely? Let the people live together in the states. They could make the couple show up once a month to the local USICS office or something like that to make sure nobody is using the system incorrectly. C'mon on. This is a joke that most American don't even know is happening.

Again, thanks for all of the information.

[mustafa1232 3]

Don't even waste your time on this, ignorance of the Law is no excuse for not following it.

USCIS allowed her in once so that you could try to fix her status, you took the wrong path and were denied.

She left the US without having resolved her status so USCIS denied her entry as she is now inadmissible for (I assume) 3 years or until she gets a I-212 Waiver.

For you to win in a civil suit you'd have to prove that USCIS applied the law to your wife improperly. A moron drone at USCIS telling you to file the wrong form doesn't fit that as they can easily say that you didn't give them all of the details or they can even deny that one of their employees would give you that advice. Bottom line you have to PROVE that USCIS did something wrong, simply ACCUSING them won't hold up in court. Even the surrendering of her previous Greencard is within the INA Statutes as the cards are the property of the US Government and hers was long expired.

You can lose even more time & money by trying this first or you can just file the I-130 get the proper process moving along ASAP.

ok let supose for example if op filed i-130 petation for his wife and uscis approved op wife i-130 petation and issue op a noa2 for further process and before op wife interview op filed 1-212 waiver for his wife at the time of op wife interview consular officer ask op wife please show me evidence and proof why you dont go usa what is the reasons behind your case for example op say i have a lack of imformation about green card or i thought green card status is a pemenent status resident and consular officer say to op please dont give me excuse or iam not comming to hear your excuse please give me evidence and proof and op say to officer sorry sir i dont have a lot of prove or evidence to prove that this is done by mistake and the end op interview consular officer say to op i have a 2 bad news for you uscis denied your i-212 waiver petation because you already signed the abandoment of LPR status and the second news is that if you provide us evidence and proof we will consider your i-212 waiver petation again so in that situtation we dont left any other option left that why iam denied your petation and transfer your case to uscis so in that situtation no one can give op 100 percent gurantee that op petation is approved or denied even lawer cannot give op 100 percent gurantee that op case is approved or denied so in that case if op filed petation in civil court only court judge have a authority to listen op excuse if op say to judge i have lack of imformation about green card or lack of awareness of green card or i THOUGHT GREEN CARD STATUS IS A PERMENENT status resident or this is done by mistake my wife and iam innocent and only court judge have a fully authority to make decision without any prove and evidence in petationer or op favour because of lack of awareness and imformation about green card to give justice and civil rights to citizen because there is million of people or citizen who dont know about there basic civils rights very well

[Boiler 45,516]

I have no idea what the previous poster is trying to say, ignoring it, if you can understand it, would also be my recommendation.

I missed the bit about the quoted numbers, your Lawyer will confirm the ban so there is also the Waiver. You can do all the prep work in advance so you can submit a waiver when she is refused a visa. See www.immigrate2us.net for waivers.

You might as well talk to one of the recommended Lawyers on that site.

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

ok let supose for example if op filed i-130 petation for his wife and uscis approved op wife i-130 petation and issue op a noa2 for further process and before op wife interview op filed 1-212 waiver for his wife at the time of op wife interview consular officer ask op wife please show me evidence and proof why you dont go usa what is the reasons behind your case for example op say i have a lack of imformation about green card or i thought green card status is a pemenent status resident and consular officer say to op please dont give me excuse or iam not comming to hear your excuse please give me evidence and proof and op say to officer sorry sir i dont have a lot of prove or evidence to prove that this is done by mistake and the end op interview consular officer say to op i have a 2 bad news for you uscis denied your i-212 waiver petation because you already signed the abandoment of LPR status and the second news is that if you provide us evidence and proof we will consider your i-212 waiver petation again so in that situtation we dont left any other option left that why iam denied your petation and transfer your case to uscis so in that situtation no one can give op 100 percent gurantee that op petation is approved or denied even lawer cannot give op 100 percent gurantee that op case is approved or denied so in that case if op filed petation in civil court only court judge have a authority to listen op excuse if op say to judge i have lack of imformation about green card or lack of awareness of green card or i THOUGHT GREEN CARD STATUS IS A PERMENENT status resident or this is done by mistake my wife and iam innocent and only court judge have a fully authority to make decision without any prove and evidence in petationer or op favour because of lack of awareness and imformation about green card to give justice and civil rights to citizen because there is million of people or citizen who dont know about there basic civils rights very well

The OP's wife will most likely get approved for the I-212 Waiver as the only thing they care about for it is why did she overstay. Her explanation was that they misunderstood the process of re-establishing her LPR status. You are miking a mountain out of a mole hill by suggesting that they claim civil rights violations in civil court. Immigration is not a civil right. Besides that the courts in this country are slow and expense especially since the suit would have to be in a Federal court. They'd be better just waiting out the 3 year entry ban.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

I will add my concurrence to the above statement to 'ignore what Mustafa says'. You have a much better understanding of the situation than he does.

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

Since you can still file DCF, that is definitely your best option, it will be much quicker than other options (ours took 6 weeks, as you can see).

[wshc 46]

Thanks for the tip about the web site. I will look in to it right now. This might not be appropriate, but if anyone has any comments, good or bad about the law office of "Schunklaw", let me know. I am in early stages of contact with that law firm.

Briefly, I know exactly what Mustafa is saying, and in a way he is correct. He is saying that this is a misunderstanding, it involves human error on everyone's part, and therefore needs a human decision and not a decision based on just forms, rules and regulations. That is something I was hoping for from USCIS but it will not come at the level we are forced to approach them at.

Anyway, Mustafa is saying that a judge just might be willing to "break the rules" if the case is presented in the correct manner. The judge has nothing to lose and does not work for USCIS so there is no concern about stepping on any toes and ruining his career. The cause must be just, and I think a case can be made for that. Of course, the case might be given to a judge that is not so inclined to be that flexible and it could all back fire.

I am going to be prepared to file the initial paperwork I-130 ASAP, after I consult with the lawyer face to face. My goal is to get my wife back to this country and then we will do anything the USCIS wants us to do paperwork wise. I checked out the congressman route, and that does not look to promising as far as expediting the process.

Plan B is my wife goes to Mexico and walks across the river in Laredo and we wait for amenesty, or we say forget it all and stay in Germany. (Just kidding about the river part, but I bet that is a resentment all people waiting years to do immigration correctly have had.)

Everyone have a great weekend! I am going to try and recover my enthusiam and desire to come back and live in the greatest country in the world. It is, just somewhat frustrating at times.

Edited July 17, 2010 by wshc

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

Anyway, Mustafa is saying that a judge just might be willing to "break the rules" if the case is presented in the correct manner. The judge has nothing to lose and does not work for USCIS so there is no concern about stepping on any toes and ruining his career. The cause must be just, and I think a case can be made for that. Of course, the case might be given to a judge that is not so inclined to be that flexible and it could all back fire.

Even if it went the best possible way in front of a judge USCIS would have grounds for an appeal and requesting an immediate stay of any court order that would allow her entry under a situation where the court order "breaks the rules"

The law is the law at all levels and to get a proper win in any court proceeding you need to prove that you didn't violate the law. If you get caught going 80mph in a 45mph zone and you go in front of a judge you won't get the ticket thrown out because you didn't read the speed limit signs. To get it thrown out you'd need to either prove that you weren't exceeding the speed limit or that the speed limit wasn't properly posted (signs obscured or absent).

So while he is correct that it was a series of mistakes that lead to your current situation, in the end it would be quicker for you to just wait out the 3 year re-entry ban.

As egregious as the results of the mistakes are it doesn't relieve your responsibility to find out what she would need to return to the US. Several mistakes were made on your part before USCIS (CBP) took and negative action against her.