What considerations should be made?

[PurpleSky 19]

QUICK BACKSTORY

I belong to a wedding forum and one of the topics of discussion is that a fiance is still currently married to a wife he only married to allow her to stay in the country (soon to be ex wife has her greencard now). They've been married for 10 years and legally separated for some years. The soon to be ex wife keeps pushing back the court date and now it's running into the day for the new marriage.

MY QUESTION

I told the poster that she may want to be sure her fiance considers the obligation he still may have concerning the Affidavit of Support. She said since they've been legally separated for years there is no financial obligation on either of their behalf. Is this correct? Is there something the "new couple" should be considering that they may have missed?

[amykathleen2005 441]

The fact they committed visa fraud.....?

[Mithmeoi 29]

The fact they committed visa fraud.....?

Ditto...

Also isn't it required that someone be divorced for six months or something before they can legally remarry? Or maybe that's just in some states.

[PurpleSky 19]

LOL yes I mentioned the visa fraud but since I don't know these ppl personally, I don't know what other circumstances there were. I was just asking for my own benefit. Could be good information to know because I don't know much about that portion of the journey.

There is no waiting period after the divorce in their state.

[justashooter 430]

perhaps you will tell us their country of origin, or we might assume it is yours. interesting, if morbid, to see who is cheating.

[taurean 0]

MY QUESTION

I told the poster that she may want to be sure her fiance considers the obligation he still may have concerning the Affidavit of Support. She said since they've been legally separated for years there is no financial obligation on either of their behalf. Is this correct? Is there something the "new couple" should be considering that they may have missed?

Ditto what the others have said re: visa fraud. The part that I highlighted in your quote is not true. The obligations of the affidavit of support do not end with separation or even divorce. Questions of other types of support(i.e, spousal support) may come up apart from the affidavit of support that the husband signed in order for his "wife" to get her permanent residency status.

My reason for answering your question is that you mentioned wanting to get an answer for personal knowledge as well. Otherwise....I wouldn't feel obligated to help someone circumvent the immigration laws.

[PurpleSky 19]

perhaps you will tell us their country of origin, or we might assume it is yours. interesting, if morbid, to see who is cheating.

Honestly I have no idea. As I said, this was a discussion on another board. I was trying to warn her of other ramifications and her response was something that I had not heard before so I wondered if it were true.

Ditto what the others have said re: visa fraud. The part that I highlighted in your quote is not true. The obligations of the affidavit of support do not end with separation or even divorce. Questions of other types of support(i.e, spousal support) may come up apart from the affidavit of support that the husband signed in order for his "wife" to get her permanent residency status.

My reason for answering your question is that you mentioned wanting to get an answer for personal knowledge as well. Otherwise....I wouldn't feel obligated to help someone circumvent the immigration laws.

Thank you! It's important to note that I am in no way trying to get over on the immigration laws. I merely wanted to know for my own benefit because she said it won't matter, I thought I'd advised her to watch out incorrectly. I was basically trying to be helpful because obviously these people don't know the trouble they can get into with what they've done. I advised this woman that her fiance may still have a financial obligation because of the AOS signed. My personal opinion is that it would serve them right because this situation is just wrong on all accounts.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

The terms of the affidavit of support are pretty well defined in the contract portion of the affidavit. The sponsor is obligated until:

1. The immigrant becomes a US citizen.

2. The immigrant accumulates 40 quarters (10 years) of Social Security work credits.

3. The immigrant loses their LPR status and leaves the US.

4. Either the immigrant or sponsor dies.

Divorce has no bearing on the contractual obligation of the sponsor. Actually collecting is another story entirely, but we won't even get into that...

The US citizen in question has been married to his immigrant spouse for 10 years. Why she's postponing the divorce is beyond me. She should have gotten an unconditional green card long ago, so her legal status is no longer dependent on the marriage, and hasn't been for a long time. She could walk away from the marriage today and it would not affect her legal status one iota.

On the other hand, if he divorces her after 10 years he could be saddled with some relatively brutal spousal support payments, entirely unconnected with the affidavit of support. If there is a substantial difference between his income and hers, then family courts in most states are going to hit him with spousal support. The laws vary a lot between states. In California (where my last divorce took place) it's typical to award support in a marriage of longer than 5 years. The amount is based on the difference between the incomes of the spouses, and is intended to allow the recipient to maintain a standard of living comparable to that they had during the marriage. The duration is typically half the duration of the marriage.

The downside is that the spousal support payments might hurt - a LOT. The upside is that the enticement of spousal support is often enough to convince a reluctant spouse to agree to a divorce.

[PurpleSky 19]

Thanks Jim! I have to say I really do enjoy reading your posts they are always so informative!