panicked,mad and confused

[scorpell 0]

First of all.....hi everybody and thankyou in advance for reading this.Hopefully somebody will be able to provide something useful for me.

My husband and I have been married since feb 2007,i was granted my conditional permanent residency for the 2 yr duration.It was to be renewed on 2010 (approx the 8th).I called the USCIS to find out what i should do as i had to return to Australia to sort out family law issues.Due to me not knowing the window of time it would take, i was advised by the uscis (telephone) to send back my card and accompanying letter and when i am ready to return we should just lodge for alien spouse, that it would be more benficial.I have been back in Australia for 6 mnths and dont know how much longer.

The issue i have is that my husband informed me he recieved the card from the USCIS to acknowledge they recieved my letter with residency card, but just last week my husband had called me to advise another letter just arrived saying our case is now terminated and if i want to be heard i need to get a lawyer and go to deportation court.This is so concerning as i departed the states a little over a week (march 26th 2010), before it was due to expire.I have emailed the US Consulate in sydney (as i was instructed to do) who in turn have told me they can't help me and to contact the USCIS in the states.

Have i been given bad advice by the consulate? Does anybody know much about alien spouse petitions as hubby and i have so much going on already that we dont know what to believe with this now.

I just miss him so much and want to get back......please just something,anything????

Thankyou again

[daboyz 36]

Hopefully someone else will come along with a more solid answer, but I believe you have to start over because:

1. Your card is expired.

2. You haven't maintained residency.

[scorpell 0]

Hopefully someone else will come along with a more solid answer, but I believe you have to start over because:

1. Your card is expired.

2. You haven't maintained residency.

Well thankyou for that.This is why i called them. I needed to find out our best option as i knew i could be back in Australia for a yr or thereabouts.Well how foolish of me to believe the advice of a so called informed employee.Does this mean we get hit with all those fees again as they also told me would only be the $355? I am so not happy!!!!!! Devastated!!

[GJen 9]

I dont have much experience with this... and hopefully someone much more experienced will come along but according to wht I have read since you stayed longer than 6 months! and you card expired! you wil have to start your process again! so sorry

[daboyz 36]

Well thankyou for that.This is why i called them. I needed to find out our best option as i knew i could be back in Australia for a yr or thereabouts.Well how foolish of me to believe the advice of a so called informed employee.Does this mean we get hit with all those fees again as they also told me would only be the $355? I am so not happy!!!!!! Devastated!!

You might check with the consulate. I think I've heard of them re-issuing visas in some cases.

[scorpell 0]

You might check with the consulate. I think I've heard of them re-issuing visas in some cases.

Thankyou so much for that.Now you see why i'm confused? I will be pushing this further if need be as the information i recieved by them and then the letter.Am still confused about the whole deportation court?????I left before my residency expired and made sure i did everything they asked.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Okay, I am going to try to parse out your situation here:

You had a 2-year GC based on a marriage less than 2 years old.

You were going to be out of the country during the window in which you had to "Remove Conditions"

Now, you could have (and I will be brief on the could have, as it doesn't matter now) applied to remove conditions while abroad, but you would have been responsible for flying back for your biometrics and possible interview (lots of $$$). You could have also applied for a reentry permit which would have given you 2 years leave from US, but you would have still had to "Remove Conditions" like I said and fly back to the US.

It sounds like the letter your husband got is an automatic letter that they send to people who fail to "Remove Conditions" in their allotted window (which is 90 days before the card expires). The whole lawyer business is if you want to try to explain why you did not file in a timely manner and be granted reprieve and get a second chance (you could argue family problems in AUS, etc, but this is also lots of $$$). If you like this route, someone more familiar with this can help you more.

Or, you can file a new petition for a IR-1 visa. Since you think you have to stay in AUS for some more time, it might not be so bad. You could file a new petition today (you probably have to sign some paper relinquishing your current expired LPR status) and then maybe the time waiting for this petition and the time you need to take care of your family matters will overlap mostly... no time wasted.

As to the money "wasted," even your "could have" scenario costs lots of $$.

Good luck. Don't panic.

Edit: Oh, I see now you did relinquish your GC? The letter he got is probably a form letter and it seems like a problem of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing. IE, the form letter senders did not realize you relinquished GC.

Edited September 22, 2010 by Harpa Timsah

[Darnell 8,478]

Ya, that 'submit the card to USCIS' is actually the process of 'giving up yer LPR status'. You've done that, gave up yer LPR status, and now you have NO status.

Yer stuck, for now.

Suggest you tell yer husband to file a new I-130 petition, and request an expedite in the cover letter that he's including with the I-130 petition - with the expedite reason being 'USCIS error' - as it certainly was a USCIS ERROR for the USCIS CSR to give you the wrong information (which you then followed) .

The good news, really, is that this 2nd filing will go faster, as the namechecks on you are already completed.

Tell yer husband to follow this guide -

http://www.visajourney.com/content/i130guide1 and ignore any entries about I-129F/K-3 .

and even more good news? After the interview in Australia, you'll be granted an IR-1 visa, which, after coming into USA, results in a 10 year green card - no further silliness with USCIS for 10 years. Why? You've been married more than 2 years.

Now, you've posted in the K-3 visa forum, so I hope yer not going to tell yer husband to file a K-3 on yer behalf, as it's almost impossible to get a K-3 visa these days - see http://www.visajourney.com/news/2010/02/07/department-of-state-to-close-k-3-visas-if-i-129f-and-i-130-petitions-approved-and-received-together/

Edited September 22, 2010 by Darnell

[scorpell 0]

Ya, that 'submit the card to USCIS' is actually the process of 'giving up yer LPR status'. You've done that, gave up yer LPR status, and now you have NO status.

Yer stuck, for now.

Suggest you tell yer husband to file a new I-130 petition, and request an expedite in the cover letter that he's including with the I-130 petition - with the expedite reason being 'USCIS error' - as it certainly was a USCIS ERROR for the USCIS CSR to give you the wrong information (which you then followed) .

The good news, really, is that this 2nd filing will go faster, as the namechecks on you are already completed.

Tell yer husband to follow this guide -

http://www.visajourney.com/content/i130guide1

and even more good news? After the interview in Australia, you'll be granted an IR-1 visa, which, after coming into USA, results in a 10 year green card - no further silliness with USCIS for 10 years. Why? You've been married more than 2 years.

Thankyou so much......i will certainly let him know.Much appreciated.Just very frustrating when you are told things that are not correct.

[Darnell 8,478]

hey - yer welcome -

Harpa Timsah and I have given you basically the same info -

but for now, since yer asking about alien spouse petitions and your husband needs to file that alien spouse petition then the THING he needs to do is to file that I-130 with a cover letter asking for an expedite.

About 3 weeks after he files, he'll need to follow up with USCIS to check on the expedite status with a Tier 2 Human, Immigration Service Officer (see http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/structure/gc_1221837986181.shtm#5 )

I've got some general expedite packaging info over at http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/255138-k3-k4-visa-converted-to-cr-1-by-national-visa-center/page__p__3918125#entry3918125 - it's for a different casetype, but the packaging for the I-130 will be the same - the cover letter will be different, and your husband will probably need to include a letter of attestation for 'what happened to yer greencard and LPR status and the phone call with the USCIS rep (in some detail)' .

You can email this page as a link, to yer husband, there's an icon below...

---

Expedite Phrase for you -

'EXPEDITE, USCIS ERROR Second I-130 Petition for Spouse, A# 1234567890 '

and then add in, on the outside of the envelope - 'DO NOT OPEN IN THE MAILROOM'

Good Luck !

Edited September 22, 2010 by Darnell