immigration fraud victim (IAM US Citizen)

[Laveau 67]

The last three posters gave great advice.

[HYENA 4]

get rid of the loving pictures and videos. They supoort her claim as a bona fide marriage.

[Mountain Climber 186]

moving forward with the divorce and with the theft charge will be your best move from this point. the divorce will force her to apply for a removal of conditions, and the theft conviction will prevent that from occuring. be sure to keep USCIS advised of the ongoing divorce and criminal case, alwasy making note of the relationship between them.

[n2100s 7]

Greetings All,

I just wanted to get a new piece of advice regarding the betrayal I have been through. As most of you have read from my first post about the events that took place. My immigrant wife who came here Sept 09 on a temporary 2 yr conditional green card through marriage based immigration with me. And then just after 8 months vanished and accused me of assualt and battery on her when she had no evidence, witness or any police report and medical reports. We went to court, I hired a lawyer and she lost both cases one for 2 yr protective order and one for assault and battery, since she never had any evidence against me that the events she described took place. After losing the court cases back in July 2010, she went to NYC to live with her relatives for about 2 months before going back home to Pakistan for 2 months. She returned back in January and today, she has sent me a divorce letter via her attorney for me to sign. But the most embarrassing this for her is that, since her conditional green card expires this coming September 2011 and she needs to apply 90 days prior with me for an permanent status which is not possible, after she did with me there is no chance I am accepting her back in my life. But on the note from her lawyer today, she wants to file for based on " CRUEL AND INHUMAN TREATMENT", which is complete bull since based on NY divorce law, that is one of the grounds for divorce. And I know why she is doing this because she can show this divorce decree if I sign it ( WHICH I DEFINATELY WILL NOT) because this never happened and I was not guilty on both cases in the past and take this decree to the Immigration with her VAWA application. I would like to know how can she even file for divorce from New York because in order to file from there, she has to be a permanent resident there for 1 yr at least, or if we ever lived there together and this never happened. She is staying there with her relative I have consulted my fellow friends who have some experience in these issues and I have plan to consult my lawyer who won both my cases here in my state, and to reply back to the NY lawyer for my wife that the condition of grounds for divorce is not valid at all because I was declared NOT GUILTY in the assault and abuse case, so how can she file for divorce base don this ground. The reason why she is doing this once again, because if she files for no fault grounds, then we cant file until 1 yr separation which is June 2011 and that leaves only 2 months until her green card expiration. So what would the best course of action.

Regards

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

Why didn't you file for divorce before? Why did you wait for her to get a lawyer and file? Now you're the "respondent" and she's the "petitioner", and she's accusing you of cruelty and abuse. What's more, she's filing in another state, which puts a burden on you to respond in that state.

Hire a good divorce lawyer in New York. Now.

[n2100s 7]

Well the reason is because, where I live if you have no children and no pre nuptial agreement, you cannot file for divorce until 1 year. It doesnt matter what allegations she puts from NY, she already lost those 2 false allegations when she was in this state, and I have the printouts of all the hearings endorsed by my local circuit court. And in my opinion this is stupid of her to file for divorce on grounds where she could not prove in the state where she still is a permanent resident. She cannot even file from NY since she does not meet the requirements of filing for divorce since you have to be a PERMANENT RESIDENT OF 1 YRs, and she is in NY livin with her cousin for only 4 months. I dont know what kind of dumb lawyer she has hired, although in the divorce letter she sent me, her lawyer did state that she does not demand any equities, or properties or any maintenance ( alimony or other financial assistance), all she wants is to have me sign the deed based on cruelty and abuse allegations. Which I am not going to do and now my lawyer will respond back to her lawyer to either remove those conditions or wait for the 1 yr no fault ground divorce policy which has just been recently applied to NY by the way. Anyhow I will be consulting a lawyer in NY about this anyways before I respond to her lawyer.

Why didn't you file for divorce before? Why did you wait for her to get a lawyer and file? Now you're the "respondent" and she's the "petitioner", and she's accusing you of cruelty and abuse. What's more, she's filing in another state, which puts a burden on you to respond in that state.

Hire a good divorce lawyer in New York. Now.

[James and Cynthia 70]

Well the reason is because, where I live if you have no children and no pre nuptial agreement, you cannot file for divorce until 1 year. It doesnt matter what allegations she puts from NY, she already lost those 2 false allegations when she was in this state, and I have the printouts of all the hearings endorsed by my local circuit court. And in my opinion this is stupid of her to file for divorce on grounds where she could not prove in the state where she still is a permanent resident. She cannot even file from NY since she does not meet the requirements of filing for divorce since you have to be a PERMANENT RESIDENT OF 1 YRs, and she is in NY livin with her cousin for only 4 months. I dont know what kind of dumb lawyer she has hired, although in the divorce letter she sent me, her lawyer did state that she does not demand any equities, or properties or any maintenance ( alimony or other financial assistance), all she wants is to have me sign the deed based on cruelty and abuse allegations. Which I am not going to do and now my lawyer will respond back to her lawyer to either remove those conditions or wait for the 1 yr no fault ground divorce policy which has just been recently applied to NY by the way. Anyhow I will be consulting a lawyer in NY about this anyways before I respond to her lawyer.

Sounds like a lot of attorney fees for a divorce with hardly any assets, kids, and no alimony request. Are you doing all this because you want revenge? Your attorney must love this and all the money you and your mom are giving him. Didn't he tell you that you would sue her for immigration fraud? Obviously nothing happened with that. Probably because you can't sue for this, only ICE can. But I'll bet you paid your lawyer well for this. Give up and save yourself 10's of thousands in attorney fees.

-James

[n2100s 7]

Sounds like a lot of attorney fees for a divorce with hardly any assets, kids, and no alimony request. Are you doing all this because you want revenge? Your attorney must love this and all the money you and your mom are giving him. Didn't he tell you that you would sue her for immigration fraud? Obviously nothing happened with that. Probably because you can't sue for this, only ICE can. But I'll bet you paid your lawyer well for this. Give up and save yourself 10's of thousands in attorney fees.

-James

Buddy let me make one thing clear, the position she is in today with time running out on her conditional green card, she got disgraced and lost twice in court big time, thats more than enough revenge for me. I am moving along well in my life and no i did not spend thousands of dollars on my attorney, the only fees I paid was for my cases on which false charges were tried against me which I won easily. The ICE have already been reported and I have been reporting them on each and everything ever since she vanished so they do have a file which I sent in via mail about all this. I am just following legal procedures, and I am a resident of the state here and based on that we cannot file for divorce until one year of separation so I am obeying my state law for no fault grounds for divorce. She is just trying to force me to sign a paper for something I never did, which I never did and it was proven in court, so she is wasting her time and energy, I personally feel sorry for her since she only has 4 months left to apply for permanent status but the poor girl made some hasty decisions. Oh well, I will follow what my state law says. Good Luck to you on your ambitions, appreciate your advice.

[James and Cynthia 70]

Buddy let me make one thing clear, the position she is in today with time running out on her conditional green card, she got disgraced and lost twice in court big time, thats more than enough revenge for me. I am moving along well in my life and no i did not spend thousands of dollars on my attorney, the only fees I paid was for my cases on which false charges were tried against me which I won easily. The ICE have already been reported and I have been reporting them on each and everything ever since she vanished so they do have a file which I sent in via mail about all this. I am just following legal procedures, and I am a resident of the state here and based on that we cannot file for divorce until one year of separation so I am obeying my state law for no fault grounds for divorce. She is just trying to force me to sign a paper for something I never did, which I never did and it was proven in court, so she is wasting her time and energy, I personally feel sorry for her since she only has 4 months left to apply for permanent status but the poor girl made some hasty decisions. Oh well, I will follow what my state law says. Good Luck to you on your ambitions, appreciate your advice.

I understand your situation. It's good your lawyer hasn't cost too much. Yet. I wouldn't sign the papers either. Good luck.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

Well the reason is because, where I live if you have no children and no pre nuptial agreement, you cannot file for divorce until 1 year. It doesnt matter what allegations she puts from NY, she already lost those 2 false allegations when she was in this state, and I have the printouts of all the hearings endorsed by my local circuit court. And in my opinion this is stupid of her to file for divorce on grounds where she could not prove in the state where she still is a permanent resident. She cannot even file from NY since she does not meet the requirements of filing for divorce since you have to be a PERMANENT RESIDENT OF 1 YRs, and she is in NY livin with her cousin for only 4 months. I dont know what kind of dumb lawyer she has hired, although in the divorce letter she sent me, her lawyer did state that she does not demand any equities, or properties or any maintenance ( alimony or other financial assistance), all she wants is to have me sign the deed based on cruelty and abuse allegations. Which I am not going to do and now my lawyer will respond back to her lawyer to either remove those conditions or wait for the 1 yr no fault ground divorce policy which has just been recently applied to NY by the way. Anyhow I will be consulting a lawyer in NY about this anyways before I respond to her lawyer.

Ok, that makes sense.

She can file using any grounds she likes. In order for the divorce to be granted on those grounds she's going to need to convince the judge that her allegations are true. At this point, it sounds like she's hoping you'll be stupid enough to just sign the papers in order to be done with it. Obviously, you shouldn't do that.

The residency requirements for a divorce in New York are a little complicated, but it doesn't sound like she meets any of the possible requirements:

* Married in New York, and either party has been a resident for at least a year.

* Parties have lived in New York as a married couple, and either party has been a resident for at least a year.

* The 'cause' occurred in New York, and either party has been a resident for at least a year.

* The 'cause' occurred in New York, and both parties are currently living in New York.

* Either party has been a resident for at least two years.

If you were not married in New York, and never lived with her in New York, then she'd need to be a resident for two years before she could file for a divorce in New York.

I think the first thing you might want to do is have your attorney file a motion challenging jurisdiction. If the court agrees then they'll throw out her petition.

[sara..... 371]

sorry your going thru this but.........do not sign it......if it goes on record that you abused her in anyway if you ever want to file for any kind of visa for marriage again it can and in most cases will make big problems for you.......seeking advise from your attorney is about the only thing you can do at this time and coming from me thats saying something because my opinion of attorneys is very very low.

sara

[Darnell 8,479]

She can try to file whatever she wants - it's a tactic used mostly to make you enranged to the point of 'not thinking clearly' -

but

what is filed is always different than 'what is awarded' come the day for the court hearing.

Sign nothing, at this point, except the 'notice of delivery'

If there is an actual NY state / NYC court document number (check what you have, check with the court of record, also) , you can write to the clerk of the court, and remind the clerk that the petitioner in the case does not qualify to file this document with his/her court, and you seek to have the document filing rescinded. Do that now, that will throw rocks in her wheels, almost a 'dead stop' for further action these next 2 quarters.

I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but I train many over the years...

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

FWIW, she doesn't need VAWA as she has already obtained legal status of Permanent Resident.

If you are divorced she can remove conditions without you and will only have to prove she entered the marriage in good faith.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

She is just trying to force me to sign a paper for something I never did, which I never did and it was proven in court, so she is wasting her time and energy, I personally feel sorry for her since she only has 4 months left to apply for permanent status but the poor girl made some hasty decisions. Oh well, I will follow what my state law says. Good Luck to you on your ambitions, appreciate your advice.

She doesn't need you to ROC. She doesn't need to be divorced from you to file but she does need to be divorced from you to have her ROC approved. She can file her ROC now, without you, and when the decree becomes available she adds that to her file. Until she has the decree her ROC won't be approved.

My advice - do what Jim said about challenging jurisdiction. Do NOT sign it. Don't talk to her either, ONLY discuss things with her lawyer. She is obviously trying to file so she can get the divorce done to file ROC... so she MIGHT try and divorce you from another state.. I don't know where, or how but she might try so just be aware of that. You're 1 year isn't until June 2011 you said, maybe discuss with your lawyer if there are other grounds for divorce that you can file now, because personally I'd file divorce against HER for fraud or something (whatever grounds are available that suit the circumstance), always better when you're the petitioner. You said "no fault" you need to wait one year, are there other grounds to file earlier?

Keep reporting all of this to ICE. Let them know (if you haven't already) that she's trying to file for divorce in a state where she isn't eligible, on the grounds of cruel and inhuman treatment so they're kept up to date with what's going on.

Anyway this doesn't have anything to do with immigration any more, this is about divorce. You've contacted ICE, you know she doesn't need you to ROC, and that's about it. When the divorce is final then it's all finished.

Good luck.

[Boiler 46,103]

My guess is that she will be able to remove conditions no matter what you do or do not do.

The chances of the Affidavit being an issue, most unlikely. So remote it is not really worth thinking about.

Now you do seem to have major Divorce issues, that is where I would concentrate my time and effort.