Green card fhrough marriage, divorce, petitioning for new husband

[Ellebell 0]

Hello everybody. I am a new member, and need your help and experiences, since my situation is not typical. I have been reading this forum for many years, at it was extremely helpful while I was adjusting my status, everything went smooth, without a help of lawyer.

Right now I am a green card holder, since June 2007, and I will be applying for my citizenship in March 2012. But during my "visa journey", my personal life got a little more complicated. My marriage did not survive. I am divorced since December 2010, but we were separated for a little bit longer. There was a lot of issues in our marriage ( him being totally irresponsible, gambling addiction,not paying taxes, alcohol). Even if we tried, we were just two different people, that wanted different thinks in life.

But here is the second story. While I was still married with my husband, I met my current boyfriend ( actually fiance . He is from my home country, and was in USA at that time on a work visa. We felt in love, and even if two years ago he moved out from States, we are visiting each other as often as possible, we are really in love, I know he is the one and we want to get married soon.

I could probably just leave USA and move back to my home country, since he also live there and so our families. But the longer I live here, the more attached I am, and more thinks are keeping me here. I have a 1.5 of college till I graduate,and I have a students loan that I have to repay. This is one of the reasons, why I can't move now.

So here are my question, and I would really appreciate any responses, especially if somebody was in the same situation.

1. Can I get married before applying for citizenship, I would really like to but I so on the application a question about husband, and if he is a citizen. Since he is not, will they be asking me more questions, why I got divorce with my first husband, if I will be petitioning for my second husband.

2. After my citizenship, I will be petitioning for my fiance, which will be my husband at that time. I know, that since it will be five years after I have received my first green card,and I can petition for my husband. That is what application says, but does anybody have some real experience how does this work in reality.

Thank you so much for your responses.

[Penguin_ie 5,997]

1. Yes you can.

2. Your previous marriage may be closely looked at, they may even contact your ex to see what he has to say, because petitioning a husband from the home country (with whom you started a relationship before divorced from the USC, and from your timeline, about 1.5 years after you got your greencard) will be considered suspicious. Doesn't mean your petition and his visa won't be approved, but there will be extra scrutiny.

[LIFE'SJOURNEY 970]

Remember a LPR can only petition a husband, not a fiance.

[Krikit 1,165]

2. After my citizenship, I will be petitioning for my fiance, which will be my husband at that time. I know, that since it will be five years after I have received my first green card,and I can petition for my husband. That is what application says, but does anybody have some real experience how does this work in reality.

Remember a LPR can only petition a husband, not a fiance.

See above.

[NickD 203]

Guess you can only get opinions on this issue, mine is if you came here on a student visa, then married, this is a plus on your side, but wanting to marry a person from your home country will ring strong bells with the USCIS.

Would tend to wait until you received your US citizenship. For us and other reasons, but not excluding the USCIS, we had to wait 15 months before I could bring my wife to be here. It was tough, but do you want to know something? We both stuck it out and really got to know each other very well dealing with a common hardship. During that time, either she or I could have found somebody else or just said the heck with it for the complications we ran into, but we both stuck it out. Recall on incident where she ran into another complication as she called it, and asked me if I still loved her. Just this morning had to contact her at her job via a text message, and ended it with, I still love you, yet! LOL. I assume you are young with a student visa and all that, give it time, solid proof of a strong relation. We are going on seven years of marriage with never an argument, and both trust each other very deeply, hope the same for you.

Just my opinion on this issue and that extra time is meaningful to the USCIS as well.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

There is a book, titled "Immigration Scams" and in chapter 1 it describes this rather common scenario:

Foreigner marries US citizen, gets Green Card, divorces US citizen, then marries ex-boyfriend from home country, he moves to US, gets Green Card. Circle closes.

Because of that, USCIS will have a very close look at your entire immigration history and the new petition. They will use a magnifying glass trying to find a hook they call pull on.

[Ellebell 0]

Thank you all for your responses.

I was looking before for the information about my case. The only think, that I have found is that if somebody become citizen after three years, then divorce and petition for new husband/wife, then they are really looking into the previous marriage, and consider this being fraud. It is possible, but there have to be strong proofs presented, like house or child, to show that the previous marriage was real.

But if it has been five years since the first green card was issue, then a new citizen can petition for husband/wife.

Well these are the facts that I have found, and in my case it looks like everything should be fine, but we all know reality can be different.

If they will be asking about my previous marriage, I don't really have strong proofs for it to be real, no house, no kids. And I alos wouldn't wont them to contact my ex, our relationship is not bad, we still talk, but he is obviously not happy for the fact that I am in relationship with someone else now, and I can't trust him.

[mjaskiew 8]

Thank you all for your responses.

I was looking before for the information about my case. The only think, that I have found is that if somebody become citizen after three years, then divorce and petition for new husband/wife, then they are really looking into the previous marriage, and consider this being fraud. It is possible, but there have to be strong proofs presented, like house or child, to show that the previous marriage was real.

But if it has been five years since the first green card was issue, then a new citizen can petition for husband/wife.

Well these are the facts that I have found, and in my case it looks like everything should be fine, but we all know reality can be different.

If they will be asking about my previous marriage, I don't really have strong proofs for it to be real, no house, no kids. And I alos wouldn't wont them to contact my ex, our relationship is not bad, we still talk, but he is obviously not happy for the fact that I am in relationship with someone else now, and I can't trust him.

I know personally two couples who are in very similar situation to yours.

First couple: They came together to the US a while back as girlfriend/boyfriend. After couple of years, they broke up, both married US citizens and lost touch with each other. The girl got her green card and citizenship (after 3 years from her first GC) through her US husband. Right after her citizenship oath she found out her husband was cheating on her and other nasty stuff. She divorced him. In the meantime, her and her old boyfriend reconnected. As it turned out, his marriage was falling apart too, he was about to divorce his US wife, who by the way never sponsored him for GC. So they both divorced, decided they cannot live without each other and got married few months later. About 6-7 months after they got married, they filed AOS for the husband. Everything went very smoothly, no problems at all. Yes, they were asked at the interview about their previous marriages but IO was happy with the explanation they gave him. They just told him the truth. Husband's GC was approved right at the interview.

Second couple: Wife was previously married to the US citizen. Got her first and second GC. Filed for divorce. Met a guy from her home country (in the US). Got her citizenship based on five years rule. Got married to this new guy. Filed for his AOS, GC was granted. No questions about previous marriage asked at the interview.

Hope that helps!

Edited March 21, 2011 by mjaskiew

[Lisamarie 79]

I was thinking the same thing.

There is a book, titled "Immigration Scams" and in chapter 1 it describes this rather common scenario:

Foreigner marries US citizen, gets Green Card, divorces US citizen, then marries ex-boyfriend from home country, he moves to US, gets Green Card. Circle closes.

Because of that, USCIS will have a very close look at your entire immigration history and the new petition. They will use a magnifying glass trying to find a hook they call pull on.

[KittyPollitt 284]

Thank you all for your responses.

I was looking before for the information about my case. The only think, that I have found is that if somebody become citizen after three years, then divorce and petition for new husband/wife, then they are really looking into the previous marriage, and consider this being fraud. It is possible, but there have to be strong proofs presented, like house or child, to show that the previous marriage was real.

But if it has been five years since the first green card was issue, then a new citizen can petition for husband/wife.

Well these are the facts that I have found, and in my case it looks like everything should be fine, but we all know reality can be different.

If they will be asking about my previous marriage, I don't really have strong proofs for it to be real, no house, no kids. And I alos wouldn't wont them to contact my ex, our relationship is not bad, we still talk, but he is obviously not happy for the fact that I am in relationship with someone else now, and I can't trust him.

If you are still on good terms with your ex husband, it might not be a bad idea to ask him to write a letter detailing how your marriage failed, have it notarized, and include a copy of it with your petition. Also keep several notarized copies for emergencies. My ex husband and I were separated when I met my current husband, and I included a letter from my ex stating that our marriage ending was not a result of the new relationship, just to cover my bases- and the consulate did keep that letter. Might help

Sarah

[Kathryn41 3,205]

2 posts related to a totally separate question on AOS have been moved into their own thread here: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/301381-preparing-to-file-for-aos/