Should I hire attorney based on complexity of my marriage green card?

[magictree 0]

Hi,

We just married in Jan and we applied for I-130 10 days after marriage. We are wondering whether our case is difficult or not, so we may seek the assistance from attorney if needed for the interview.

For us, we are students. My wife is an USC and she applied for me. She doesn't have income and she uses student loans at school, so for the financial part, I used my income from school around 20000 per year also my assets on the file. We met each other one and half years ago at school, and we started dating one month later and lived together from September last year. For our wedding, we married in Jan this year at the judge office. There are around 7-8 friends coming for our wedding and my mom. For my wife's family, her father lives in the US, and her mother lives in our home country (We are from the same city and country originally) . My wife did not let her father knows our marriage, but she lets her mother knows and meets my parents in our home country. The other problem is that I am 27 and she is 22, will that be another problem too? Besides, I will graduate this year. Will that be a suspicious reason for a fraud also? Will the interviewer think my wife has student loan and suspicious she marries me for money or something? Also, we did not broadcast our marriage to everyone, only good friends around 10 people know we are married. My classmates or normal regular friends do not know about our marriage, only know we are dating. will this be another problem too?

Thank you for advice!

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

**** Moving from Bringing Family to AOS from Student Visa as OP is already in the USA ****

I don;t think a lawyer is needed if you feel comfortable filling out forms and can do so accurately. The only red flag I see is that few people know about your marriage. It is possible (though not super common) that USCIS will contact your families or co-workers/ fellow students, or look at your social media (Facebook etc), and it will look suspicious if you are not listed/ known as married. But a lawyer cannot help with that.

[Caryh 5,206]

If you're hiding your marriage from everyone, you risk throwing up some serious red flags to USCIS. There's no big complication that a lawyer could help you with. But you're going to have to live openly as a married couple. Hiding the marriage to family and friends is going to make your marriage look like fraud to USCIS. Your age isn't issue. Sounds like you make and have enough money, although just barely. Commingling of assets of married couples is expected. Can you show commingling? Can you show pictures of a wedding? Can you get affidavits from friends and family that you're married? These are things they're going to be looking for. You should start living like a married couple, then you shouldn't have any problems. But hiding the marriage from so many people, that could easily lead to trouble.

[magictree 0]

Hi,

Thanks for the advice!

We have a car with both names, 4 bank joint accounts, 1 joint credit card, two authorized user credit card (My wife uses my credit card but not a joint credit card.) We have trip pictures with my wife and my mom, and we also have wedding pictures showing all of our good friends (8-9 people). For all other pictures, we have trip to sea and Florida, totally around 500 pictures. My wife's mom (living in our home country) knows we are married, but her dad doesn't know about that. Her aunt from father side and uncle know we are married too. Will the interviewer call her dad at the interview or after interview to confirm?

Will they check facebook to see our marital status?

If the problem is not too many people know we are married, lawyer won't be able to help too much, right?

[florida4life 29]

If you're hiding your marriage from everyone, you risk throwing up some serious red flags to USCIS. There's no big complication that a lawyer could help you with. But you're going to have to live openly as a married couple. Hiding the marriage to family and friends is going to make your marriage look like fraud to USCIS. Your age isn't issue. Sounds like you make and have enough money, although just barely. Commingling of assets of married couples is expected. Can you show commingling? Can you show pictures of a wedding? Can you get affidavits from friends and family that you're married? These are things they're going to be looking for. You should start living like a married couple, then you shouldn't have any problems. But hiding the marriage from so many people, that could easily lead to trouble.

I would like to know why would that lead to trouble? What do that have to do with filing a petition. If they want to keep people out of their personal life why would that lead to trouble. Who business is it beside USCIS and theirs. (Please explain where the red flags would come in).

[Cathi 5,754]

I would like to know why would that lead to trouble? What do that have to do with filing a petition. If they want to keep people out of their personal life why would that lead to trouble. Who business is it beside USCIS and theirs. (Please explain where the red flags would come in).

Because they have to prove an ongoing, bona fide relationship at the interview. Part of that is showing that family knows about the marriage, and in many countries they ask if the family approves. When I was at the interview with my husband the CO ask many questions about both of our families, and whether they knew about the marriage and approved of it. When people try to hide a relationship from family, it sets off red flags as people who marry for a green card(not saying these people married for a GC). tend to hide their marriages.. When going through this process your personal business, IS the business of USCIS and the consulate.

[Cathi 5,754]

Hi,

Thanks for the advice!

We have a car with both names, 4 bank joint accounts, 1 joint credit card, two authorized user credit card (My wife uses my credit card but not a joint credit card.) We have trip pictures with my wife and my mom, and we also have wedding pictures showing all of our good friends (8-9 people). For all other pictures, we have trip to sea and Florida, totally around 500 pictures. My wife's mom (living in our home country) knows we are married, but her dad doesn't know about that. Her aunt from father side and uncle know we are married too. Will the interviewer call her dad at the interview or after interview to confirm?

Will they check facebook to see our marital status?

If the problem is not too many people know we are married, lawyer won't be able to help too much, right?

Yes they have been known to check Facebook. There have even been individuals here who were told at their interview by the CO to open there Facebook accounts so they could see it.

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

It is possible they'll call her father, or send someone from the local US embassy around to ask questions, though unlikely. Much more likely that they will check Facebook, and/ or ask your neighbours and local co-workers/ friends.

[Caryh 5,206]

I would like to know why would that lead to trouble? What do that have to do with filing a petition. If they want to keep people out of their personal life why would that lead to trouble. Who business is it beside USCIS and theirs. (Please explain where the red flags would come in).

They've been known to ask many people and look at many things. Facebook being one of them. When I was going through the K1 process with my now wife, I was getting a bit upset with some of the things the Embassy and the CFO in the Philippines were asking people to show. Particularly with the CFO, some of it was just plain extreme nosiness into things they had no right to ask for. My wife said, well thats OK if you don't mind a delay if they demand to see it. That hit me square where it counts, I wanted nothing to delay when we would be together. And no matter what she thought she might need, I sent it. So I'll put it to you this way, How would you feel if your petition is denied and your wife deported because you're not more open about your marriage? We feel we're deserving of some privacy, but when we petition the government for something we want, we may have no choice but to give up some of that privacy. It sounds like you have everything you should need, but when you hide some things it is likely to trigger suspicion in person handling your case. Its their job to prevent fraud, and people keeping parts of their life hidden trigger them into suspecting their is some type of fraud. You really don't want to get into the situation where they're suspecting fraud. There are horror stories posted on here about getting grilled by investigators, the case being dragged out for years, and spouses being deported. You might fly through things just fine with what you have. They may not look any further than what you provided, but do you really want to risk it?

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Wh don't you want people to know about your marriage? Usually people are proud to get married and want to show off their spouses to everyone.

[mrs_gonzo 9]

I have a question related to this: my friend just got married. They planned on doing it later this year or early next year. However he was stationed somewhere else and in order for them to live together and stuff they got married a few weeks ago. They do love each other and been living together for almost 2 years now. However, nobody except for me and their witness knows they got married. They will plan another wedding as they planned from the beginning and will family know that that is the first n only wedding. Will that be an issue for them at the interview?

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

I have a question related to this: my friend just got married. They planned on doing it later this year or early next year. However he was stationed somewhere else and in order for them to live together and stuff they got married a few weeks ago. They do love each other and been living together for almost 2 years now. However, nobody except for me and their witness knows they got married. They will plan another wedding as they planned from the beginning and will family know that that is the first n only wedding. Will that be an issue for them at the interview?

Will they petition for a visa before or after the ceremonial second wedding? If after, no issue. If before, yes that could be an issue.

[mrs_gonzo 9]

Yes they will apply now but are not going to mention it to their loved ones. The figured it's easier to do it this way...

[ValerieA 350]

The big thing with any immigration process is...give them no red flags. Immediate family not knowing that they are married is a red flag. It may be an issue, it may not. There is enough stress to the process without adding more, IMHO.

[LORIEandPHIL 123]

If you have lived together since September then your lease and joint bills will help to at least show some proof you are a couple.