Practical advice needed

[pangzi53 0]

I was recently married to my foreign girlfriend in Hong Kong. We were sort of in a hurry and I therefore, stupidly as it turns out, neglected to mention I've been married before. There was no intent to deceive my present wife. She knows perfectly well I'm divorced. I just didn't have my divorce papers with me and I was afraid I couldn't get them quickly enough. I was not aware that a Hong Kong marriage certificate states one's marital status before the marriage. So, my status says I was single before the marriage even though I wasn't. I'm now about to file for my wife's I-130 and I'm not quite sure how to handle this. There is no way I'll lie on the I-130 and say I was never married. I won't double down on my first stupid mistake. How should I respond if (when) I'm asked about this? Is there a possibility the folks handling my paperwork won't notice? Is this a big deal or not? My thinking is I'm legally married and that is what is most important.

[LauraDP 10]

Can you go back to the registering authority and have them reissue a marriage certificate with the correct marital status on it? Regardless, be absolutely 100% honest from this juncture onwards. An error like this might make you look a bit stupid in USCIS's eyes but better to look stupid than to be caught in a fabric of lies.

Best wishes

Laura

[Avery Cates 1,141]

I'd agree. Even if it's going to take a little longer, you're much better off getting corrected forms now, you don't want any complications in these things, they can cause very large delays in an already slow process.

[pangzi53 0]

My wife and I do not plan to actually leave here until my contract expires in July so we have plenty of time, for now at least. One reason we decided to begin the visa process early was in case a snag arose we'd have time to deal with it. I've been in touch with the marriage folks in Hong Kong but haven't heard from them yet. My biggest fear is that any fix to this might require an arduous process like annulling the first marriage and doing the whole thing over. We could do it if we had to but I'd of course strongly prefer not to. It's such a hassle and expense travelling to HK and my wife's Chinese boss hasn't been exactly sympathetic to my wife's frequent requests for time off to deal with bureaucratic stuff. Twice this week already she has needed to take a few hours in the afternoon off to go to a government office to get a document that proves we live together. (It's incredible to me how complicated the "address change" process here is.)

Thanks for your input, everyone.

[LauraDP 10]

I don't imagine the process would be arduous. If you can prove you were indeed free to marry at the time and that it is simply a case of them having to amend your marital status in he register then it should be pretty straightforward. Getting a new certificate ordered is definitely the way to go since you say you have time on your hands for this process. Best of luck with it.

Laura

[pangzi53 0]

OK. In an effort to come clean and be honest I emailed the USCIS people and told them of my plight. They wrote back surprisingly fast and I was heartened when I saw their reply in my inbox. Then I read it. Here it is word for word, cut and pasted.

"The answers you seek would be considered legal advice, and our office is unable to provide legal advice or provide assistance with filling out or filing forms. Please contact your legal advisor. We are also unable to pre-adjudicate cases. We regret the inconvenience."

My "legal advisor?" I'm an English teacher who earned around $13,000 last year. Not a corporation. And if they can't help with filling out or filing forms exactly what IS their job? I did not ask them to "pre-adjudicate" my case.

This is such a drag. I'm now considering having my marriage annulled and doing the whole thing over again.

[Avery Cates 1,141]

OK. In an effort to come clean and be honest I emailed the USCIS people and told them of my plight. They wrote back surprisingly fast and I was heartened when I saw their reply in my inbox. Then I read it. Here it is word for word, cut and pasted.

"The answers you seek would be considered legal advice, and our office is unable to provide legal advice or provide assistance with filling out or filing forms. Please contact your legal advisor. We are also unable to pre-adjudicate cases. We regret the inconvenience."

My "legal advisor?" I'm an English teacher who earned around $13,000 last year. Not a corporation. And if they can't help with filling out or filing forms exactly what IS their job? I did not ask them to "pre-adjudicate" my case.

This is such a drag. I'm now considering having my marriage annulled and doing the whole thing over again.

That's about standard.

They don't want to tell you "yes you can do this" or "no you can't," because in case they're wrong or something changes, then you'll have something to refer back to them with and that won't do.

They also won't tell you whether or not your situation will lead to a denial via email or phone call, because they want to collect those sweet, sweet fees before they deny you.

[pangzi53 0]

This is now getting even more interesting. I replied to the email I mentioned above and told them I didn't have a legal advisor and just wanted them to answer a yes or no question: Will my wife's application be red-flagged due to the inaccuracy on the marriage certificate? This was their reply:

"This office is prohibited from giving legal advice or making decisions before cases are even filed. Our office can provide you with the following general information, which does not constitute legal advice:

If you file your I-130 with what evidence you have and the adjudications officer needs further information, he or she will ask you for it. You will then have 98 days to supply the requested information."

So...my interpretation of this is: If we suspect there is something amiss with the inaccurate marriage certificate we'll ask for an explanation. If we find the explanation "acceptable" you'll be OK. If not, well, you're in trouble.

[Avery Cates 1,141]

This is now getting even more interesting. I replied to the email I mentioned above and told them I didn't have a legal advisor and just wanted them to answer a yes or no question: Will my wife's application be red-flagged due to the inaccuracy on the marriage certificate? This was their reply:

"This office is prohibited from giving legal advice or making decisions before cases are even filed. Our office can provide you with the following general information, which does not constitute legal advice:

If you file your I-130 with what evidence you have and the adjudications officer needs further information, he or she will ask you for it. You will then have 98 days to supply the requested information."

So...my interpretation of this is: If we suspect there is something amiss with the inaccurate marriage certificate we'll ask for an explanation. If we find the explanation "acceptable" you'll be OK. If not, well, you're in trouble.

Pretty much.

They're basically telling you to pay the fee and take the chance, or not.

[pangzi53 0]

I've yet to reach the level of cynicism where I suspect they're just fishing for the $420 I need to pay for the initial application. (Though I am drawing close to it.) I'm going more with a "CYA" (Cover Your ###) explanation. The person responding to me, I'm pretty sure at least, KNOWS the answer to my question but is not 1000% sure so is hiding behind legalese to make damn sure he/she doesn't get burned later. It's sad but it's the age we live in. Americans just love suing each other.

[Darnell 8,479]

i swear, somewhere, i wrote a reply to yer conundrum and how to fix.

Oh well.

[mrss13 2]

It's a risk. You can file everything as is and maybe add a note about the situation with your marriage certificate, or you can do what you can to get the certificate amended or changed. Do you know for sure that it's impossible to get the original certificate changed without annulment/remarriage? Maybe you should verify what that process would entail before making any decisions. Good luck!

Edited November 8, 2013 by elee09

[pangzi53 0]

It is possible I'll be able to get the original marriage certificate amended. I'm working on that now.

The reason this has me so worried is that my wife's application is definitely going to undergo additional scrutiny as it is, for several reasons. I am considerably older than her, for starters. This always draws a red flag. Her parents did not sign off on our marriage. That's why we had to go to HK. And, my divorce was from another foreign women I met in Ukraine in 1995 and brought to the USA on a fiance visa. (She left me after 6 weeks of marriage. Long story.) When I look at the situation from the view of the people processing visa applications I can completely understand why'd they'd be suspicious. I would be, too! Sure I can explain, "Trust me, my first marriage was undeniably the biggest mistake of my life and I've regretted it ever since." If these folks are real human beings and not soulless bureaucrats they'll no doubt be quite understanding. My wife and I have been together for 4 years now and our relationship is about as "real" as they come. However, we have very little actual legal proof of this because of the idiosyncrasies (to be polite) of China. The whole "hukou" mess prevented us from ever having a lease with both our names on it, for example. Even though she has had the same job in this city since July, 2010, she is still technically living illegally here. (This happens all the time here in China. It's absurd.) Only this week has my university agreed to formally acknowledge the reality that my wife lives on the campus with me and it took several visits to different offices to pull that off. (We've been here since September, 2010.) It's not a simple "change of address" thing like at home. One of the only real "legal documents" I have to attest to our union is our Marriage Certificate. If that is somehow not quite on the up-and-up I can perfectly understand why the USCIS staff would be suspicious. I have literally hundreds of pictures of the two of us together since 2010. My mother is sending an affidavit attesting that my wife and I will live with her when we get to the USA. I also will have two affidavits from two other Americans, one a current colleague and the other a former one, attesting they know my wife and I well and we are a real couple. My brother, a retired police officer, has agreed to co-sponsor my wife. Everything will be OK eventually. I'm quite confident of that. I just really want to be home before June 28 because there will be a big family wedding on that day. My current Residence Permit for China expires the first week of July, 2014. So, yes, I'm worrying myself sick.

[Darnell 8,479]

The cool thing, IMO, is that yer filing DCF into Guangzhou,

and USCIS office in Guangzhou actually understands most of the stuff yer writing about, here.

Still, you should write letters of attestation, you as the author, on each thing you have covered here at VJ, as most of them are red flags except the age difference. Age difference is normal.

[mrss13 2]

Yeah, I live in Asia at the moment as well and the only real "official" proof we had was our marriage certificate. We are two non-Koreans so we are very limited in what we can do. No joint bank accounts, no joint leases, etc. It would have been a nightmare to file all of that state-side, but as Darnell said, it's great to do DCF because they will know that such situations are common in your present country of residence. They didn't give us any trouble at all with establishing relationship or co-habitation (we were worried about my recent divorce to my first husband being an issue, but they didn't even mention it). Just frontload your app with as much other proof as you can provide in addition to the letters that Darnell suggested. I can see why you would want to make sure that the marriage certificate is completely in order now. Hopefully you can get it sorted out.