GC husband is cheating and verbally abuse\threatening USC wife

[huongkhin 9]

Please kindly help.

My sister in law is in a very difficult situation. She found out that her GC husband has another life, dating with different women before, during the time they were dating, and after they got married... the whole time, even during the time she was pregnant. She has all the evidences (chat scripts, photos, screenshot), even chat conversation with his lover which found out he was cheated on her as well. She will soon file for divorce. He was an F1 student. After he got his GC through AOS in the US, he kept making difference excuse to move away. He's totally using her to simply get his GC.

These are few quotes from his email to her:

“I am not going anywhere so don't worry I will be fighting this till the end with you in court.”

“We have nothing else to say but contest each other in court with our lawyers if this is what you want. This process can take as long as 6-9 months with legal fee can end up from $50,000 - $200,0000”

“If you foolish enough to do this than no matter how much it cost, my family will stand behind me to help me fight this battle with you against your unfair, unreasonable side of story. ”

The guy is on condition GC with 1 year left before he can renew his GC. He's going to his home country to see his girlfriend, or his next victim next week.

Besides talking to FDNS like what mentioned in this thread, is there anything else she could do?

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/439326-reporting-fraud-to-uscis/

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

Is he living in the home ? If so try to get an exclusion order to keep him away ( and his family because he emails can be seen as the family threatening her ) change the locks after he has properly been excluded use 911 if he shows up ( repeatedly if necessary ) make copies of everything she has before he knows and put them in a friends home . Seek supervised visitation at a public location If state law allows divorce for cause file based on his infidelity ( ask a local lawyer what the correct category is )

[JohnR! 5,495]

If she fears for her safety she might consider getting a restraining order, in addition to filing for a divorce. You might also consider getting her out of her house and putting her up until the can sort out what to do.

[Teddy B 17,252]

He already has his GC, not much she can do about that. He can file for Removal Of Conditions on his own. She should focus on getting the divorce and moving on with her life.

Unless they are filthy rich with an exorbitant amount of property, no divorce is going to cost $50,000. Most are done for under $10,000.

[sara..... 371]

Im sorry but its unclear to me what exactly he and his family intends to fight in court

sara

[Darnell 8,478]

i write of another scenario for you, something to consider.

IF the evidence pile and the timeline of said evidence

proves up 'marriage for green card only' and the FDNS officer agrees,

is quite possible that a deportation order will be put in place

and

when he comes back into the USA, the CBP staff will see it on their computers when he is standing in front of a CBP staffer,

then

he will be taken into custody.

---

at the moment, tell your friend to file for divorce , prep to file it for next week.

work more on the evidence pile for the FDNS officer, as well. your friend has ONE SHOT , ONE ATTEMPT, to stop this fella when he hits the border again, IMO time and timing is everything.

[huongkhin 9]

Thank you all! They lived together with our parents before he moved out few months back “for a job” few hours away. I flew there and helped her and my niece temporarily relocate to my place. It’s 3000 miles away so hopefully that will help her emotionally. She needs that in order to deal with this trouble. We'll wait for her to calm down and will start putting everything together.

I have few more questions:

-Can she file for divorce from a diffrent state (let's call it state A)? If that's not possible, can we hire a lawyer in state A to represent for her? She's not a very strong person. My family think it's best not to let her deal with it directly.

-Exclusion order. Child custody. We are not there in state A, so I think anyway we will need a lawyer to help us with all that. Anything else should be done?

-Can we go see an IO at a USCIS office in California instead of and office in state A?

-Can my husband represent her if he has his sister full power of attorney?

[huongkhin 9]

Im sorry but its unclear to me what exactly he and his family intends to fight in court

sara

We're not sure. Child custody, his right to visit, money that he took from their joint checking,...? Anyway, we don't care as long as the mother and her child are kept alone. They don't need his interference at this point in their life.

He's good with words (sales guy, business degree) and he will use it to break her and sale his story to others.

Edited January 26, 2014 by huongkhin

[Darnell 8,478]

up until yesterday (metaphorically) she was a resident of that state.

Now she might be a resident of your state, however,

residency rules apply, by state, for who can file a divorce and when. Study what's what for your state, I'll bet she needs to be a resident of your state for some period of time, to file.

IMO, given the timeline, I say prep for her prior state, file in her prior state. If she uses the right templates, then engaging a lawyer to file the divorce petition isn't needed, but given the complexity of stuff in the divorce (a child, for example) it's better to get a lawyer involved in writing up the decree. There's time inbetween filing and granting, so keep that in mind as yer prepping a calendar. Note a petition starts all, a decree signed by a judge stops all, and there is time inbetween.

IMO, have a meeting with a FDNS officer at the USCIS office CLOSEST to the POE he's landing in, saves time. Alternatively, have the meetup with the FDNS officer at the USCIS office WHERE the green card interview took place.

Sure, it means some travel back, but getting an infopass appointment is never immediate, next day. IMO, use that time to prep the divorce petition, prep the evidence for FDNS, and go back for a week, filing divorce first, then infopass appointment 2nd.

I think she'll still be considered a resident of her former state, based on jump-time, but she could easily rehome her residence to her parents house and still stay temporarily with you. Again, keep that in mind as yer planning her calendar.

Caveat - I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV or podcast. Lawyers have learned much, practicing law, on my dime and I know barely a cursory amount o stuff about filing for divorce and a largish amount about how to stop a visa card scammer.

[Villanelle 4,122]

First, Darnells post contains quite a bit of accurate info but theres a few holes in it- as he mentioned his knowledge varies greatly on topics of divorce/custody to GC scammers.

Since youre mentioning 3000 miles away and state A and state B are confusing (to me at least) lets just pretend they (parents-USC sis and GC husband) live in NY and you (the brother/wife shes seeking refuge with now) are In CA- ok?

So as for your questions:

Filing for divorce.As Darnell explained divorce is handled based on the state you currently reside in. Different states have different rules for meeting residency requirements as well as how things are divided. So you cant just live in NY or NJ or TX and then move to CA because they have more favorable divorce laws and then file for divorce the next day. CA may require you to live there for 6 months or maybe 6 weeks or maybe a year before you can file. You- or rather sis would have to establish a residence there (meaning get a DL) You would need to check with the clerk as to how soon afterwards someone can file for divorce after becoming a resident of the state.

As for hiring a CA lawyer to represent you in a divorce filed in NY because you are a resident there (NY) and would be filing a divorce there... well unless you happen to find a CA lawyer who is also licensed to practice law in NY (very very slim) youd have to find yourself a licensed NY attny. But all is not lost. A lot of the paperwork can be filed by the attny w/o sis having to appear for every little thing. The whole process may even be able to be completed with out her having to appear in person if good enough reason is given to the judge. But because of the mention of child custody... in all honesty, she most likely will need to appear. And depending on her future plans(meaning where she is planning on residing and building a new life for her and her child) where she is going to file for divorce and have the childs custody decided is going to matter greatly.

If she was to file for it in NY she would have to argue and win full custody and the right to move with the child to CA if thats where shes choosing to start anew. The court may not allow it. They may grant her full custody but there may be conditions that she remain in state for visitation etc. It would really depend on how argumentative the ex wants to be. Some custody fights are so bitter and petty it dictates the school district the child must be enrolled in limiting where the custodial parent can live. If she was to be a resident of and file for divorce and custody in CA however because that is where she is starting anew, Well thats a totally different story. The court would be highly unlikely to order her to move out of state to share custody since she is one of 'theirs'. The ex would have to hire a lawyer in CA to come fight it. It would basically be a reverse of the above situation and put sis at a greater advantage. The only downside is sis would have to wait to file until she becomes a resident of the state she is choosing to relocate to. Hopefully this would occur prior to his ROC date.

SO the first thing sis needs to do is decide where she is going to be starting her new post divorce life, establish a residency there (if she is not a resident of said state already) and file for divorce and custody when eligible.

IMO the soon to be ex does not have a very good understanding of immigration or divorce law and is making threats about you better not divorce now or all hell will reign down upon you because I dont know, he seems to think once the 2 years are up a magic wand is waived and his GC becomes permanent. LOL. Its not that simple. Perhaps he hasnt looked ahead at the form required and feels if he can just keep his spouse from filing for divorce until his 2 years are up he will be ensured the permanent card. Nope. He will have to file a joint form if they are still married in 1 year- something she wouldnt be signing along with proof of the 2 year relationship, which he wont have as they separated 1 year in. So its ridiculous for him to be threatening her with dont divorce me and mess up my status, because once the relationship ended- its done. The proofs he will need to remove conditions (ROC) cease as of that date.

Delaying the divorce does not give more legitimacy to the relationship, which is why sis may be in a situation to relocate herself and establish residency somewhere else like CA where she would have your support and file for divorce prior to him ROCing if that is her ultimate goal for her future residence plans.

Either way he is going to be forced to file ROC and check a tic box for a waiver as it will not be a joint application. When he is going to do this? I dont know. He can do it once he served with divorce papers or he can wait until his ROC date is up. It wont make a difference either way really.

-

What you want to do is as Darnell explained submit your evidence of fraud (if any) to the office that would be receiving his ROC application. That would be the once based on where he lives not where you live. You could theoretically submit it to your office but then youd be relying on them forwarding it to his local office and well its like playing a game of telephone tag. Things get lost, people are busy. For maximum impact you need to go direct and as closely to the source as you can.

Now there are two possible things you are presenting to them here and because of the nature of confidentiality they are not going to tell you directly which if any you have a case on or what they would be taking action on, but they are humans and you should be able to get a read on them based on if they ask for follow up info or simply tell you, we see this all the time, thanks for coming in- we'll make a note of it- how serious of a concern it is and what to expect.

But the two things your presenting are two very different things. The first is a case that he was issued the GC fraudulently and it should be revoked (which is what Darnell refereed to as marriage for GC only). This is difficult, but depending on what evidences you have it could be possible. The second scenario would be proofs and evidences of fraud that should be added to his case file and reviewed when his ROC comes up and the adjudicator should take into account and deny his ROC because of.

[Darnell 8,478]

ya, mostly, that's why i suggesting filing the divorce in the state where the sister resided moments ago,

but really I mean to get back to the parent's house the day after the husband jumps out of the USA. I am assuming that's coming up soon, and time out of the state really isn't counted if it's less than 7 weeks.