USC on deathbed, Filipina wife on CR1 Visa... Need some advice..

[Boiler 45,482]

Married over a year.

[Jawaree 717]

Anyone can apply for a death cert. especially wife, he may not have much but the house

she should get involved with a church, get a job and forget about anything, although as

his legal wife tell her she needs to go to SS office and speak to them after he passes with

marriage and death certificates

[Hypnos 6,576]

In many states, death certificates are protected documents and are only available to immediate family members (such as a surviving spouse, parent, or child) for a period of time before they become open and available to anyone (for example, in Texas this period is 25 years).

As I said, a surviving spouse is always able to obtain a copy though.

[raven52 233]

OP, I would seek out an attorney, and let the estate, if there is any, pay for the attorney.,.,.,as it would have to be a very compassionate attorney, and hope that they "would work with you,".,.,.,.,.BUT you need legal help for sure as state laws vary from state to state.

[Carol123 2]

Your friend entered the US after being married for 2 years or within 2 years?

If after 2 years, it is IR1 visa, she will receive 10-year GC. if within 2 years, it is still CR1,she will receive the 2-year conditional GC.

If it is the 2-year conditonal GC, when she needs to apply to the 10-year GC, will it be a problem?

Edited November 16, 2014 by Carol123

[RayJan 2]

Thank you everyone!!

So as far as I understand it, no need for AOS as she already has the CR1 visa (my apologies for the confusion there as I went they AOS ).

I will be sure to give her that info ...thanks RayJan!!!

And I'll talk with her a little more to see where she is on the school stuff for the kid. She understands and speaks good English but she knows no one else but the hubby's family, and unfortunately the adult daughter is feeding her a bunch a BS it seems.... From everything about not being able to get a bank account to other immigration facts, but most likely she is doing so to instill some kind of fear into this young girl.

Being that the adult daughter has POA on the dad, when he passes, will the Filipina wife be able to get a copy of hubby's death certificate? I did tell her a few days ago, just to be sure she gets every single piece of document that the nursing home and doctors have about the USC hubby and his medical stuff. They know she is the wife so they will at least give her copies... I hope!

You're most welcome and please let us keep posted on what happened... I shared this story to my uncle way back in the Philippines who is a lawyer and contacting the immigration will be her first move. Hope everything will turn out good.

[Stevious 1]

It seems to me that there are significant questions that need to be answered.

1) Has, or has not the man been declared senile?

POA gives another the power to make decisions, but the man's rights to make his own decisions trumps the POA. (UNLESS) he has been medically defined senile.

So there are two very different scenarios. OP says he forgets people, and has difficulty talking but we really don't know if the man is senile or simply occasionally out of touch. If the man has not been medically defined as senile I would think that the wife should find a local agency who will put her in touch with a lawyer and file for her to become POA. Even if a judge want's the daughter to remain as POA (financial decisions might benefit from her being experienced with the way things work in America) the rights of the wife will become sorted out.

If not declared senile there is NOTHING in HIPAA that will prevent the wife from having access to any medical information.

See: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CC8QFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hhs.gov%2Focr%2Fprivacy%2Fhipaa%2Funderstanding%2Fcoveredentities%2Fprovider_ffg.pdf&ei=wbFoVIz3G7X7sATHgoCYCg&usg=AFQjCNFD4xdT05XGZLR3wnzKmcg1Y2Vkeg&sig2=39yuIiMoo78JwLj2NBShvg&bvm=bv.79142246,d.cWc&cad=rja (or do some research on this)

This must be tempered with has the man been asked: "Do you want your wife to have access to your medical information?" If he has been, and has said: "no," then she will be excluded. And "difficulty speaking" is not an issue. Can he write an answer? Can he blink twice for "yes," and four times in succession for "no?" There are plenty of ways for a medical professional to communicate absent speech.

It seems here that the real problem is antipathy between the daughter and the wife.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in grants were paid to agencies to help immigrants last year, it should not be difficult for her to find one to act as advocate and mentor.

[deidre 13]

Thank you again everyone I really appreciate it... It's a very interesting story to say the least and I know she has a long road ahead of her! Being that she is so young and with a 4 yo, I worry for her and esp. for the little boy, who every morning will see me in the hotel lobby and come running up to me for a hug and says "good morning" and starts talking about the fire truck he saw.

From what the USC hubby's brother told me (he came here last week to visit and also stayed at hotel, he seems to get along with Filipina wife), it's about 1-2 years of marriage, they went thru the whole process of getting her the spouse visa before USC hubby came back to US, and he's been back I think for 9 months and the Filipina wife followed as soon as she got her approval on the visa, and she arrived about a month ago.

I don't believe any assets here. USC hubby apparently retired and then left to Philippines, I believe he sold up most things before going overseas. This marriage is his 5th. His brother also believe that his 4th marriage might not have been finalized with divorce, as marriage was in Okinawa, Japan. But he has no idea for sure so he's speculating whether or not this 5th marriage is legal coz of that. Apparently the adult daughter is telling Filipina wife that her marriage certificate in Philippines is not valid here in the US, totally untrue but remember it's the adult daughter telling her BS.

Also, USC hubby's brother did say that a couple years back he knew that USC hubby had at least $1M in the bank, but they can't find the money now but thinks it's all been paid towards his medical stuff, coz in Philippines he had to pay cash to hospital as he was not a citizen and didn't have insurance. Brother also says that he believes that Filipina wife "thinks she's gonna get paid when he passes but ain't no money to his name". Brother at least is talking some facts and not giving Filipina wife any lies.

RayJan pls let me know if your Uncle can provide any info for her situation

Carol123 I'll see if I can find out what she has, when I asked her, all she said is that she got her visa and her GC but did not say if it was the conditional or 10yr GC.

Thank you to everyone for your help! I have never dealt with the death of a family member before so I don't know the process for death certificates etc.

[deidre 13]

Stevious, thank you! I'll do some research.

I don't believe he has been classified as senile (I'll find out though), but as far as I know from what the brother has told me, because his health has declined so fast and dramatically, to the point where they are pretty much waiting for him to die, I think this is why the adult daughter stepped in. Apparently conditions were so bad at the first nursing home, and he could not talk or make decisions about his health, that's why she got the POA. Then she moved him to the current nursing home where he is doing better, but still in the last few stages of life.

I'll ask her tomorrow about his ability to talk or blink or write, etc. the USC hubby does not remember family members or some things in his past. After 40+ years of heavy drinking every day, his body and mind are now shutting down.

[Shenzhen 34]

Boy we just went through this whole ordeal with my Uncle. With the Power of attorney the daughter can clean out his bank accounts if she was smart enough to put her name on them. She can sell any assets like a house. She can use the money as she sees necessary medical care hospital bills etc. If she doessn't do those any of those or some of things the WIFE with out a will is entitled to 100%. The case will go to probate court, there they will find out he was married. She then gets 100% of anything the daughter didn't sell or take. She will need to show proof, a marriage license or certificate.

This is some good reading.

http://www.floridabar.org/tfb/TFBConsum.nsf/0a92a6dc28e76ae58525700a005d0d53/92f75229484644c985256b2f006c5a7a?OpenDocument

• If the decedent was survived by his or her spouse but left no living descendants, the surviving spouse receives all of the decedent’s probate estate. A “descendant” is a person in any generational level down the descending line from the decedent and includes children, grandchildren, and more remote descendants.

Edited November 16, 2014 by Shenzhen

[belinda63 3,038]

You are assuming 1. he has assets and 2. he has no children; when you say she is entitled to 100% of his assets. If he has children, and if he has not left a will, she is entitled to 50%. But since he has had long-term care with no insurance in the US it is very likely any assets he may have had have been depleted. If not the assets will go into probate and the medical bills will be paid out of his assets.

As far as social security he is 60 so he was not collecting social security. She is not of the age to collect any social security benefits based on his earnings. The child is not his so the child is not entitled to any social security payments. http://ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10008.pdf

I have not heard any complaints about his current medical care nor complaints that she is not permitted to visit/spend time with him. As far as the daughter being a court-appointed guardian this will remain unless someone else files with the court to take her place.

Again at this time the wife needs to decide what she will do. She needs to look at going forward with nothing but what she has and not assuming she will get anything from her spouse's death. She needs to begin looking for employment and a place to live.

[rlogan 2,036]

so his adult daughter went to the courts and got Power of Attorney over him,

Go to the court and get the records.

The daughter will have been required to file evidence of his marital status. I would be very interested to know what she represented to the judge about the marriage. If she concealed it, she is in deep trouble. But you also need to know exactly what powers the judge granted, even if it was filed properly.

She's already got a green card, but there are additional rights as a wife she needs to protect. Having married an alcoholic, she took a gamble though and has to accept what comes her way because of it.

[deidre 13]

Hi all!

Ok so talked briefly with Filipina wife, from what she tells me, the daughter gained access to the USC hubby's bank account and changed all passwords on it. Daughter has cleared out the entire account. Bank cannot give out any information to wife as she is not listed on the account but they did tell her there is no money left in it. The adult daughter did tell Filipino Wife that she'll be closing down the account for good. But also that all the money he had in the account is paying for his current bills... like his cell ph, medical stuff, his car note (USC hubby bought a brand new car when he returned to US) but car is now being used by adult daughter.

Ok so keep in mind he is bed ridden! So he isn't using any of his things. And his account is the one that his credit card is drawing from to pay for the hotel stay.

Anyways, she's looking into options of lawyers to deal with the POA...but she knows it's a tough battle and costly if she goes down that path.

I've passed on everything we have talked about on this thread, and have encouraged her to come on here too. I've also strongly suggested that she gets some plans into place because as someone said previously, if USC hubby does pass, guarantee you she'll call the hotel on the same day to stop paying for the room!!

The only difficulty I'm seeing is that she doesn't want to leave her hubbys bedside to get her plans together. Even the little boy today, came running up to me for his morning hug and said "I'm going see dada, I'm going see dada". This whole thing is a Sad situation for her and the boy...

[Boiler 45,482]

If he has a car note that suggests he did not have much in the way of savings?

Also makes you wonder how he managed to get a loan?

Edited November 18, 2014 by Boiler

[Hypnos 6,576]

Something else to consider: the PoA ceases to be in effect once the signer dies. After that it will be the husband's will (if he has one) that will determine what happens next.