Divorce Waiver Interview - Approved!

[JayJayH 546]

I'm finally at the end of a long journey. VJ has been an incredible resource through the past 4 years, and so I felt like posting this to help others who may be in the situation I was in, as I was constantly on here looking for information during my own complex "visa journey."

Filed joint ROC petition, while separated, exactly one year ago today. Filed for divorce a month later. Got an ROC interview date in October, but divorce still wasn't final. Requested to reschedule the original interview. Final divorce decree came two days later.

Today, I went with my attorney to the field office, and we waited for about an hour. We were called by one of the immigration officers who apologized for the wait, but he needed to do a background check. 20 minutes later, the officer came back out and called my name. He asked "do you have your final divorce decree?" - Which I did. We then went into the officer's office where he placed me under oath.

I had spent the entire past week going through anything and everything I could find as far as evidence of bona fide marriage. I was very confident that this would "go well" since I remember my entire relationship and marriage in detail. There was nothing he could have asked that would have caught me off guard. I was a bit nervous though since my ex wife and I had never had a joint lease, nor did we have an impressive assortment of joint assets. We had two joint bank accounts, joint health insurance and a joint dental plan. Beyond that, most of the evidence was in the nature of random mailers addressed to the both of us, three years of joint tax return transcripts, and affidavit from a close friend and my own very detailed 12 page statement. Main piece of evidence was a photo album spanning three years of traveling together.

After the officer swore me in, he began asking straightforward questions like "when is your birthday?", "what is your address?" etc. He then started asking me questions about my ex and I's relationship from beginning to end. He was very polite the entire time, yet firm. My ex and I had moved a lot due to the both of us working in seasonal retail jobs, so he asked a lot about dates, exact addresses, how long we'd been at this address, that address and so forth. Eventually, he said "I'm just going to tell you right now, you're approved, but I have to do this just to have it all down in writing." He then asked "did you have joint bank accounts? Joint health insurance?" to which I replied "yes" and grabbed a couple of papers to show him, to which he replied something in the lines of "that's okay, I've seen them in your file." He then said something in the lines of "Your statement was very well written, and you have an incredible amount of pictures. Everything looks okay, I can tell it was real and unfortunately didn't work out. I don't need anything more." He then said something in the lines of "Congratulations, I realize that this has been tough, but we're done. Best of luck to you!" He shook my hand, and showed me and my attorney out.

My ex wife wrote an affidavit, but the officer never asked for it or any other additional evidence. He told me and my attorney that the case would have likely been approved without an interview if we had been divorced when initially filing. SInce we filed jointly, but were separated, CSC had sent it to the field office.

Overall, the main lesson I can share with others here is this: FRONT LOAD YOUR PETITION, and be creative with your evidence if you lack joint assets. My own 12 page statement was extremely detailed, and spanned the entire relationship from first meeting until today. The officer told me straight up that the statement was well-written, detailed and therefore extremely helpful. Also, pictures can be excellent evidence if you do it right. Think quality over quantity. All pictures submitted with the petition clearly showed that they were taken at different locations, during different seasons and many of them were with family members. 15 - 30 pictures from different locations, with clearly distinguishable backgrounds, different holidays and seasons, as opposed to sending 300 selfies and all they show is that you know how to use a camera.

Also, ROC petitions are mostly DIY. However, if your marriage is failing at the time you have to file ROC, I recommend at least consulting with an attorney, especially if you live in California where even simple divorces can take up to a year. Mine was uncontested and still took 10 months, which made the entire case a lot more complex. Overall, the waiver interview was "the easy part." If your marriage was genuine, and your memory is in reasonable shape, you will be fine.

Front load, front load, front load. I cannot stress this enough. I carried a 2 pound stack of papers (anything and everything) with me, and he didn't ask for anything at all.

Thank you everyone on VIsaJourney for all the help and support over the past 4 years.

Edited December 1, 2015 by JayJayH

[Russ&Caro 1,549]

Can you please give your definition of "front loading" the petition? Is this the 12 page explanation and many pictures or is there some other definition you are using for the term front-loading?

Congrats on receiving your 10 yr green card, by the way, but sorry to hear the marriage didn't work out.

[JayJayH 546]

Can you please give your definition of "front loading" the petition? Is this the 12 page explanation and many pictures or is there some other definition you are using for the term front-loading?

Congrats on receiving your 10 yr green card, by the way, but sorry to hear the marriage didn't work out.

Thank you, I should have been more clear on that.

Remember that the officer who is going to be adjudicating your case has no idea who your are, knows nothing about your history etc, except for what they see on paper. By front loading the petition, I mean make a clear timeline for them, with supporting evidence.

In my case, since I lacked joint leases and joint assets, front loading meant writing out a personal statement detailing the entire relationship and marriage, and supporting it with substantial picture evidence. My ex and I were lucky to have traveled a lot, and spent all holidays with each others' families, so the pictures were clearly taken in different states, countries and over a span of many years. The pictures I guess provided a way to document the statement. Tax return transcripts, joint bank accounts and joint car insurance, joint health and dental plans helped to show comingling of finances during the time we were together.

All in all, the officer wants to be able to sit down, look at the case and say "this makes sense." Your job in this is to make sure it makes sense.

There is no one slam dunk piece you can give them. They look at the case as a whole, then make a subjective opinion as to whether or not it "makes sense."

[Alaska2012 462]

Congratulations!

Glad to see all worked out for you!

[Cheezees 1,514]

Congrats!!!

[JayJayH 546]

Congratulations! Glad to see all worked out for you!

Tack! Thank you!

Glad to see "familiar faces" on here still!

[Misuzu 10]

Hi JayJAy,

I'm happy I found your topic. I'll be going thrugh waiver as well. I'm in process of divorce and I will be hopefully filling ROC with waiver ( hopefully, becasue you said your divorce took 1 year!? I'm ready for 6 months 8 months max and it cant be longer cause i need to send ROC!)

"My ex wife wrote an affidavit, but the officer never asked for it or any other additional evidence. He told me and my attorney that the case would have likely been approved without an interview if we had been divorced when initially filing. SInce we filed jointly, but were separated, CSC had sent it to the field office."

Do I understand well? Do you say that if you file ROC with the waiver there is possibility you wouldn't have interview? So far I know there is no possibility of NOT having interview when you are divorcing.

I'm very sacared before my ROC. I have some evidences, but my marriage was probably different, he was cheating, his parents kicked me out of the house one night so I ended up in the car and he didn't do anything... then I moved back with him after 1,5 month to "try" but after I was living in our OWN condo for 1 month, MYSELF, he didnt even bother to move in after we got place to "try" then I said enough and we started divorce. Much more crazy and I hope it does not look like I am the bad one, or if Officer will believe me (I have evidence of everything though, regret that I didnt call police to write down I was kicked out and that his father was dangerous to me that night). Well... I tried for marrie for 1 year before divorce started.. and couldnt fight more and be more in pain.

Any advice will be helpful.

Thank you.

[JayJayH 546]

Hi JayJAy,

I'm happy I found your topic. I'll be going thrugh waiver as well. I'm in process of divorce and I will be hopefully filling ROC with waiver ( hopefully, becasue you said your divorce took 1 year!? I'm ready for 6 months 8 months max and it cant be longer cause i need to send ROC!)

"My ex wife wrote an affidavit, but the officer never asked for it or any other additional evidence. He told me and my attorney that the case would have likely been approved without an interview if we had been divorced when initially filing. SInce we filed jointly, but were separated, CSC had sent it to the field office."

Do I understand well? Do you say that if you file ROC with the waiver there is possibility you wouldn't have interview? So far I know there is no possibility of NOT having interview when you are divorcing.

I'm very sacared before my ROC. I have some evidences, but my marriage was probably different, he was cheating, his parents kicked me out of the house one night so I ended up in the car and he didn't do anything... then I moved back with him after 1,5 month to "try" but after I was living in our OWN condo for 1 month, MYSELF, he didnt even bother to move in after we got place to "try" then I said enough and we started divorce. Much more crazy and I hope it does not look like I am the bad one, or if Officer will believe me (I have evidence of everything though, regret that I didnt call police to write down I was kicked out and that his father was dangerous to me that night). Well... I tried for marrie for 1 year before divorce started.. and couldnt fight more and be more in pain.

Any advice will be helpful.

Thank you.

You sound like you have the evidence part in order. Divorces in CA if uncontested always take at least 6 months. Mine took 10 months, probably because the courts in LA County are severely backlogged. Might be faster in Orange County.

If you have already filed for divorce, your best bet is to file the ROC petition with a divorce waiver. After about 4 - 5 months, you will receive an RFE for the final divorce decree, which you'll get another 90 days to conjure up. If the divorce still isn't final, your case will be denied, and you'll go before an immigration judge. Sounds scary, but usually the immigration judge will order USCIS to "wait" for your final divorce decree.

I usually tend to think most immigration petitions and applications are DIY. Removing conditions while going through a potential lengthy divorce process though can be tricky depending on the timing of things. If your conditional residency is expiring soon, you live in CA or another state with a lengthy divorce process, and you still have not filed for divorce yet, you may want to at least consult with an attorney.

Best of luck.

Edited December 2, 2015 by JayJayH

[NickD 203]

50% of all marriages end up in a divorce anyway, wife and I dated for two years before we got married dealing with all kinds of hardships and complications, not to mention the huge expenses. Then were dragged through the coals so to speak during our AOS stage to prove we were married in good faith.

Only to be dragged through these hot coals again, is a joint ulitity bill a sign of a good marriage? Not even mentioned as a form of evidence anywhere, but caused even more delays.

One thing we did learn through our pre-marriage stage is we could work very well together, if I couldn't come up with a solution for some of our major problems, she could.

If our marriage did not survive, and we could not prove we married in good faith, had another option, she sold her property, quit her job, and was very well established here and would be an extreme hardship on her to return to her home company.

If anything put a huge strain on our marriage, was this ROC stage itself, extradinary attempts had to be made to keep her legal, also at great expense to us. We didn't know whether we would have a life together or not, very tense times.

But since there are other options for her to stay here, ha, if she asked me a question, and I didn't respond to it, also considered a form of abuse, option number three.

Its for this reason, I feel this terrible ROC stage is a completely worthless. Thanks for posting this, more proof of this point.

She was dragged through the coals again during the US citizenship stage. Most of our interviewers were young enough to be our kids and weren't even dry behind the ears yet. Three of them were immigrants themselves and beats the hell out of me how they even passed the English tests. Couldn't even understand the dumb basterds, but yet these little basterds had all the power over us. Really was a pile of BS.

[JayJayH 546]

"My ex wife wrote an affidavit, but the officer never asked for it or any other additional evidence. He told me and my attorney that the case would have likely been approved without an interview if we had been divorced when initially filing. SInce we filed jointly, but were separated, CSC had sent it to the field office."

Do I understand well? Do you say that if you file ROC with the waiver there is possibility you wouldn't have interview? So far I know there is no possibility of NOT having interview when you are divorcing.

Yes, that is correct, a well documented divorce waiver case can be adjudicated by the service center without an interview.

Interviews are a lot more common for waiver cases though.

Edited December 2, 2015 by JayJayH

[Stefany 2]

50% of all marriages end up in a divorce anyway, wife and I dated for two years before we got married dealing with all kinds of hardships and complications, not to mention the huge expenses. Then were dragged through the coals so to speak during our AOS stage to prove we were married in good faith.

Only to be dragged through these hot coals again, is a joint ulitity bill a sign of a good marriage? Not even mentioned as a form of evidence anywhere, but caused even more delays.

One thing we did learn through our pre-marriage stage is we could work very well together, if I couldn't come up with a solution for some of our major problems, she could.

If our marriage did not survive, and we could not prove we married in good faith, had another option, she sold her property, quit her job, and was very well established here and would be an extreme hardship on her to return to her home company.

If anything put a huge strain on our marriage, was this ROC stage itself, extradinary attempts had to be made to keep her legal, also at great expense to us. We didn't know whether we would have a life together or not, very tense times.

But since there are other options for her to stay here, ha, if she asked me a question, and I didn't respond to it, also considered a form of abuse, option number three.

Its for this reason, I feel this terrible ROC stage is a completely worthless. Thanks for posting this, more proof of this point.

She was dragged through the coals again during the US citizenship stage. Most of our interviewers were young enough to be our kids and weren't even dry behind the ears yet. Three of them were immigrants themselves and beats the hell out of me how they even passed the English tests. Couldn't even understand the dumb basterds, but yet these little basterds had all the power over us. Really was a pile of BS.

Thats overall, for 2nd, 3rd, 4th and so on marriage.

For people marrying for the first time the divorce rate is 30% which are very good odds.

Not as awesome as they were in the 1860s (1% divorce rate) but still better than half.

And for people who waited before marriage the rate is merely 4% which is very close to the 1860s rate.

Edited December 2, 2015 by Stefany

[La Souris 19]

Thats overall, for 2nd, 3rd, 4th and so on marriage.

For people marrying for the first time the divorce rate is 30% which are very good odds.

Not as awesome as they were in the 1860s (1% divorce rate) but still better than half.

And for people who waited before marriage the rate is merely 4% which is very close to the 1860s rate.

Interesting, any reliable source for your numbers?

[Misuzu 10]

Yes, that is correct, a well documented divorce waiver case can be adjudicated by the service center without an interview.

Interviews are a lot more common for waiver cases though.

THank you for your reply.

Where did you get this info from? I am wondering, I've never read or seen any case like this.

[JayJayH 546]

THank you for your reply.

Where did you get this info from? I am wondering, I've never read or seen any case like this.

Users on here and other immigration forums:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/254574-i-751-waiver-approved-without-interview/

http://www.click4immigration.com/Success-Stories/i-751-waiver-petition-approved-without-interview-for-conditional-green-card-holder-who-was-divorced-but-entered-into-the-marriage-in-good-faith/

http://discuss.ilw.com/showthread.php?29892-My-I-751-Waiver-approved-today-No-Interview!

Immigration lawyers:

http://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/i-751-with-interview-or-without-interview--598495.html

The USCIS itself states that interviews are necessary only when "an assessment from a live interview seems appropriate." (which seems to be most, but not all waiver cases)

http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Laws/Memoranda/Static_Files_Memoranda/Archives%201998-2008/2005/crintwaivr062405.pdf

[Misuzu 10]

Thank you! Appreciate!