VAWA, Part 7

[Sandra G. 5,047]

VAWA GUY it's advised to file U VISA in cases of extortion and blackmail, considering that the person filed a police report and helped the police,judge or prosecutor investigating the criminal activity.

The immigration-related abuse is when the abuser threat to report the victim to the immigration authorities or to take away the children,or to harm the victim's family. All these things force the victims to stay in the relationship enduring the abuse. What you described is extortion. The U visa is appropriate because the abuser is motivated by a desire to obtain money and not to force the victim to stay in the relationship.

A single threat to report the victim to immigration is not ground for Vawa either, it's necessary a pattern. A few years ago two men posted here that they filed Vawa based in extortion and their cases were denied. I did not help them with the Vawa cases, despite they asked my help because i believe the appropriate visa for extortion is U visa not Vawa.

Extortion is listed in the INA 101(a)(15) (u) (iii), and it's ground for U visa.

Edited August 19, 2016 by sandranj

[road runner 1]

VAWA GUY it's advised to file U VISA in cases of extortion and blackmail, considering that the person filed a police report and helped the police,judge or prosecutor investigating the criminal activity.

The immigration-related abuse is when the abuser threat to report the victim to the immigration authorities or to take away the children,or to harm the victim's family. All these things force the victims to stay in the relationship enduring the abuse. What you described is extortion. The U visa is appropriate because the abuser is motivated by a desire to obtain money and not to force the victim to stay in the relationship.

A single threat to report the victim to immigration is not ground for Vawa either, it's necessary a pattern. A few years ago two men posted here that they filed Vawa based in extortion and their cases were denied. I did not help them with the Vawa cases, despite they asked my help because i believe the appropriate visa for extortion is U visa not Vawa.

Extortion is listed in the INA 101(a)(15) (u) (iii), and it's ground for U visa.

Thanks for your feedback Sandra!

My wife threatened me with reporting me to the immigration authorities unless I pay her a large amount of money. So, as you said, this IS immigration related abuse, and in this instance accomplished through extortion.

I think I've already mentioned that, the threats were done on several occasions, in different forms - on phone call by her directly, on a phone call done by an unknown male from her phone number, and via text messages. I believe that a repeated action done over a four month period qualifies for a pattern of abuse.

I have taken the vawa way because I find that the spouse part prevails here: "VAWA is a means for battered and abused spouses". That is actually what makes VAWA different from the U visa.

[Sandra G. 5,047]

How did you prove to USCIS that she called you asking you money, did you record her phone call or have a police report about the extortion? because just your word means nothing. USCIS does not adjudicate VAWA considering what the person says but what the person proves to them.

As I said before just your words will not be enough to prove extortion,if you have text messages then your chance increases a little bit. I handle VAWA since the Law was enacted in 1994 and never saw one VAWA approved based on extortion, but I saw many U visas approved based on extortion, but of course they had a police report regarding the extortion.

I did not explain well when I mentioned: " when the abuser threat to report the victim to the immigration", let me clarify here about it, 98% of the abusers threat to report the victims to USCIS and this is not ground to have a Vawa approved,otherwise we would have 98% of Vawa approved and this is not the case. We use the claim that the abuser "threatened to report the victim to the immigration" usually in cases when the victims have children, because we know that if the victim is deported she/he will not be able to take the child from the U.S without the abuser consent or through a Judicial order and most of the victims continue the relationship because of the threat to be separated from the child and others file Vawa to break free from this kind of abuse.

You did what your attorney believes is right for you, but I won't ever file a Vawa using the ground extortion .I will tell the person to file a police report regarding the extortion, to help the authority with the investigation and then file U visa. The chance to have a Vawa approved based in extortion like you described is almost non existent, but good luck.

Edited August 19, 2016 by sandranj

[Sandra G. 5,047]

Did anyone here go through the situation where in their GC was sponsored by US citizen spouse and later it was withdrawn and resulting in i485 denial and were in the process of filing VAWA. My question is did any one get an NTA(Notice to appear) in immigration court before they submitted VAWA petition or after submitting.

We had on VAWA threads 3/4/5/6 many people on removal proceedings when they filed VAWA. I remember at least 6 cases that the removal proceedings were closed and they attended the interviews with USCIS. I personally helped 4 of them with the VAWA/AOS.

Edited August 19, 2016 by sandranj

[Sandra G. 5,047]

Thank you Freeish 15 and Nyash89.

[road runner 1]

How did you prove to USCIS that she called you asking you money, did you record her phone call or have a police report about the extortion? because just your word means nothing. USCIS does not adjudicate VAWA considering what the person says but what the person proves to them.

As I said before just your words will not be enough to prove extortion,if you have text messages then your chance increases a little bit. I handle VAWA since the Law was enacted in 1994 and never saw one VAWA approved based on extortion, but I saw many U visas approved based on extortion, but of course they had a police report regarding the extortion.

I did not explain well when I mentioned: " when the abuser threat to report the victim to the immigration", let me clarify here about it, 98% of the abusers threat to report the victims to USCIS and this is not ground to have a Vawa approved,otherwise we would have 98% of Vawa approved and this is not the case. We use the claim that the abuser "threatened to report the victim to the immigration" usually in cases when the victims have children, because we know that if the victim is deported she/he will not be able to take the child from the U.S without the abuser consent or through a Judicial order and most of the victims continue the relationship because of the threat to be separated from the child and others file Vawa to break free from this kind of abuse.

You did what your attorney believes is right for you, but I won't ever file a Vawa using the ground extortion .I will tell the person to file a police report regarding the extortion, to help the authority with the investigation and then file U visa. The chance to have a Vawa approved based in extortion like you described is almost non existent, but good luck.

I provided transcripts of her text messages as well as a transcript of a voicemail left by a male who also called and threatened me from her phone number!!

When she asked me for money I asked her back for an account number to send the money to (even though I had no intention to pay it). Guess what? She texted me with the number of her private bank account and even added a photo of her bank account statement header!!! And again, the threats were made several times during the last four months and I have copies and transcripts of all of them. As you can see I wasn't proving this with my word only, I'm not sure why would you assume that.

I have already received and answered an RFE which was asking for the police clearance reports and for the testimony of others about my good faith marriage - documents which were already included in the initial submission but probably somehow overlooked.

[Sandra G. 5,047]

I didn't assume anything. I said, "As I said before just your words will not be enough to prove extortion, if you have text messages then your chance increases a little bit". I clearly said "'IF YOU HAVE TEXT MESSAGES" .

Believe me, they didn't overlook the documents you mailed them, all Vawa adjudicators had extensive training to handle Vawa. Some people submit a bunch of proof showing commingling finances and they still issue an RFE , they do this because the person didn't proof the intention when entered into marriage. It's extremely important to describe the courtship in details and have affidavits stating bonafide marriage, the affiants must have knowledge of the courtship. not just about the marriage. I saw many people here that got RFE despite they submitted 10/15 affidavits.

If the RFE is just regarding bonafide marriage and good moral character then they accepted the proof of extortion.Get affidavits from your family back home as well with respective translation.

[oreoluwa01 4]

Vawaguy, you are being too defensive. Everyone here is just trying to help and give you good advice so you can have an approved vawa case. Since you are so sure of everything, why even bother asking questions? From your answers, it seems like you have everything under control.

Edited August 20, 2016 by oreoluwa01

[road runner 1]

Vawaguy, you are being too defensive. Everyone here is just trying to help and give you good advice so you can have an approved vawa case. Since you are so sure of everything, why even bother asking questions? From your answers, it seems like you have everything under control.

oreo lover, I thought this is a place where we can get advice and support. The only advice I got so far from several people here (not just one) is to drop it off - and this is not help.

EM_Vandaveer was the first to reply to my posting telling me that no abuse happened:

"IMHO (I am definitely NOT an expert, sandranj is) your VAWA case is exceptionally weak. No abuse happened at all while you were living together."

Then DaBabe83 thought that I'm disrespecting and abusing the group (!!!! lol) only because I was asking questions and showing my thinking. Her advice was to stop asking questions because I don't need this group !!!!

"Please do not disrespect the group..."

"Since you apparently have all the answer, then I don't thing you need Sandraj or this group.

Do not try and abuse the system sir.

ThAnk you & best of luck with whatever you are attempting to gain from this group because we will not help you to pull a fast on the legal system."

Then Damara chipped in with another piece of "help":

"You do NOT qualify under VAWA for the sole act of immigration abuse."

Merrytooth contributed with a piece of rhetorical question which I didn't understand anything from:

"Why can't you divorce and move on?

All these while you have been overstaying, no fear of deportation and own a business as well."

Looks like she was intrigued by my status. You guys don't seem to like business owners too much here. Just joking!

I shared my situation here with you, I trusted this community but what I get in response is just a bunch of counter advice. I believe we all should be more careful and responsible for what we post out as advice!

Asking the right questions is neither defensive nor offensive, that's just the right attitude of a determined person. I am not that kind that leaves his future on the others hands, no matter what. I need to be on top of what happens in my life.

I understand that the purpose of this forum is to provide leads to vj attorneys but still, they got to convince with something in order to get that business.

Just saying "you don't have a case" but not supporting it with arguments and also allowing people without experience to post advices as like they would be professionals doesn't make this community look good. It's just my opinion, think about it before jumping on me.

[Cheezees 1,514]

Just saying "you don't have a case" but not supporting it with arguments and also allowing people without experience to post advices as like they would be professionals doesn't make this community look good. It's just my opinion, think about it before jumping on me.

When you provide little initial information, that is all others here have to go off of. Just because you do not like the answers does not mean that the advice is wrong or that "people without experience to post advices as like they would be professionals". Later on you extrapolated on what evidence you provided but you did not do that at first and rightfully the suggestions you quoted were spot on.

You were defensive. You should at least admit that. Why? Because it seems you actually had a right to be because you did provide supporting documents of her threats via texts and voicemail that will help to make your VAWA case. But you should also realize that if you are not upfront with this info you cannot accuse others of "jumping on you". We are supposed to "jump" so to speak. Everyone wants you to make the right decision and that involves being honest with you. Notice that no one was dismissive AFTER you told us more.

I disagree with you about the community not looking good. I think VJ works itself out just fine. Just like it's doing now with you.

Good luck!

[Rachelm 2]

Happy birthday Sandra!!! Welcome back.

[road runner 1]

When you provide little initial information, that is all others here have to go off of. Just because you do not like the answers does not mean that the advice is wrong or that "people without experience to post advices as like they would be professionals". Later on you extrapolated on what evidence you provided but you did not do that at first and rightfully the suggestions you quoted were spot on.

You were defensive. You should at least admit that. Why? Because it seems you actually had a right to be because you did provide supporting documents of her threats via texts and voicemail that will help to make your VAWA case. But you should also realize that if you are not upfront with this info you cannot accuse others of "jumping on you". We are supposed to "jump" so to speak. Everyone wants you to make the right decision and that involves being honest with you. Notice that no one was dismissive AFTER you told us more.

I disagree with you about the community not looking good. I think VJ works itself out just fine. Just like it's doing now with you.

Good luck!

Cheezees, everyone is entitled to an opinion

What I tried to accomplish here was to doublecheck whether a professional from this community experienced a similar situation/ precedent and to get some feedback from her/him.

I usually am interested in focused, objective conversation. If I need subjective I'll go somewhere else.

If you take the time to look at my first posting you'll see that all the information was there. Nothing new has been added, except when I mentioned that I provided transcripts of text messages (which by the way is kind of obvious if you really read my first posting).

Cutting to chase, I accomplished my mission here in an indirect way, reading between the lines.

I found out what I needed so I wish you all, best of luck!

Picard out!

[mercifulgod 0]

Hello folks,

I have a question regarding I-360 form as it follows:

Can we use PO Box number for correspondence mail from USCIS for I-360? Since I cant use permanent home address as the abuser live there, too.

Please let me know what I can do for situation like this?

Thanks

[AnastasiaE 13]

Happy belated Sandra! Wish you all the best! Thank you again for everything that you're doing for us! XOXO

[jpsingh 0]

Happy belated Sandra! Wish you all the best!

May You live 1000's Years !!!!

Edited August 21, 2016 by jpsingh