Summary Dissolution vs Regular Divorce (Effects on immigration status)

[David R 2]

Good morning,

I have a question that may be a little beyond the general scope of this site but I have used the experience and advice of people on here to go through my entire immigration process so I am hoping there may be someone on here who can help with this also.

I got married to my USC wife in April 2013, in October 2015 I removed the conditions on my permanent residence and was given my unconditional permanent resident status/green card.

My wife and I have decided that the relationship is not working and we want a divorce. We are now in the process of figuring out how to go about this and before we do anything I want to make sure that I am not doing anything to jeopardize my current immigration status or future ability to naturalize.

We live in CA and are tossing up between the regular divorce or the summary dissolution. An attorney has advised us that the quickest, cheapest and easiest way for us to go about this would be the summary resolution but I want to make sure this will not adversely affect me in any way.

We have no community property, no children, no disputes about money or anything at all, we still are friendly with each other and neither of us wish to fight anything in court so from what I can tell the summary dissolution fits our circumstance.

I just want to make sure that doing this "easier" method will not result in any issues for me either with my current status or down the line when I attempt to become a US citizen i.e. a summary dissolution being something that USCIS may view as though the marriage never actually happened as it is not a regular divorce and therefore putting my immigration status at risk?

I just want to cover all my bases before I sign anything.

Hopefully we have some attorneys or people who have been through something similar on here that can help.

Thanks so much for your time.

David

[Cheezees 1,514]

The only difference if you divorce is that to naturalize you have to wait 5 years minus 90 days as opposed to 3 years minus 90 days. If you have already removed the conditions of the green card, your "status" is not affected by divorce in ANY way. You are not at risk of anything with USCIS. Good luck!

[f1660114 18]

If your spouse cooperates and you guys reach to a mutual agreement then Summary Dissolution is the best way to go since you will have the Final Divorce Date within a month. That is a one-step process while Regular Divorce takes longer time to have the Final Date since it requires more steps and more time.

Edited January 26, 2016 by f1660114

[David R 2]

Thank you for your responses so the summary dissolution will be the exact same thing as a regular divorce in the eyes of USCIS?

I do not want to do something that will make it seem that the marriage was never actually legit i.e. a summary dissolution. I am not sure if this will do that or not?

[RobertM54 36]

Thank you for your responses so the summary dissolution will be the exact same thing as a regular divorce in the eyes of USCIS?

Yes. It is a divorce.

[David R 2]

OK, thank you very much for your replies and insight into this.

It is very much appreciated.

David

[Cheezees 1,514]

Thank you for your responses so the summary dissolution will be the exact same thing as a regular divorce in the eyes of USCIS?

I do not want to do something that will make it seem that the marriage was never actually legit i.e. a summary dissolution. I am not sure if this will do that or not?

Keep in mind that you are beyond the stage where USCIS cares if you divorce or not. In fact, they have never cared if our marriages "worked out" or not (only that they were entered into in good faith) and divorcing in any manner even the day after getting your 10 year GC is, in their eyes, a non-issue. You have no worries. You're home free. Woohoo!

[JimmyHou 611]

Thank you for your responses so the summary dissolution will be the exact same thing as a regular divorce in the eyes of USCIS?

I do not want to do something that will make it seem that the marriage was never actually legit i.e. a summary dissolution. I am not sure if this will do that or not?

Read this:

http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/fl810.pdf

"The official word for divorce in California is dissolution... there are two ways of getting a divorce..."

This might help put you at ease.

My non-professional interpretation:

Summary Dissolution is clearly not an annulment, which may affect immigration benefits because an annulment effectively means that the marriage never happened. A summary dissolution is a termination of a legally valid marriage.

Edited January 27, 2016 by JimmyHou

[JimmyHou 611]

Keep in mind that you are beyond the stage where USCIS cares if you divorce or not. In fact, they have never cared if our marriages "worked out" or not (only that they were entered into in good faith) and divorcing in any manner even the day after getting your 10 year GC is, in their eyes, a non-issue. You have no worries. You're home free. Woohoo!

Very true .

They won't care about how the marriage ended... as long as the initial marriage was valid.

Although very rare, divorced applicants have had their N400s denied because their marriage was deemed to have been entered into fraudulently (even though they had successfully passed ROC). There are even a few documented cases on VJ.

This shouldn't concern the OP, however, as long as the marriage was entered into in good faith.

[David R 2]

OK, our marriage was very typical and we had lots of pictures and documentary evidence that our marriage was the real thing.As I mentioned before my wife and I are still on good terms and there is no way she would ever lie to USCIS to spite me/get me deported or anything like that.

If other cases have been denied do you think they would have been different to my situation or is it just the luck of who looks at your case i.e. the denied applicants were looked at by a much harsher officer while the applicants who were granted citizenship even after divorce were the lucky ones who got their cases reviewed by a more reasonable officer? Or would there be something in these denied cases that differs from our case?

Thanks again everyone!

[Jawaree 717]

Don't affect anything except you will wait 5 yrs to naturalize,

you are over thinking things

[JimmyHou 611]

OK, our marriage was very typical and we had lots of pictures and documentary evidence that our marriage was the real thing.As I mentioned before my wife and I are still on good terms and there is no way she would ever lie to USCIS to spite me/get me deported or anything like that.

If other cases have been denied do you think they would have been different to my situation or is it just the luck of who looks at your case i.e. the denied applicants were looked at by a much harsher officer while the applicants who were granted citizenship even after divorce were the lucky ones who got their cases reviewed by a more reasonable officer? Or would there be something in these denied cases that differs from our case?

Thanks again everyone!

Under the 5 year rule you don't have to be married, but you have to have received your green card legitimately.

Those who were denied were denied because there was something fishy about the marriage all along and the interviewer decided that the whole thing was a sham from day one.

So if you had a real marriage and are now divorced, you'll have no problem.

One 5 year applicant I remember who got denied got married and lived with his wife for 1 month. Then moved to NYC while she was in Boston (I may have the cities backwards). Somehow they were able to remove conditions. A month or two later they got divorced. At the 5 year mark, he applied for naturalization. His n400 was denied because the basis for his original green card was considered invalid.

Based on what you've said here, there's absolutely no reason to worry. You at be asked a few questions about your marriage but it shouldn't be hard to answer them.

If there are other details you're worried about, feel free to ask.

[David R 2]

Thanks Jimmy,

That clears it up for me. Our marriage was definitely the real thing, we lived together the entire time, had joint accounts, pictures etc..

I guess the only thing that made me a little nervous as to how it would like to USCIS is the fact that we got divorced only a few months after I actually removed conditions.

Hopefully the evidence that we already have is more tha enough to prove there was nothing fishy about our situation.

Thanks again for your time and input, it is very much appreciated.

David

[TBoneTX 45,319]

Good luck to you, David.

[David R 2]

Thank you very much. Appreciate all you guys helping me out.