Filing ROC Long Distance Marriage

leciga · February 7, 2016

I would love to hear if any of you have filed ROC while on a long distance marriage or if you have heard from someone who has.

Here's our case:

We are a same-sex couple. We became a couple in 2011, two years before DOMA was repealed and we even had the option to get immigration benefits from our relationship. We got engaged and married in 2013 in California, right after DOMA and Prop8 were repealed. We met in Florida and moved together to CA because I got into Grad School at UCLA. Our initial application for the conditional Greencarid was approved promptly and without a hitch, since we had more than enough evidence of our bona fide marriage.

After I finished school at UCLA I moved to New York City to pursue my career. My husband got into Medical School in the Caribbean in the island of St. Maarten, so we decided we would have a long distance marriage until he can come back to the US in August of 2017. He could not turn down going to Medical School because that's his dream and I could not move out of the country 1-Because I'm trying to further my career as well and 2-I would potentially risk losing my Greencard for not fulfilling the presence requirements, which would have meant starting the process all over again.

We chat, text all the time and Skype every single night for hours. He comes back home to NYC for every single break he gets and we have a very solid and happy relationship.

I just filed for ROC but I am very nervous because of the long distance aspect of our relationship. I have an immigration attorney (who is actually my husband's grandfather) and he says we will likely be called for an interview just for that fact.

Here's what I sent with my package:

-ROC Petition.

-Greencard copies (front and back)

-Will and Testament (I had a will done by an attorney designating my husband as the beneficiary of my estate)

-Healthcare Proxy, designating my husband as the decision-maker of m health matters if something were to happen to me.

-Joint bank statements (Every other month for the past 2 years) with significant funds.

-Joint credit card.

-2 Affidavits (1 from his sister and 1 from my best friend, who was also my roommate when I met my husband)

-1 Letter of explanation explaining our situation and why we are forced to be separated at the moment.

-Plane tickets from when we visit each other, including an itinerary for his next flight to NYC.

-AAA joint account.

-Joint gym membership.

-Pedigree for our dog with both our names.

-Joint phone bills, with call log (shows we call each other multiple times a day and he is basically the only number I actually call)

-Photos spanning the two years: We have photos in different cities and with each other's families, since he is very close to mine and I am very close to his.

-An article in The New York Times about long distance relationships for which we were interviewed and where we are mentioned.

-Chats/Text messages.

Things we do not have:

-We do not have children.

-We do not have a lease (my mother owns my apartment)

-Utility bills (the utilities are included in the maintenance bill)

-Mortgages or significant debt (the only debt we have is in credit cards, amounting to about $9,000)

-We don't drive in NYC, so we never got driver's licenses, so we still have our old CA licenses that were in our original file from 2 years ago.

-Joint health insurance (he gets it from his school in St Maarten and I get it through the Healthcare Market in NY)

I also think the fact that we began our relationship in 2011, years before DOMA was struck, as previously proven in our initial application, should be a very strong indicative that our relationship was entered into in good faith. It would have made no sense for me to start a fake relationship with a man solely for immigration purposes years before it became possible for same-sex couples to sponsor their partners.

Has anyone had a similar situation? Any advice?