Crazy Scenario

[becca92 0]

 

I am posting on behalf of my friend and am hoping to get some advice on what to do.

 

I finally convinced my friend to leave her controlling environment (forced to work 70+ hours a week, only one day off a month, had complete control over her personal life) and I fear I might have done the wrong thing. She has a conditional green card that she got from marrying a guy in 1/2017. She married him because she loved him but definitely rushed into it because her family was pressuring her to marry him because she was out of status. There are definitely a lot of red flags with their marriage (He is almost twice her age, she was out of status, only knew him for a couple of months before marrying) which could be chalked up to her being young and naive. She lived with him for a few months but ultimately ended up moving back into her cousin’s house because she found out he was still seeing his previous wife. What I am worried about is that when the divorce is finalized and she goes to remove conditions she has zero evidence that the marriage was entered into good faith, they lived together but he never put her on the lease or the utilities. Her phone was with her cousin, she can’t drive so she didn’t get put on any insurance anywhere. What evidence she did have (photos of them together for the few months they lived together) was taken away when she moved out. The final straw for her moving out was her cousin taking her phone and draining her bank account (he was a co-owner on it and set it up for her) because she threatened to leave. She even lost her facebook account as he was the one who made it for her back when she originally moved over to here from Vietnam. No one in her family except her sister and a different cousin talk to her after she moved out, not even her parents.

 

I have two questions:

 

1. Is she pretty much SOL because she has zero evidence about her marriage being entered into good faith? Or can she describe her situation and have decent chance?

2. If she does get banned because of fraud, can her sister petition for her once she becomes a citizen in a year, or is she banned from all future immigration into America?

 

 Thanks for any help you guys can provide. Definitely going to go see a lawyer in the next week, but would like to see if you guys have anything to say. 

[Going through 5,671]

The fact that she moved out of house within a couple of months after receiving her GC is not going to be looked favourably upon, as it may give the impression she married him just for the GC.

 

I don't understand how her cousin had access to her bank account and drained it, though?  Unless it was a typo and you meant the HUSBAND drained the account----she can still get back statements from the bank showing they were co-mingling finances through their marriage since her name was on the account, if the account was shared with the husband.

 

Did they file joint taxes?  

 

 

[becca92 0]

45 minutes ago, Going through said:

The fact that she moved out of house within a couple of months after receiving her GC is not going to be looked favourably upon, as it may give the impression she married him just for the GC.

 

I don't understand how her cousin had access to her bank account and drained it, though?  Unless it was a typo and you meant the HUSBAND drained the account----she can still get back statements from the bank showing they were co-mingling finances through their marriage since her name was on the account, if the account was shared with the husband.

 

Did they file joint taxes?  

 

 

Thanks for the reply! 

 

I was afraid that was going to be the case with her moving out so quickly after marrying. When she moved here her cousin helped her make a bank account and had her add him as a joint owner, she didn't realize that was the case until she got a "sorry you are leaving" email from the bank that her account was closed. 

 

I believe they filed jointly, again her cousin did everything for her so I am not sure. That was something I was going to have her check this week.

 

[Going through 5,671]

Cousin seems overly involved in your friend's marriage from the offset 😕 Not insinuating anything, just an observation from her moving in with the cousin, the bank account being joint with the cousin, her facebook page created by the cousin, the cell phone being owned by the cousin, and the cousin now apparently handling her taxes 😕 

 

She's got a very uphill battle with how her evidence appears now---right now the evidence she has is more against her, than in her favor.  Good that she will be consulting a lawyer.

[Boiler 45,568]

Her Sister can petition her and she probably will be OK.

 

Did the Cousin arrange the Marriage?

[JFH 12,190]

1 hour ago, becca92 said:

 

1. Is she pretty much SOL because she has zero evidence about her marriage being entered into good faith? Or can she describe her situation and have decent chance?

 

 

But you’ve answered your own question. In your own words she “rushed into marriage” with a man twice her age because she was out of status. I don’t see how she can provide evidence that the marriage was entered into in good faith. If you can see that as an untrained outsider, what do you think USCIS see? And they are trained to look for these signals. Can she honestly, have on heart, say that she married him because he’s the man of her dreams and she couldn’t bear to be apart from him for one minute and that her immigration situation played no part in it? I strongly doubt it. 

Edited October 28, 2018 by JFH

[becca92 0]

2 hours ago, Boiler said:

Her Sister can petition her and she probably will be OK.

 

Did the Cousin arrange the Marriage?

I would say it was an arranged marriage, he was the one to introduce them and her family heavily encouraged her to marry him. She did make an effort to love him and make the marriage work but it takes two to tango and I am not sure if her husband ever loved her or if he was just in it for some other reason. 

 

1 hour ago, JFH said:

But you’ve answered your own question. In your own words she “rushed into marriage” with a man twice her age because she was out of status. I don’t see how she can provide evidence that the marriage was entered into in good faith. If you can see that as an untrained outsider, what do you think USCIS see? And they are trained to look for these signals. Can she honestly, have on heart, say that she married him because he’s the man of her dreams and she couldn’t bear to be apart from him for one minute and that her immigration situation played no part in it? I strongly doubt it. 

yeah, I was afraid of that. The more I think about it the more I realize she going to be in quite the uphill climb.

 

Thanks for all the responses everyone.

[Villanelle 4,122]

I know some members are going to eyeroll when I say this- and I am only putting it out there because she used the wording 'controlling environment' and stated he had complete control over her life- but that can be considered abusive depending on various other factors.  I bring this up because there is an 'abuse waiver' option on the 751. Many people who are abused do not have the traditional ROC evidence due to the abuse and USCIS  will take that into account. Again this may not be an option for her- she needs to discuss with an attny. 

[geowrian 22,337]

To clarify the above, she still needs to show a bona fide marriage. It's just that they will consider the difficulty in obtaining certain evidences due to the abuse.

[hm139 55]

Where is your friend now? It sounds like she has left the cousin as well? As another poster said there mayyyyy be a case of abuse here and you can check out the VAWA thread for more info on that, but it's very unclear to me if most of the abuse was being perpetrated by the husband or by the cousin.

[geowrian 22,337]

14 minutes ago, hm139 said:

Where is your friend now? It sounds like she has left the cousin as well? As another poster said there mayyyyy be a case of abuse here and you can check out the VAWA thread for more info on that, but it's very unclear to me if most of the abuse was being perpetrated by the husband or by the cousin.

VAWA doesn't apply to somebody with a green card.

An abuse waiver option is available for ROC purposes.

[hm139 55]

Thank you for clarifying. I feel like that thread might help anyways just in terms of other people in very difficult situations.

[Derik-Lina 230]

"her family was pressuring her to marry him because she was out of status"

She married to adjust status; it is not a bona fide marriage.

Edited October 29, 2018 by Derik-Lina

[Derik-Lina 230]

16 hours ago, Boiler said:

Her Sister can petition her and she probably will be OK.

 

Did the Cousin arrange the Marriage?

OP wrote: "marry him because she was out of status"

Do you see an issue here or not? is it a bona fide marriage?

Edited October 29, 2018 by Derik-Lina

[becca92 0]

9 hours ago, hm139 said:

Where is your friend now? It sounds like she has left the cousin as well? As another poster said there mayyyyy be a case of abuse here and you can check out the VAWA thread for more info on that, but it's very unclear to me if most of the abuse was being perpetrated by the husband or by the cousin.

 

She is living with a friend of mine that has a spare room until we figure out what to do next. Her cousin kicked her out last Wednesday night so this is all recent and sudden. The abuse was definitely from her cousin, not her husband. 

 

35 minutes ago, Derik-Lina said:

"her family was pressuring her to marry him because she was out of status"

She married to adjust status; it is not a bona fide marriage.

Yeah, that was what I was afraid of. She says she did love him and would of married him eventually, but she definitely would not of married him so quick if not for her being out of status. Sounds like she will be SOL when she goes to file for ROC. Thanks for the help