What do I do now?

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

Boy, I wish I had found this a lot sooner. Anyway, I'll try and arrange a timeline here to maybe help out anybody who can maybe help me out (it would be greatly appreciated).

Background info: my wife (US citizen) and I (Canadian citizen) met in 2004 and decided to get married at the end of 2005. Neither of us has a criminal background of any kind. We both live in the UP of MI. If any other information is needed, please don't hesitate to ask.

May 25, 2006

-Admission to the US as a visitor (my wife and I didn't get the fiance stuff completed in time to go that route) through Portal, ND.

June 10, 2006

-My wife and I are married in the US.

November 7, 2006 (I know, we're HORRIBLE procrastinators, which is probably working against us and always will)

-I-130 Petition, G-325A forms and I-102 form (since I wasn't issued an I-94) are mailed off.

January 8, 2007

-Request for evidence for I-102 form. They're asking for proof that I legally entered the country. I passed through a border checkpoint so I figured that this should be on their computer records somewhere. The 3 options for this request are: 1) Submit all evidence requested. 2) Submit some or none of the evidence. 3) Withdraw petition. Since I don't have any evidence, we submit without any evidence.

June 21, 2007

-Denied I-94 (I-102 form). They won't approve of it because there's no evidence of my legal entry into the country. This is required for the I-130 to be approved.

My wife and I have no idea what do now. We're both living off of her income and barely scraping by. We've thought about getting a lawyer to help out with things but that's really not in the budget. I figured I would try posting here to see if anything can be done ourselves. Maybe we've gone about this all wrong from the start but we've read through a lot of different stuff on the USCIS website and this seemed to be the way to go for us. please, anybody!

Please please please get an attorney and do not leave until you have some status.. YOU NEED AN ATTORNEY. TRUST ME

[neophi 5]

Wow... I'm so glad I didn't marry my wife when she was here on her P-3 visa. Although pregnancy could have helped prove the spur of the moment marriage.

In any case, I wish you the best of luck and may God watch over your case.

I guess my question now is if anybody knows a good lawyer in Wisconsin or Michigan. I've only dealt with a lawyer once in my life (house purchase) and that was in Canada so that does me no good now.

I don't have a recommendation for an attorney but I think I should elaborate on my earlier brief post. My wife was calling me for lunch, quite insistently. I'm sure you didn't intend to attempt visa fraud but unfortunately ignorance is no excuse in these matters.

From what I understand, your husband entered the US with the intention of marrying you and later adjusting status and you've now attempted to do so. This is a big no no. If the two of you decided during his visit that, you wanted to get married that's a different story. Based on your dates, it appears the marriage was planned before he crossed the border. Now that you've filed the I-130 and been denied, its a bit too late to be claiming a spur of the moment marriage occured. Even if you could truthfully claim that, your husband has overstayed his leave to enter.

An attorney may be able to assist you in clearing up these matters, as overstays tend to be forgiven when one marries a USC. Attempted visa fraud isn't so simple. You may end up wishing you spoke to the Attorney before you filed any petition.

[G&A 1]

Read this link here. It may help you some

Link

If you are already married, and your spouse came to the US on a tourist visa with the intent of immigration and marriage, then he/she should return to his/her home abroad, and the I-130 should be filed with the relative outside of the U.S to avoid deportation or denial. (Better safe than sorry)

My fiance/fiancee came to the U.S on a tourist visa and we intended to get married and for him/her to return home afterwards and then immigrate from outside the US. Does this mean our petition will be denied, and is what we did illegal??

No. It is perfectly ok to marry in the US on a tourist visa as long as the intending immigrant returns to his/her home country to file the I-130, and does not try to adjust his/her status and remain in the US during the I-130 process, as that is illegal.

Wait a minute folks... There is a lot of assumptions being made here.

Just to be clear (and correct me if i am wrong as i am no expert in immigration law).... This is my interpretation of the possible scenarios

1. Canadian enters US for visit, gets married shortly after, leave country before the visit visa expires (6 months?). This is OK regardless if there was an intention to marry or not.
   
2. Canadian enters US for visit, gets married shortly after, file for I-130, but leave country before the visit visa expires (6 months?). This is OK too. is disagrees with the quoted post above.
   
3. Canadian enters US for visit and overstays the visit visa expires (6 months?). This is NOT OK (regardless of I-130 is filed or not and if they got married or not)
   
4. Canadian enters US for visit, gets married shortly after, and adjust status to permanent residence. This is a gray area depending on the marriage intentions when the person crossed the border.
   

So in my opinion, the OP did not commit fraud. They filed for an I-130 which clearly shows they had good intention to follow the law by petitioning for the spouse and not go straight to adjustment of status. The issue here is overstaying a visitor visa. Not sure what you call this!

Edited June 21, 2007 by G&A

[bszoom42 0]

Find a Pro-bono lawyer. http://www.usdoj.gov/eoir/probono/probonoassist.htm

If I was in your spot; I would probably want to withdraw my I130 and file for AOS, but definitely I would grab a lawyer. I don't think I would leave US until I have spoken to a good immigration lawyer.

[pushbrk 13,011]

Read this link here. It may help you some

Link

If you are already married, and your spouse came to the US on a tourist visa with the intent of immigration and marriage, then he/she should return to his/her home abroad, and the I-130 should be filed with the relative outside of the U.S to avoid deportation or denial. (Better safe than sorry)

My fiance/fiancee came to the U.S on a tourist visa and we intended to get married and for him/her to return home afterwards and then immigrate from outside the US. Does this mean our petition will be denied, and is what we did illegal??

No. It is perfectly ok to marry in the US on a tourist visa as long as the intending immigrant returns to his/her home country to file the I-130, and does not try to adjust his/her status and remain in the US during the I-130 process, as that is illegal.

Wait a minute folks... There is a lot of assumptions being made here.

Just to be clear (and correct me if i am wrong as i am no expert in immigration law).... This is my interpretation of the possible scenarios

1. Canadian enters US for visit, gets married shortly after, leave country before the visit visa expires (6 months?). This is OK regardless if there was an intention to marry or not.
   
2. Canadian enters US for visit, gets married shortly after, file for I-130, but leave country before the visit visa expires (6 months?). This is OK too. is disagrees with the quoted post above.
   
3. Canadian enters US for visit and overstays the visit visa expires (6 months?). This is NOT OK (regardless of I-130 is filed or not and if they got married or not)
   
4. Canadian enters US for visit, gets married shortly after, and adjust status to permanent residence. This is a gray area depending on the marriage intentions when the person crossed the border.
   

So in my opinion, the OP did not commit fraud. They filed for an I-130 which clearly shows they had good intention to follow the law by petitioning for the spouse and not go straight to adjustment of status. The issue here is overstaying a visitor visa. Not sure what you call this!

I think your interpretation of the scenarios is correct. That the intent to marry preceded the US entry is not in doubt based on the original post. See quoted section below. In my assessment, I concluded they filed the I-130 as part of or as a precurser to an Adjustment of Status rather than in pursuit of an immigrant visa. I came to this conclusion because the husband made no effort to return to Canada. You don't need a visa if you're already here. If they were simply pursuing an immigrant visa, then fraud was not attempted. There may only be an overstay and the complications of having their petition denied, to deal with now. However, there is enough information available to know they are going to need competent legal help to get things sorted out.

The OP's first post stated...

May 25, 2006

-Admission to the US as a visitor (my wife and I didn't get the fiance stuff completed in time to go that route) through Portal, ND.

June 10, 2006

-My wife and I are married in the US.

November 7, 2006 (I know, we're HORRIBLE procrastinators, which is probably working against us and always will)

-I-130 Petition, G-325A forms and I-102 form (since I wasn't issued an I-94) are mailed off.

The I-102 form in this case would be to...

Receive an initial Form I-94 if you were not issued onewhen you entered as a nonimmigrant, and you are filingthis form with an application for extension of stay orchange of status;

http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-102.pdf

If the petition was for a visa, the husband wouldn't need an I-94. He would need to return to Canada.

So, was this a petition for a visa or to adjust status?

Edited June 22, 2007 by pushbrk

[G&A 1]

I think your interpretation of the scenarios is correct. That the intent to marry preceded the US entry is not in doubt based on the original post. See quoted section below. In my assessment, I concluded they filed the I-130 as part of or as a precurser to an Adjustment of Status rather than in pursuit of an immigrant visa. I came to this conclusion because the husband made no effort to return to Canada. You don't need a visa if you're already here. If they were simply pursuing an immigrant visa, then fraud was not attempted. There may only be an overstay and the complications of having their petition denied, to deal with now. However, there is enough information available to know they are going to need competent legal help to get things sorted out.

The OP's first post stated...

May 25, 2006

-Admission to the US as a visitor (my wife and I didn't get the fiance stuff completed in time to go that route) through Portal, ND.

June 10, 2006

-My wife and I are married in the US.

November 7, 2006 (I know, we're HORRIBLE procrastinators, which is probably working against us and always will)

-I-130 Petition, G-325A forms and I-102 form (since I wasn't issued an I-94) are mailed off.

The I-102 form in this case would be to...

Receive an initial Form I-94 if you were not issued onewhen you entered as a nonimmigrant, and you are filingthis form with an application for extension of stay orchange of status;

http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-102.pdf

If the petition was for a visa, the husband wouldn't need an I-94. He would need to return to Canada.

So, was this a petition for a visa or to adjust status?

I am not sure i understand the above question. Based on the original OP post, i see no intention or mention of adjustment of status. The OP has no I-94 but need to have one when filing an I-130 (see I-130, Section C.14). The OP therefore correctly filed for I-102 to get a new or replace a previously issued I-94. So far all is good. The two issues are 1) have no material proof that he crossed the border legally 2) overstaying a tourist visa. Definitely need a lawyer.

[pushbrk 13,011]

I think your interpretation of the scenarios is correct. That the intent to marry preceded the US entry is not in doubt based on the original post. See quoted section below. In my assessment, I concluded they filed the I-130 as part of or as a precurser to an Adjustment of Status rather than in pursuit of an immigrant visa. I came to this conclusion because the husband made no effort to return to Canada. You don't need a visa if you're already here. If they were simply pursuing an immigrant visa, then fraud was not attempted. There may only be an overstay and the complications of having their petition denied, to deal with now. However, there is enough information available to know they are going to need competent legal help to get things sorted out.

The OP's first post stated...

May 25, 2006

-Admission to the US as a visitor (my wife and I didn't get the fiance stuff completed in time to go that route) through Portal, ND.

June 10, 2006

-My wife and I are married in the US.

November 7, 2006 (I know, we're HORRIBLE procrastinators, which is probably working against us and always will)

-I-130 Petition, G-325A forms and I-102 form (since I wasn't issued an I-94) are mailed off.

The I-102 form in this case would be to...

Receive an initial Form I-94 if you were not issued onewhen you entered as a nonimmigrant, and you are filingthis form with an application for extension of stay orchange of status;

http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-102.pdf

If the petition was for a visa, the husband wouldn't need an I-94. He would need to return to Canada.

So, was this a petition for a visa or to adjust status?

I am not sure i understand the above question. Based on the original OP post, i see no intention or mention of adjustment of status. The OP has no I-94 but need to have one when filing an I-130 (see I-130, Section C.14). The OP therefore correctly filed for I-102 to get a new or replace a previously issued I-94. So far all is good. The two issues are 1) have no material proof that he crossed the border legally 2) overstaying a tourist visa. Definitely need a lawyer.

The I-130 is not only used for a visa. Did you read the I-102 instructions? The link is above but the only reason for filing that could possibly apply in the OP's circumstances is to adjust status or extend a stay.

Let's see the answer to the question. I think you understand the question. I hope you understand now why I asked it.

[Yodrak 7]

Rings,

Very, very, bad advice given the OP's circumstances.

Yodrak

.....

If you are already married, and your spouse came to the US on a tourist visa with the intent of immigration and marriage, then he/she should return to his/her home abroad, and the I-130 should be filed with the relative outside of the U.S to avoid deportation or denial. (Better safe than sorry)

.....

Edited June 22, 2007 by Yodrak