VAWA, Part 20

[Dordor1 47]

2 hours ago, Villanelle said:

You should contact your local legal aid office. In some places they do not help with divorce unless there are 'extraordinary circumstances'. They also have guidelines about immigration status. Being a VAWA petitioner makes you eligible for help and a divorce from an abusive spouse also qualifies you as extraordinary circumstances. Many legal aid offices are understaffed so you may qualify for help but they just dont have the means to help you. Try anyway. Let them know you have active divorce proceedings and need representation asap- and that he has an attny so you really need one as well. 

 

You can also contact the clerk at the local court where the divorce was filed and ask them how you could possibly get the Judge to order your ex to pay for an attny for you since he has one and you can not afford one. It can be very hard to do a divorce on your own when the other side has an attny and you do not- so please explore options on getting yourself an attny. You can also try Catholic Charities. When ever someone tells you no they cant help ask them for a referral to someone who can possibly help. You can also try google for pro bono assistance keeping in mind that being an abuse victim will usually make you eligible for help- so make sure they know you are an abuse victim and his side has an attny and you need help. 

 

If you can not get an attny anywhere and the court will not force him to pay for yours you need to be very thorough with all the paperwork. Make sure you understand everything that is written and everything you sign. Remember that legal terms dont always mean what they appear. For example in my divorce (which was long and complicated for no reason besides my ex husband being insane) part of the paperwork said something about the credit card debts. That we would each be responsible for our own. Now I took that as all the cards he ran up he was responsible for- even the ones in my name because I provided a list of all our cards and notated which ones were his debts and which ones were mine. (he had a business and opened multiple accounts with rather high limits in both our names and used them for work. I had 2 personal cards with very low limits I used for myself after our separation).  But nope thats not what the wording meant. It wasnt until they came after me for the money and I told them oh no I dont pay those its in the divorce that he pays those did they explain to me that the wording meant cards in my name were my problem and cards in his name were his problem! So please be careful and make sure you understand everything if you can not find an attny. 

 

 

Hi there. Thank you so much for responding to my post. I do have an attorney that is representing me with my annulment case. I wasn’t able to get through to him yesterday (Friday) so I’ll try Monday morning. My husband and I do not have anything joint, no assets and no debts together. The one joint bank account we had, he closed a month before serving me with annulment papers as it was all his money since I wasn’t working and cancelled my health insurance which I had through him also.
 

I’m now working since I got my EAD and have been saving for school. Did you have to disclose all your bank balances? Do I have to disclose my bank balances? They ask to list all assets and debts. I have no fixed assets, no house nor car nothing. I am afraid to lose all my little savings to this case and my husband.

[Pinkrlion 2,724]

On 9/10/2020 at 11:20 PM, Kiesel said:

Thank you, Stillwinning. I'm happy with my counselor, she's just not a psychologist, and I'm not sure how good of a report she can write. That's why I've been looking for a Psychologist. My counselor has been helping me figure out what I want and think of what's best for me. There are only a handful of psychologists in Washington State that specialize in immigration evaluations. does it matter if they specialize in immigration or if they're general psychologists?

Keep your counselor...  I had my therapist because I needed to work on me and how although I am fragile, I can recover and function through the trauma.  I did have a psychologist to do the psych eval. and that is all he did.  The psych eval took one month to write and I had about 4 weekly visits.  

[Pinkrlion 2,724]

5 hours ago, Villanelle said:

Demise your contributions are greatly appreciated but please understand VAWA is very complex. You may come across things in the AFM or policy statutes that seem applicable but they are not because other policies override them. Sandra posted " it doesn't matter if she overstayed before her marriage or not.VAWA petitioners DO NOT ACCRUE unlawful presence." That is the correct information. 

 

FYI since you are new to the VAWA thread- sandra is a VAWA attny with decades of experience. Every single thing she posts is 100% accurate and users should take care when reading the past VAWA threads to pay extra attention to her posts. They contain a lot of valuable information. Sandra works full time as a VAWA attny and also does pro bono VAWA cases in addition to providing help on the forums here (as well as a ton of other charity stuff). Its amazing how much she actually does in a day! She typically does not have time to respond in detail and explain the complexities of the laws so its doubtful she will respond to your comment and quote you policy that supports her statement or guide you on why the policy you are quoting does not apply. 

🙏

[Apolo 314]

Good evening VJ Family of someone is knowledgeable about statue of limitation and vawa refiling please advice.

 

My question is; I got my VAWA finally got approved in 2019 and i got divorced  in 2019, so far i still have no interview  schedule so i'm worried of what may happen and if my AOS gets denied for some reason i wont be able to refile since you can only file vawa 2 years after marriage. can someone please advise if i don't get my interview by february 2020 can i still refile or what are my options? 

[Demise 1,291]

5 hours ago, Villanelle said:

Demise your contributions are greatly appreciated but please understand VAWA is very complex. You may come across things in the AFM or policy statutes that seem applicable but they are not because other policies override them. Sandra posted " it doesn't matter if she overstayed before her marriage or not.VAWA petitioners DO NOT ACCRUE unlawful presence." That is the correct information. 

 

FYI since you are new to the VAWA thread- sandra is a VAWA attny with decades of experience. Every single thing she posts is 100% accurate and users should take care when reading the past VAWA threads to pay extra attention to her posts. They contain a lot of valuable information. Sandra works full time as a VAWA attny and also does pro bono VAWA cases in addition to providing help on the forums here (as well as a ton of other charity stuff). Its amazing how much she actually does in a day! She typically does not have time to respond in detail and explain the complexities of the laws so its doubtful she will respond to your comment and quote you policy that supports her statement or guide you on why the policy you are quoting does not apply. 

She made a claim that looks wrong, I cited things that contradict it, both in INA and in the AFM which is basically the procedure book, this is the thing that your drone at USCIS would reference when met with an unusual situation. If there's things that override what I said (i.e. you gotta prove connection between EWI/Overstay to get an exemption from the 10 year bar), then I would like to see them because maybe I am wrong. In fact I would love to be proved wrong.

 

I know that Sara is basically the VAWA guru over here and I am essentially committing sacrilege by going "no, that doesn't seem right", but at the same time I firmly believe that whatever advice you give shouldn't leave the recipient of said advice worse off. Lets say that DeadliftingDad leaves and stays in Canada until I-360 approval and then Dept of State denies them cause of the 10 year ban, now what.

[Demise 1,291]

42 minutes ago, Apolo said:

Good evening VJ Family of someone is knowledgeable about statue of limitation and vawa refiling please advice.

 

My question is; I got my VAWA finally got approved in 2019 and i got divorced  in 2019, so far i still have no interview  schedule so i'm worried of what may happen and if my AOS gets denied for some reason i wont be able to refile since you can only file vawa 2 years after marriage. can someone please advise if i don't get my interview by february 2020 can i still refile or what are my options? 

Well, you can only file I-360 within 2 years of divorce (that applies to both first filings and any re-filings). However, I-485 interview will only pertain to questions of admissibility and USCIS agents are outright not supposed to question the VAWA claim, outside of a yes/no question if you affirm everything you said thus far.

If your I-485 is denied for reasons of admissibility then the I-360 should be left untouched.

If your I-485 is denied and you said something profoundly stupid during the interview that ends up in the I-360 being re-evaluated, then you will receive a Notice of Intent to Revoke (NOIR) which will give you a period of time to respond to the allegations against you and/or provide additional evidence.

 

In regards to the I-485 itself. There's no deadlines there as long as the underlying I-360 is still standing.

Edited September 13, 2020 by Demise

[Apolo 314]

29 minutes ago, Demise said:

Well, you can only file I-360 within 2 years of divorce (that applies to both first filings and any re-filings). However, I-485 interview will only pertain to questions of admissibility and USCIS agents are outright not supposed to question the VAWA claim, outside of a yes/no question if you affirm everything you said thus far.

If your I-485 is denied for reasons of admissibility then the I-360 should be left untouched.

If your I-485 is denied and you said something profoundly stupid during the interview that ends up in the I-360 being re-evaluated, then you will receive a Notice of Intent to Revoke (NOIR) which will give you a period of time to respond to the allegations against you and/or provide additional evidence.

 

In regards to the I-485 itself. There's no deadlines there as long as the underlying I-360 is still standing.

Good evening VJ Family of someone is knowledgeable about statue of limitation and vawa refiling please advice.

 

My question is; Thank you so much for your answer. Just to clarify, my VAWA is approved, so my concerned is if something terrible happens on my AOS interview, will i be able to refile since i know that you can only file two years after my divorce from my abuser. And two years will be early 2021. 

 

I think i have a strong case i have multiple restraining orders testimonies from friends and even from his parents describing the abuse, i have a police report when he assaulted me, i have medical when he hit me with the car, and also i have a final judgment when he was charged with violation of a restraining order so i hope that when my AOS interview come i will be able to pass and not get deported as he was telling me so many times. 

Edited September 13, 2020 by Apolo

[Demise 1,291]

15 minutes ago, Apolo said:

Good evening VJ Family of someone is knowledgeable about statue of limitation and vawa refiling please advice.

 

My question is; Thank you so much for your answer. Just to clarify, my VAWA is approved, so my concerned is if something terrible happens on my AOS interview, will i be able to refile since i know that you can only file two years after my divorce from my abuser. And two years will be early 2021. 

 

I think i have a strong case i have multiple restraining orders testimonies from friends and even from his parents describing the abuse, i have a police report when he assaulted me, i have medical when he hit me with the car, and also i have a final judgment when he was charged with violation of a restraining order so i hope that when my AOS interview come i will be able to pass and not get deported as he was telling me so many times. 

If something absolutely bad happens during the interview, you get a NOIR for the I-360, and you ignore or don't overcome their doubts, and the I-360 gets rescinded, then yes you can re-file the I-360 up to the 2nd anniversary of the divorce.

 

That being said, take a deep breath and relax because this interview will only really deal with whether or not you're admissible, and unless you're a criminal or arrived on a K-1 or K-2 visa sponsored by someone else you'll be fine.

[Apolo 314]

20 minutes ago, Demise said:

If something absolutely bad happens during the interview, you get a NOIR for the I-360, and you ignore or don't overcome their doubts, and the I-360 gets rescinded, then yes you can re-file the I-360 up to the 2nd anniversary of the divorce.

 

That being said, take a deep breath and relax because this interview will only really deal with whether or not you're admissible, and unless you're a criminal or arrived on a K-1 or K-2 visa sponsored by someone else you'll be fine.

So from my understanding if i don't get my by the end of the year i wont be able to refile if they deny my AOS  even more that i have to worry now. Thank you for all that information 

[Demise 1,291]

1 minute ago, Apolo said:

So from my understanding if i don't get my by the end of the year i wont be able to refile if they deny my AOS  even more that i have to worry now. Thank you for all that information 

Can I ask why are you so worried about being denied?

[Makanaki 112]

Tears of joy streaming down my eyes right now! My daughter's EAD was approved! Just saw it now. I have shared the weird process we've been through on other threads - denied I-485 erroneously, over 1 year of waiting. I took the bold step of writing them a letter few weeks back that they denied my daughter's I-485 erroneously and for them to reopen, and just today I saw this notification! Ladies and gentlemen, sometimes we just have to take the bold step and take out all fear! Once again I appreciate all of you, reading all your posts is a huge pillar for me through this journey 

[Apolo 314]

22 minutes ago, Demise said:

Can I ask why are you so worried about being denied?

IDK really just have that fear implanted by me by my abuser that everything will fail and that i will be deported that's all idk just worried 

[Demise 1,291]

6 minutes ago, Apolo said:

IDK really just have that fear implanted by me by my abuser that everything will fail and that i will be deported that's all idk just worried 

As I said, just relax, it'll be fine, they'll go through the (in)admissibility questions, look through the required documentation, make sure that your shots are up to date, and you'll get approved, and if something's missing they'll just give you an RFE.

 

I'm a chronic worrier too, I'm glad that people in my family age exceptionally slowly (mom's 46 and could pass for 35, 30 on a good day, grand uncle is 60 and stopped aging at 40, great-grandmother shows her age but that's because she's 96 and spent her life working on a farm) because my hair would be completely gray by now at age 27 (so far haven't seen a single one and hope it'll stay that way).

Edited September 13, 2020 by Demise

[Apolo 314]

9 minutes ago, Demise said:

As I said, just relax, it'll be fine, they'll go through the (in)admissibility questions, look through the required documentation, make sure that your shots are up to date, and you'll get approved, and if something's missing they'll just give you an RFE.

 

I'm a chronic worrier too, I'm glad that people in my family age exceptionally slowly (mom's 46 and could pass for 35, 30 on a good day, grand uncle is 60 and stopped aging at 40, great-grandmother shows her age but that's because she's 96 and spent her life working on a farm) because my hair would be completely gray by now at age 27.

Thank you for your support and kind words i hope everything will be ok and i will be able to finally sleep and have a normal live. 

[God is a good God 238]

1 hour ago, Makanaki said:

Tears of joy streaming down my eyes right now! My daughter's EAD was approved! Just saw it now. I have shared the weird process we've been through on other threads - denied I-485 erroneously, over 1 year of waiting. I took the bold step of writing them a letter few weeks back that they denied my daughter's I-485 erroneously and for them to reopen, and just today I saw this notification! Ladies and gentlemen, sometimes we just have to take the bold step and take out all fear! Once again I appreciate all of you, reading all your posts is a huge pillar for me through this journey 

Congratulations.👏👏👏 Can you share your timeline?