total indifference to spousal persecution

[heartbroken 0]

My wife and I applied in May of 2007 to the CSC. We did the 129/130 route and like many filers are stuck in limbo.

Due to our marriage being in a country that does not have an embassy we were told that by law we have to use the nearby embassy at PNG.

I retained a lawyer here in the states and was told that these were taking 2 months, 3 at the most.

With that in mind I came home in May and filed the petitions.

At the first of August my wife's contract expired and she went to PNG from our orginal country to wait out what should have been one more month.

She had a visa and was staying with her brother. It was for 60 days

At the end of 60 days we still had no answer.

I contacted the local congressmans office and was reassured that they were only too happy to help.

Our situation is complicated in that she is Filipina. She obtained a legal divorce in the country we were staying in. Her husband had disappeared some time before. (3 years). She was granted full custody of the children.

We were legally marriedin March. I left in May.

By God's help we were able to extend her visa by thirty days. That brought us to the end of October.

We still did not have an approval. Her visa expired on the thirtieth of the month and she was allowed again by divine intervention to remain there for the last few weeks.

As of now, we are still not approved. She must leave for the Philippines in a week.

As the Philippines does not recognize her right to divorce then our marriage is not recognized. Therefore it is doubtful

I will ever get her here. She will not be able to leave the country on a K-3 obviously.

We pleaded with the CSC for an exception. We have done all we can. They simply do not care.

Thank you USCIS. I have now lost forever the woman of my dreams as well as the two children to whom I am the only father they have ever known.

Anybody with any advice or help would be appreciated.

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

My wife and I applied in May of 2007 to the CSC. We did the 129/130 route and like many filers are stuck in limbo.

Due to our marriage being in a country that does not have an embassy we were told that by law we have to use the nearby embassy at PNG.

I retained a lawyer here in the states and was told that these were taking 2 months, 3 at the most.

With that in mind I came home in May and filed the petitions.

At the first of August my wife's contract expired and she went to PNG from our orginal country to wait out what should have been one more month.

She had a visa and was staying with her brother. It was for 60 days

At the end of 60 days we still had no answer.

I contacted the local congressmans office and was reassured that they were only too happy to help.

Our situation is complicated in that she is Filipina. She obtained a legal divorce in the country we were staying in. Her husband had disappeared some time before. (3 years). She was granted full custody of the children.

We were legally marriedin March. I left in May.

By God's help we were able to extend her visa by thirty days. That brought us to the end of October.

We still did not have an approval. Her visa expired on the thirtieth of the month and she was allowed again by divine intervention to remain there for the last few weeks.

As of now, we are still not approved. She must leave for the Philippines in a week.

As the Philippines does not recognize her right to divorce then our marriage is not recognized. Therefore it is doubtful

I will ever get her here. She will not be able to leave the country on a K-3 obviously.

We pleaded with the CSC for an exception. We have done all we can. They simply do not care.

Thank you USCIS. I have now lost forever the woman of my dreams as well as the two children to whom I am the only father they have ever known.

Anybody with any advice or help would be appreciated.

I would contact an immigration attorney IMMEDIATELY and find out what the best step is. THERE HAS GOT TO BE SOME KIND OF SOLUTION BUT THIS IS TOO COMPLICATED FOR REGULAR PEOPLE. Call the phillipine embassy and find an attorney through the embassy. There has got to be a solution..

My wife and I applied in May of 2007 to the CSC. We did the 129/130 route and like many filers are stuck in limbo.

Due to our marriage being in a country that does not have an embassy we were told that by law we have to use the nearby embassy at PNG.

I retained a lawyer here in the states and was told that these were taking 2 months, 3 at the most.

With that in mind I came home in May and filed the petitions.

At the first of August my wife's contract expired and she went to PNG from our orginal country to wait out what should have been one more month.

She had a visa and was staying with her brother. It was for 60 days

At the end of 60 days we still had no answer.

I contacted the local congressmans office and was reassured that they were only too happy to help.

Our situation is complicated in that she is Filipina. She obtained a legal divorce in the country we were staying in. Her husband had disappeared some time before. (3 years). She was granted full custody of the children.

We were legally marriedin March. I left in May.

By God's help we were able to extend her visa by thirty days. That brought us to the end of October.

We still did not have an approval. Her visa expired on the thirtieth of the month and she was allowed again by divine intervention to remain there for the last few weeks.

As of now, we are still not approved. She must leave for the Philippines in a week.

As the Philippines does not recognize her right to divorce then our marriage is not recognized. Therefore it is doubtful

I will ever get her here. She will not be able to leave the country on a K-3 obviously.

We pleaded with the CSC for an exception. We have done all we can. They simply do not care.

Thank you USCIS. I have now lost forever the woman of my dreams as well as the two children to whom I am the only father they have ever known.

Anybody with any advice or help would be appreciated.

You need to find out what she has to do to get divorced in the Phillipines.. then you can always file a k1 again. YOU NEED AN ATTORNEY NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

[pushbrk 13,118]

My wife and I applied in May of 2007 to the CSC. We did the 129/130 route and like many filers are stuck in limbo.

Due to our marriage being in a country that does not have an embassy we were told that by law we have to use the nearby embassy at PNG.

I retained a lawyer here in the states and was told that these were taking 2 months, 3 at the most.

With that in mind I came home in May and filed the petitions.

At the first of August my wife's contract expired and she went to PNG from our orginal country to wait out what should have been one more month.

She had a visa and was staying with her brother. It was for 60 days

At the end of 60 days we still had no answer.

I contacted the local congressmans office and was reassured that they were only too happy to help.

Our situation is complicated in that she is Filipina. She obtained a legal divorce in the country we were staying in. Her husband had disappeared some time before. (3 years). She was granted full custody of the children.

We were legally marriedin March. I left in May.

By God's help we were able to extend her visa by thirty days. That brought us to the end of October.

We still did not have an approval. Her visa expired on the thirtieth of the month and she was allowed again by divine intervention to remain there for the last few weeks.

As of now, we are still not approved. She must leave for the Philippines in a week.

As the Philippines does not recognize her right to divorce then our marriage is not recognized. Therefore it is doubtful

I will ever get her here. She will not be able to leave the country on a K-3 obviously.

We pleaded with the CSC for an exception. We have done all we can. They simply do not care.

Thank you USCIS. I have now lost forever the woman of my dreams as well as the two children to whom I am the only father they have ever known.

Anybody with any advice or help would be appreciated.

I understand you're heartbroken but if you want advice, we need some information. In what country were you married and in what country is "PNG"? Papua New Guinea?

K3 is the visa that would require the interview be in the Country of the marriage or the Consulate assigned to adjudicate cases in that country.

For a CR1 visa, you can interview in Manila. Whether PI recognizes your marriage or not is of no concern to the Manila Consulate, as long as the jurisdiction of divorce and remarriage recognizes it.

Why can't she go back to PNG, wherever that is, for the interview when the time comes?

Edited November 16, 2007 by pushbrk

[Dakine 26]

I retained a lawyer here in the states and was told that these were taking 2 months, 3 at the most.

Some lawyers lie a lot to get your business. There has been a time recently where a family visa only took 2 or 3 months.

Maybe a CR/IR DCF.

I'd jump all over your lawyers bones and get him to get cracking!

[heartbroken 0]

My wife and I applied in May of 2007 to the CSC. We did the 129/130 route and like many filers are stuck in limbo.

Due to our marriage being in a country that does not have an embassy we were told that by law we have to use the nearby embassy at PNG.

I retained a lawyer here in the states and was told that these were taking 2 months, 3 at the most.

With that in mind I came home in May and filed the petitions.

At the first of August my wife's contract expired and she went to PNG from our orginal country to wait out what should have been one more month.

She had a visa and was staying with her brother. It was for 60 days

At the end of 60 days we still had no answer.

I contacted the local congressmans office and was reassured that they were only too happy to help.

Our situation is complicated in that she is Filipina. She obtained a legal divorce in the country we were staying in. Her husband had disappeared some time before. (3 years). She was granted full custody of the children.

We were legally marriedin March. I left in May.

By God's help we were able to extend her visa by thirty days. That brought us to the end of October.

We still did not have an approval. Her visa expired on the thirtieth of the month and she was allowed again by divine intervention to remain there for the last few weeks.

As of now, we are still not approved. She must leave for the Philippines in a week.

As the Philippines does not recognize her right to divorce then our marriage is not recognized. Therefore it is doubtful

I will ever get her here. She will not be able to leave the country on a K-3 obviously.

We pleaded with the CSC for an exception. We have done all we can. They simply do not care.

Thank you USCIS. I have now lost forever the woman of my dreams as well as the two children to whom I am the only father they have ever known.

Anybody with any advice or help would be appreciated.

I understand you're heartbroken but if you want advice, we need some information. In what country were you married and in what country is "PNG"? Papua New Guinea?

K3 is the visa that would require the interview be in the Country of the marriage or the Consulate assigned to adjudicate cases in that country.

For a CR1 visa, you can interview in Manila. Whether PI recognizes your marriage or not is of no concern to the Manila Consulate, as long as the jurisdiction of divorce and remarriage recognizes it.

Why can't she go back to PNG, wherever that is, for the interview when the time comes?

you are only permitted 60 days in a year. Papua New Guinea is the country assigned to adjudicate. The divorce and the marriage were carried out under British Common Law. The point is that we were down to the last minute and they decide to have some sort of shut down not only on us but on a lot of May filers. While it is true that the US law applies to the visa applicant in PI once it is issued we have to figure out how to get her and the children to the states without her being charged with bigamy and without the kids being prevented from leaving.

Keep in mind that while there is obviously some venting going on here I am not exaggerating, to the best of my knowlege, the hurdles we are facing.

An interview in PNG would be scheduled virtually immediately while the PI are averaging 230 days.

I am at the moment almost too paranoid to give out much identifiable information but I suppose that is natural in the place we feel we are in where the CSC holds total authority over our immediate forseeable future. I am also very suer that we are not the first ones to find ourselves in this thorny situation.

Thank you for the level headed and cool headed look at this. I appreciate the feedback.

[pushbrk 13,118]

My wife and I applied in May of 2007 to the CSC. We did the 129/130 route and like many filers are stuck in limbo.

Due to our marriage being in a country that does not have an embassy we were told that by law we have to use the nearby embassy at PNG.

I retained a lawyer here in the states and was told that these were taking 2 months, 3 at the most.

With that in mind I came home in May and filed the petitions.

At the first of August my wife's contract expired and she went to PNG from our orginal country to wait out what should have been one more month.

She had a visa and was staying with her brother. It was for 60 days

At the end of 60 days we still had no answer.

I contacted the local congressmans office and was reassured that they were only too happy to help.

Our situation is complicated in that she is Filipina. She obtained a legal divorce in the country we were staying in. Her husband had disappeared some time before. (3 years). She was granted full custody of the children.

We were legally marriedin March. I left in May.

By God's help we were able to extend her visa by thirty days. That brought us to the end of October.

We still did not have an approval. Her visa expired on the thirtieth of the month and she was allowed again by divine intervention to remain there for the last few weeks.

As of now, we are still not approved. She must leave for the Philippines in a week.

As the Philippines does not recognize her right to divorce then our marriage is not recognized. Therefore it is doubtful

I will ever get her here. She will not be able to leave the country on a K-3 obviously.

We pleaded with the CSC for an exception. We have done all we can. They simply do not care.

Thank you USCIS. I have now lost forever the woman of my dreams as well as the two children to whom I am the only father they have ever known.

Anybody with any advice or help would be appreciated.

I understand you're heartbroken but if you want advice, we need some information. In what country were you married and in what country is "PNG"? Papua New Guinea?

K3 is the visa that would require the interview be in the Country of the marriage or the Consulate assigned to adjudicate cases in that country.

For a CR1 visa, you can interview in Manila. Whether PI recognizes your marriage or not is of no concern to the Manila Consulate, as long as the jurisdiction of divorce and remarriage recognizes it.

Why can't she go back to PNG, wherever that is, for the interview when the time comes?

you are only permitted 60 days in a year. Papua New Guinea is the country assigned to adjudicate. The divorce and the marriage were carried out under British Common Law. The point is that we were down to the last minute and they decide to have some sort of shut down not only on us but on a lot of May filers. While it is true that the US law applies to the visa applicant in PI once it is issued we have to figure out how to get her and the children to the states without her being charged with bigamy and without the kids being prevented from leaving.

Keep in mind that while there is obviously some venting going on here I am not exaggerating, to the best of my knowlege, the hurdles we are facing.

An interview in PNG would be scheduled virtually immediately while the PI are averaging 230 days.

I am at the moment almost too paranoid to give out much identifiable information but I suppose that is natural in the place we feel we are in where the CSC holds total authority over our immediate forseeable future. I am also very suer that we are not the first ones to find ourselves in this thorny situation.

Thank you for the level headed and cool headed look at this. I appreciate the feedback.

Perhaps it would be better to vent the emotion in another thread and concentrate on your request for help, in this thread. If you agree, please respond again to my post and answer the questions so we can discuss potential solutions.

[C and J 1]

I retained a lawyer here in the states and was told that these were taking 2 months, 3 at the most.

Some lawyers lie a lot to get your business. There has been a time recently where a family visa only took 2 or 3 months.

Maybe a CR/IR DCF.

I'd jump all over your lawyers bones and get him to get cracking!

I have to agree with this post. The first step alone would take 2-3 months at the absolute best of times, then you would need to add another week for the NVC and then whatever time to schedule the interview at the consulate/embassy. Lawyers seem to know a bit about the general process but they do not seem to keep up to date with changes or delays. I wonder if your lawyer is still telling potential customers that it will take 2-3 months?

Unfortunately, USCIS can take up to 6 months to process their step (in fact, they state this) so to go into this process hoping for the best possible outsome (2-3 months total) was setting yourself up for a fall and was very unfair of your lawyer to raise your hopes to that level. I went into this process hoping for a 6 months turn-around but after finding this site, I soon changed that estimate to 10 months and so far it is looking like the 10 months will ring true.

I may be wrong but it seems that things were done in PNG to try to circum-navigate the divorce rules in the Philippines and time ran out I am sorry for all the troubles you and your spouse are going through but I think what you really need at this time is not just an immigration lawyer but a lawyer that understands marriage laws in your spouses country

[ciarra 0]

My wife and I applied in May of 2007 to the CSC. We did the 129/130 route and like many filers are stuck in limbo.

Due to our marriage being in a country that does not have an embassy we were told that by law we have to use the nearby embassy at PNG.

I retained a lawyer here in the states and was told that these were taking 2 months, 3 at the most.

With that in mind I came home in May and filed the petitions.

At the first of August my wife's contract expired and she went to PNG from our orginal country to wait out what should have been one more month.

She had a visa and was staying with her brother. It was for 60 days

At the end of 60 days we still had no answer.

I contacted the local congressmans office and was reassured that they were only too happy to help.

Our situation is complicated in that she is Filipina. She obtained a legal divorce in the country we were staying in. Her husband had disappeared some time before. (3 years). She was granted full custody of the children.

We were legally marriedin March. I left in May.

By God's help we were able to extend her visa by thirty days. That brought us to the end of October.

We still did not have an approval. Her visa expired on the thirtieth of the month and she was allowed again by divine intervention to remain there for the last few weeks.

As of now, we are still not approved. She must leave for the Philippines in a week.

As the Philippines does not recognize her right to divorce then our marriage is not recognized. Therefore it is doubtful

I will ever get her here. She will not be able to leave the country on a K-3 obviously.

We pleaded with the CSC for an exception. We have done all we can. They simply do not care.

Thank you USCIS. I have now lost forever the woman of my dreams as well as the two children to whom I am the only father they have ever known.

Anybody with any advice or help would be appreciated.

[

there is no divorce in the Philippines. Only annulment. of course there is court hearing.

lees hassle for you, if your wife marriage in Phil. will be annulled.

hope it helps

[desert_fox 32]

Of hand, it sounds like you got a divorce in some country that had no jurisdiction in the matter. Probably because you had no legal right to use the courts or something. It is my understanding that the P.I.'s recognize divorces in jurisdictions that had valid jurisdiction in the matter.

[heartbroken 0]

Of hand, it sounds like you got a divorce in some country that had no jurisdiction in the matter. Probably because you had no legal right to use the courts or something. It is my understanding that the P.I.'s recognize divorces in jurisdictions that had valid jurisdiction in the matter.

We were both residents there at the time and they subscribe to Britsh Common Law. Are you aware of any change in Philippine law that recognizes that ? I am asking that in an inquisitive way because I am clueless. It seems to be an evolving issue there. But actually a magistrate determined that the court there had jurisdicton and that is why we were allowed to proceed. It is my understanding that they will not but it seems to be changing all the time. That sure would be good news if true.

Thanks

[pushbrk 13,118]

Of hand, it sounds like you got a divorce in some country that had no jurisdiction in the matter. Probably because you had no legal right to use the courts or something. It is my understanding that the P.I.'s recognize divorces in jurisdictions that had valid jurisdiction in the matter.

We were both residents there at the time and they subscribe to Britsh Common Law. Are you aware of any change in Philippine law that recognizes that ? I am asking that in an inquisitive way because I am clueless. It seems to be an evolving issue there. But actually a magistrate determined that the court there had jurisdicton and that is why we were allowed to proceed. It is my understanding that they will not but it seems to be changing all the time. That sure would be good news if true.

Thanks

Again, why do you think the US Consulate will care what the Philippine government thinks about her divorce in PNG? If your petition is approved by USCIS using the divorce records you supplied, the Philipine government really doesn't matter. You're dealing with US Government agencies for the visa.

I've asked you some very important questions that remain unanswered. Answering them will help us all to help you identify a solution to your problem.

[payxibka 10,047]

Philippine law, in general, does not provide for divorce inside the Philippines. It only allows annulment. Article 26 of the Family Code of the Philippines does provide that

Where a marriage between a Filipino citizen and a foreigner is validly celebrated and a divorce is thereafter validly obtained abroad by the alien spouse capacitating him or her to remarry, the Filipino spouse shall have capacity to remarry under Philippine law.

[..] we are unanimous in our holding that Paragraph 2 of Article 26 of the Family Code (E.O. No. 209, as amended by E.O. No. 227), should be interpreted to allow a Filipino citizen, who has been divorced by a spouse who had acquired foreign citizenship and remarried, also to remarry.

Complications can arise, however. For example, if a legally married Filipino citizen obtains a divorce outside of the Philippines, that divorce would not be recognized inside the Philippines. If that person (now unmarried outside of the Philippines) then remarries outside of the Philippines, he or she could arguably be considered in the Philippines as having committed the crime of Bigamy under Philippine Laws].

Thus the apparent rub... Not so much from the USEM standpoint but while residing in RP.

Edited November 16, 2007 by fwaguy

[heartbroken 0]

Of hand, it sounds like you got a divorce in some country that had no jurisdiction in the matter. Probably because you had no legal right to use the courts or something. It is my understanding that the P.I.'s recognize divorces in jurisdictions that had valid jurisdiction in the matter.

We were both residents there at the time and they subscribe to Britsh Common Law. Are you aware of any change in Philippine law that recognizes that ? I am asking that in an inquisitive way because I am clueless. It seems to be an evolving issue there. But actually a magistrate determined that the court there had jurisdicton and that is why we were allowed to proceed. It is my understanding that they will not but it seems to be changing all the time. That sure would be good news if true.

Thanks

Again, why do you think the US Consulate will care what the Philippine government thinks about her divorce in PNG? If your petition is approved by USCIS using the divorce records you supplied, the Philipine government really doesn't matter. You're dealing with US Government agencies for the visa.

I've asked you some very important questions that remain unanswered. Answering them will help us all to help you identify a solution to your problem.

Sorry about that. I am new to the forum format and have answered some of them in other responses.

You are correct. The US consulate there will not care. In fact it has no bearing.

The problem comes in when she tries to leave the country with the children and herself. If she has a K-3 visa stamp on her passport it is the customs and immigration people in the Philippines that will detain her.

This is where our fears arise. We didn't see it as an issue before becasue we were told that it would be a relatively short procedure

and at the time if you look at the visa journey site which I monitored both overseas and here before even marrying, it was indeed getting done at around the three month mark.

So as I previously answered perhaps in another reply, we felt that the K-3 route was the best way to go and that it could be done without having to worry about the archaic divorce laws there.

So on the heels of some advice that turned wrong only after May of 2007 and some bad decisions on our part obviously we find ourselves in this situation.

That is also why it is important to adjudicate in PNG because we could have avoided that whole scene.

At the least we can expect 4-6 months more delay in the Philippines but possibly even worse.

I hope that clarifies some.

Thanks

[heartbroken 0]

Philippine law, in general, does not provide for divorce inside the Philippines. It only allows annulment. Article 26 of the Family Code of the Philippines does provide that

Where a marriage between a Filipino citizen and a foreigner is validly celebrated and a divorce is thereafter validly obtained abroad by the alien spouse capacitating him or her to remarry, the Filipino spouse shall have capacity to remarry under Philippine law.

[..] we are unanimous in our holding that Paragraph 2 of Article 26 of the Family Code (E.O. No. 209, as amended by E.O. No. 227), should be interpreted to allow a Filipino citizen, who has been divorced by a spouse who had acquired foreign citizenship and remarried, also to remarry.

Complications can arise, however. For example, if a legally married Filipino citizen obtains a divorce outside of the Philippines, that divorce would not be recognized inside the Philippines. If that person (now unmarried outside of the Philippines) then remarries outside of the Philippines, he or she could arguably be considered in the Philippines as having committed the crime of Bigamy under Philippine Laws].

Thus the apparent rub... Not so much from the USEM standpoint but while residing in RP.

Yes, that is the rub. Now the picture comes clearer. I would think that it would have made a difference that someone could be prosecuted for doing something that is legal and recognized in the rest of the world but the CSC prides itself on not allowing exceptions.

[payxibka 10,047]

I have no experience with RP but do you really think the passport control people when she is exiting will be able to put all this together?

Edited November 16, 2007 by fwaguy