WhomJahBless

Hello Everyone! Happy Easter! (and to my Muslim and Jewish brothers and sisters Ramadan Mubarak and Chad Sameach respectively). It must've taken all 3 religious holidays to fall in the same time frame for me to finally have some good news about my case. I'm a March 2020 filer and after 37 months, my VAWA application has finally been approved as of this past Friday. With all thanks and glory going to God, I felt that I should post my story here because 1) it was not a simple VAWA case and 2) it will hopefully help someone who was in a situation like mine to be encouraged and know that it can happen for them too. Most of you won't know me but I am a longer time lurker here. I first found this forum back in early 2019 after searching for help for my situation. In December 2018 I had fled my life in GA with my wife who was my college sweetheart and moved in with my family in FL after realizing that the emotional turmoil and abuse that I had with my wife would not change. I was lost and turned to this thread (which was VAWA Part 12 at the time!!) for guidance and assistance. The love I and others was shown was incredible and the advice and encouragement that the members of this site gave me the hope I needed to get through this long process. At first it seemed like a daunting challenge, the immigration system is incredibly complex and the thought of filing all this paperwork, gathering evidence etc seemed too much. I also had doubts after seeing stories about denials, RFEs and long wait times. However after reading through dozens and probably hundreds of forum pages I was able to understand the system a bit more and what was needed. I gathered every bit of evidence I could find and luckily was able to find a church organization that was able to take my case pro bono. I went into this knowing that my case would probably be harder than most. First I was a man that was being abused by a woman, my own insecurities made me feel that maybe I was over reacting or not being "man enough" for putting up with her abuse. I felt like this for a while until counseling helped me understand that wasn't the case. Second, my case was based mostly on emotional abuse not physical. I did not have a lot of abuse evidence except for some abusive texts, and affidavits from my friends. I had heard that emotional abuse cases were generally harder and it was recommended that I get an evaluation, which I didn't have the money for at the time so I went without. Finally even though me and my wife were together pre-marriage for a number of years, we only actually spent a few months married in the same home before I left. A lot of the evidence I had happened while we were engaged as well which I was told the USCIS would not take into consideration as they look at evidence mostly after marriage. Knowing this I still decided to give it a shot and brought it up with my pro bono lawyer who assured me everything would be fine. I met my lawyer in early 2019 and my application was received by USCIS March 2020 and I immediately got a Prima Facie and started the process of waiting. I eventually got my work permit later that year and started working during the peak of COVID. Everything was generally fine except for a slight hiccup in 2021 when I forgot to renew my work permit before it expired. At this point I left my original lawyer because they were extremely unresponsive. Not only did it take almost a year from I gave over all my documents to them for them to file on my behalf, but they were extremely unresponsive. I would send emails, texts and leave phone calls and they would say that they did not receive them. I ended up being fed up and moved to a local legal aid company that took my case over from them. It was went smoother after that and my new lawyer was much more responsive and helpful with any questions I had. Everything went well until I received my first RFE in May of 2022. Another hiccup occurred when my RFE got sent to my previous lawyers address (which was no longer in practice) and not my current lawyer's.The process of correcting that added months with and RFE ticking in the background. Eventually it got fixed and I learned that USCIS had requested evidence of bonafide marriage and cohabitation. This was confusing to me because that was the evidence that I had provided the most of. I submitted to my original lawyer dozens of photos of me and my wife together, pictures of us with friends, and together. Pictures of us on trips, I sent lease documents and bank statements. Apparently, my original lawyer didn't submit any of that. I will probably never know the reason why but I may have been done with this a long time ago if it was done properly the first time. I sent the RFE evidence off in mid march and got the approval notice this past Friday. I started looking for help with my situation when I was 22 and now I'm 27 and I feel like I can finally breathe for the first time in years. I know that there's still the process of the adjustment of status to go through and then eventually citizenship one day but I feel like that most stressful days are finally past me. I know this is extremely long but I hope that someone can read this and become encouraged that despite the evidence they may or may not have or the issues they may have gone through with a lawyer that they can get past this very tough time and make it on the other side in one piece. God bless you all and I look forward to updating you all with the rest of my journey and being update with yours!