Docsanjose

hi friends, my life is all shattered after the death of my spouse, i came here on a
K1 and married my soulmate and also filed my application for adjustment of status,
but unfortunately, my wife died during the delivery of our baby before the adjustment
interview. now my life's purpose is to take care of our baby. my wife had a dream of
giving the best education to our child in US. but i want to know whether my
application will be revoked now and will be i deported if i dont leave the country on
my own?and what about our baby who happens to be a US citizen by birth? please help
yours truly

Georgesgirl35

Hi Im sorry i cant advise you on this matter. I have an idea but i dont want to tell
you wrong what i would say is though contact a good immigration attourney and seek
their advice. Good Luck

Mrtravel

If possible talk to an immigration lawyer. I believe current law would say you
couldn't adjust status based on this.

docsanjose wrote:
    > hi friends, my life is all shattered after the death of my spouse, i came here on a
    > K1 and married my soulmate and also filed my application for adjustment of status,
    > but unfortunately, my wife died during the delivery of our baby before the
    > adjustment interview. now my life's purpose is to take care of our baby. my wife
    > had a dream of giving the best education to our child in US. but i want to know
    > whether my application will be revoked now and will be i deported if i dont leave
    > the country on my own?and what about our baby who happens to be a US citizen by
    > birth? please help yours truly

Des

Hi,

I am very sorry to hear about your wife. As for immigration, you are on rather
difficult grounds - my advice would be to get a good immigration lawyer, and talk
through your options.

As far as I know, you are unable to adjust to permanent resident on the basis of
marriage if your spouse dies before the adjustment interview.

However, maybe you can be granted adjustment on humanitarian grounds? Or you could
get your employer to sponsor you for an H1B visa, then ultimately for a greencard ?
Did you arrive in the US on a K-1 visa (which does not allow for any adjustment other
than AOS based on marriage), or on another visa (tourist, F-1 etc.)? If you are
adjusting from another visa, there might be more options available to you. Make sure
you get the advice of a good immigration attorney!

Gather all the documentation you can - about the circumstances of your wife's death,
about the arrangements for the baby care (i.e. maybe your wife's family living close
by is taking care of the baby, and you do not have the means/family help back in your
home country), maybe you would like to stay on for the legal proceedings (I assume
there will be some investigation after the death of your wife during delivery). Do
you have the date for your adjustment interview yet?

Hopefully, an attorney can help give you an overview of all the options you have at
this point. As for the baby who is a USC by birth, it can only sponsor you after
turning 21.

Good luck to you, and god bless you and the baby.
- Des

Andy Platt

I am so sorry to hear about your loss. The key is how long were you married before
she died. If it was less than two years you will probably have to leave the US. It is
possible that you could be allowed to stay based on extreme hardship to the baby
(since they are a US citizen) but a lot of that would depend on your home country.

If you had been married for two years then you can file an I-360:

http://www.ins.usd-
oj.gov/graphics/formsfee/forms/i-360.htm

In either case I would contact an immigration attorney to find out exactly what your
situation is.

Good luck with rebuilding your life.

Andy.

--
I'm not really here - it's just your warped imagination. "docsanjose"
<[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected] om...
    > hi friends, my life is all shattered after the death of my spouse, i came here on a
    > K1 and married my soulmate and also filed my application for adjustment of status,
    > but unfortunately, my wife died during the delivery of our baby before the
    > adjustment interview. now my life's purpose is to take care of our baby. my wife
    > had a dream of giving the best education to our child in US. but i want to know
    > whether my application will be revoked now and will be i deported if i dont leave
    > the country on my own?and what about our baby who happens to be a US citizen by
    > birth? please help yours truly

jcsutton

Let me see if I have this right. If you get divorced, you can adjust status providing you prove that the marriage was entered in good faith, but if your spouse dies, you can't?? Am I missing something here??

Folinskyiinla

[email protected] (docsanjose) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]. com>...
    > hi friends, my life is all shattered after the death of my spouse, i came here on a
    > K1 and married my soulmate and also filed my application for adjustment of status,
    > but unfortunately, my wife died during the delivery of our baby before the
    > adjustment interview. now my life's purpose is to take care of our baby. my wife
    > had a dream of giving the best education to our child in US. but i want to know
    > whether my application will be revoked now and will be i deported if i dont leave
    > the country on my own?and what about our baby who happens to be a US citizen by
    > birth? please help yours truly


Hello:

My condolences about your loss.

I'm an immigration lawyer practicing in Los Angeles.

I think you have a good case -- but with several caveats which necessitate obtaining
a good immigration lawyer who will be assertive and enjoy a good reputation with INS
of knowing the immigration laws.

Unfortunately, this is a gray area of the law due to the fact that many INS offices
do not understand the law.

In 1986, Congress passed the "Immigration Marriage Fraud Amendments" [IMFA]. IMFA
created the two-year condition. In regards to fiances, it made the AOS fall under
the same section of law as other AOS's [section 245] rather than under its own
section. IMHO, this made the AOS "discretionary". IMHO, the effect of IMFA on
fiances was limited to these two areas.


In the law, the statute and regulations are clarified by published case law. There
is published case law which pre-dates 1986 which unequivocally states that you can
still adjust -- the K-1 visa required that you enter into the bona fide marriage
within 90 days -- you did that. However, there is no POST-1986 published case law on
your exact situtation.

I am of the opinion that the pre-1986 cases are still good law. But other
immigration attorneys have informed me that at least one INS office disagrees and
sent me their internal memo on the subject.

As I said, I think you have a good case -- but it might be a fight.

Andy Platt

"jcsutton" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
    > Let me see if I have this right. If you get divorced, you can adjust status
    > providing you prove that the marriage was entered in good faith, but if your spouse
    > dies, you can't?? Am I missing something here??

Yes, you are missing that this is *before* the adjustment interview (actually
technically before you are a permanent resident). If you are already a
(conditional) permanent resident and your spouse dies you can immediately file the
I-751 with a copy of the death certificate to get the conditions removed. In that
case you don't have to prove the marriage was entered into in good faith as you
would if you got divorced.

Andy.

--
I'm not really here - it's just your warped imagination.

jcsutton

Gotcha....I've confused AOS with the removal of conditions on permanent residency. Thanks for the clarification......

Michael Voight

Not true.. If you get divorced, you can only adjust status if there is abuse. You are
thinking about removing condtitions from PR status.

jcsutton wrote:
    > Let me see if I have this right. If you get divorced, you can adjust status
    > providing you prove that the marriage was entered in good faith, but if your spouse
    > dies, you can't?? Am I missing something here??
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Padideh

I believe, the death of your spouse is one of those exceptional circumstances which
would automatically entitle you to adjustment of status. In other words, you can
stay here.

I'm not a lawyer, but I just happened to read about this.



docsanjose wrote in message <[email protected]>. ..
    >hi friends, my life is all shattered after the death of my spouse, i came here on a
    >K1 and married my soulmate and also filed my
[...]

Mrtravel

Padideh wrote:
    > I believe, the death of your spouse is one of those exceptional circumstances which
    > would automatically entitle you to adjustment of status. In other words, you can
    > stay here.

Not true, as the people affected by WTC found out. It took special INS action for PR
status to be granted.

Targaff

"Padideh" <[email protected]> wrote in news:[email protected]:

Whilst others are obviously more informed on this, I can't help but wonder whether
there's any legislation which would, in case you are required to leave the country,
allow you to stay on the basis that effectively the child is a US citizen? It might
involve having to use a different sort of visa but you are the parent, so...

--

Targaff

Rete

Don't believe there is any longer. This was one of the reasons by so many aliens would come to the US late in their pregnancy so that their children would be US citizens and the US government would allow them to stay. I remember a case a few years ago here in New York City where an Irish citizen mother with a US citizen daughter was told she had to leave the US. The fact that she had a US Citizen child did not sway them at all. The major got into the fray and the outcome was because the daughter required medical care that she would not be able to receive in Ireland the mother was allowed to stay.

Rete

Mrtravel

Targaff wrote:
    > "Padideh" <[email protected]> wrote in news:[email protected]:
    > Whilst others are obviously more informed on this, I can't help but wonder whether
    > there's any legislation which would, in case you are required to leave the country,
    > allow you to stay on the basis that effectively the child is a US citizen? It might
    > involve having to use a different sort of visa but you are the parent, so...

A child can only sponsor a parent if age 21+