kaboodle836

Hi All,

I'm an American Citizen and I sponsored my husband for a Green Card.
We've been married for almost 6 years and have a 2 year old son, but
unfortunately, things didn't work out and we're in the process of
getting a divorce. To be exact, the divorce action is filed, but no
final divorce decree has issued. We had the interview in November,2005
and were very upfront about the divorce action. The interviewer said
he was "more than satisfied" that it was a good faith marriage
especially since we didn't apply for a GC until we had been married for
over 3 yrs (DH had an A-2 visa through his job at the British Consulate
so there was no rush to get him a GC). He approved the I-130 pending
the receipt of one more tax return from me. I promptly sent the tax
return in following the interview. The interviewer said the GC would
issue after the background check was completed for the I-485. A week
or so ago, my husband received a call from the INS office where we had
our interview (Garden City, NY) and they asked him about the status of
the divorce action. He was startled by the call and the question and
just said that the divorce is still pending but that he was told that
the I-130 was approved at the interview, etc. They person on the other
end said that they can't issue the GC until the outcome of the divorce
action is known. He said they would review the case and call him back.
That was three weeks ago and we've heard nothing since. We're both
very upset about this b/c the case law is clear that a pending divorce
action should not affect the adjudication of an I-130 or I-485 so long
as the marriage was valid at its inception.

My questions are: a) will our application be put on the "hold" pile
indefinitely until we either get divorced or reconcile (which will not
happen). b) since we can't "appeal" anything until there is a denial,
what action can we take to get INS to make a decision one way or the
other.

Thanks for any and all advice.

snowbunny

a) lawyer
b) congressman
c) finish up the divorce.