JJ&ST

Hi,

Reference to your post,I decided to reply this separately, in order not to mix up your point with the other threads.

Mrs. Eze, you sounded so bitter in your posting and stated that your husband was denied visa on 1-130 because he is a Nigerian? Please you are very wrong. At least not corrrect reference to my story here and others coming after me. The Nigeria embassy you knew is no longer the same at present.

Rather, the embassy denied the visa due to insufficient evidence as to the validity of your relationship or were rather in doubt of his motive of the marriage to you!!! Even at that, the embassy can only come up with such decision find they find your or his submissions at the time of interview quite insufficient.

Now look at this!!!!! During my interview recently, a man(I-130) was shading tears because he has been there 3 times and on the day still the Con-Off told him to the hearing of everybody that " you have not proved your marriage" "we think you are doing it for immigration reasons".

As he was still crying and refused to leave the officer called the security to escort him out. And that same day, I got my visa along with another a female.Another would have got it same day if not that he was told to go get a new passport. So you mean that we successful ones are not same Nigerians?

Mrs. Eze, I write all this to help you change your erronous impressions about the system of things. Because its only then that you can begin to make constructive approaches towards getting your husband to finally be with you.

Therefore the responsibility rest on you and him to success with or without LAWYER OR CONGRESSMAN !!!!

I am optimistic that if you state your case properly here you will surely receive useful answers. Stating for instant where you married him? Where did you apply for the I-130? I the actual reason for the denial as stated on the paper given to him. And remember that you have not for once visited his home country.


Well as to the question of re-marrying him in Nigeria and file for
K-3. Logically that will certainly be impossible, because the embassy has already denied him a visa as married man !!!! and the marriage is therefore recored in the system. Marriage in japan or anywhere remains valid. The embassy is not quarrelling with your marriage legality,but the validityof his immigration intent or motive behind it. Hence, you can only enquire here of how to file a waiver.

Please all this is my personal opinion and you can dis-regard if not applicable.

Ones more welcome on board.

mrseze

Peace and blessings!
I'll start over because you have clearly read into this what was never intended. I am not bitter. I am lonely, confused and desperate to have someone be accountable to me. Please read carefully-the emotional energy it will take to respond to properly will make me cry for sure.

I met my husband over the phone. As we fell in love, he invited me to Japan where he had lived for several years. He was gainfully employed and paid for everything. Money was in abundance. After a couple months, we were sure that we were right for each other. We went to the US embassy in Tokyo to begin the process. We married the next day in Matsudo in a civil ceremony-the only one that Japan legally recognizes. Several couples ahead of us proceeded to marry without problems. When we approached the desk, we were told that they could not allow us to get married that day because my husband is Nigerian and they require a period of at least 2 months to investigate his background. We were astonished but not defeated. We went to another Tokyo district and when we presented our application we were told the same thing-your husband must be investigated first. At this point, I began to make clear to them that as a citizen of the US, I had a legal right to marry in Japan on the same day that I present all required paperwork and fees. My husband got his attorney on the cell phone and he agreed with me. He took the train and met us at the office. He spent the next 2 hours arguing with every office clerk and the administration that the provisions of the Hague Convention provides that an American citizen may marry a Nigerian in Japan without 'suspicious' procedures of delay.

The next day I filed the I-130 at the Us embassy in Tokyo. Then the world began to fall apart. I left my children (ages 14 & 15) in the care of close relatives and trusted church members but one by one, they were all having issues and were pleading with me to return home asap. As a mother, when you are touched by the need of your kids, you do what you have to do. I tried to hold on but it became necessary for me to return to states because church members had turned me in to Children's Protective Services. I left Japan on June 25th. The interview was granted for August 18th - big mistake on our part in terms of poor planning.

My file was forwarded to INS regional in Seoul, Korea for adjudication. I am in constant contact with the officer and she always responds to me so pleasantly and with human concern. I wait 10 months for the consular section to authenticate my husband's birth record with his own embassy, eventhough this is all done by electronic request. During month 9 I call to check the status and the officer is now very rude to me. She tells me to hold and then says to someone in the room, "Guess who's on the phone?" A woman comes on the line and introduces herself to me as the marriage fraud investigator. She asks me some questions and I answer them honestly with no hesitation. Yes, my husband and I love each other. Yes, we have had some complications. No, I am not able to go back to Japan right now because of my children's welfare. She tells me that she needs more information from me in order to make a decision so she will send my case to the my local service center (Houston) and they will write to me with an interview date. Never got that correspondence. I went to the HSC at least 15 times, sometimes in the downpour or rain or cold weather. You must arrive there at least by 6am in order to get a good place in the line. Sometimes, I would wait outside and then in the second line inside in order to get a number only to be told that they were out of numbers for the day. This was difficult because I didn't have a car and I took 3 busses each time for almost 2 hours each way. When I called the Seoul consular section to inquire when the file might reach US, they would rudely tell me to just wait until I was written to.

My husband's job has left Japan to go to Hong Kong for cheaper labor. Japan is in deep recession. He's unable to get another job though he tries his best. He's living off his savings which he planned to use to settle us here in states. And remember, most Nigerians are feeding at least 2-3 other mouths. He has 2 young children back in Nigeria and is feeling a great loss to be with them. But we are following the rules and waiting. By 2002, I ask then Sen. Phil Gramm to do an inquiry as to the status of the case transfer. He quickly receives a response from the director of the TSC-no records exist. I ask Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee to do the same. After working with her immigration liasion for nearly one year, I am told that the office staff is both underpaid and overwhelmed. I'm standing in hallway of her bldg. crying just trying to compose myself when her deputy director sees me and asks if he can do something to help me. He uses his blackberry to e-mail someone he knows in the state department. Three minutes later, a response comes that I am being investigated for marriage fraud. Thank God, I finally know what's going on.

The Houston Service Center confirms once again that they have no file for me and have not been asked to participate in any investigation on my behalf. I call the Seoul consular section and the officer-in-charge tells me to never call their office again! Wow!

Now we are both confused and broke and emotionally drained and any other number of things that mean 'traumatized'. As I'm trying to raise money to do 'something', a letter arrives which is a denial of the petition. It states that I failed to prove that a continued relationship exists. How do I prove that when I have never been interviewed or asked for any documentation? So I write and ask for my original documents as per USCIS regulations. No agency in the entire state department has any records for me and no records exist in any database.

And it's really harsh to judge me for not going to Nigeria. There is mass unemployment there and my husband is just moving about from relative to relative and place to place trying to make something good happen for himself. I have been homeless for almost 18 months. I came to grad school mostly because I was offered housing. We have spend nearly $20,000 just trying to know how to follow this thing and half of that was on lawyer's fees. I am always blessed to know that others have had success in their visa journeys. I praise God for that! But that is not my experience. It's not anybody's fault, but yes, JJ&ST someone is accountable to me for having destroyed my case file and then denying my petition. This is exactly what has happened.

I came to the board just to know if I can go to Nigeria and marry and file a K-3 visa from the US? The I-130 is over. I'm just seeking information to move on because I don't have the money to hire an attorney; I honestly feel that I don't need one.

Thanks for listening.

JJ&ST

Now,we are making progress,as you have stated your case in a more clearer way. Infact,I saw no way the embassy in Japan would have been able to make adjudication of your visa without the home counrtry of your spouse.Because the actually home root cannot be investigated in Japan!!!

I have more info on your re-application or options,but I have to pause here to allow others to come in. Till later bye!!

JJ&ST

Secondly Mrs. Eze pls try and avail yourself with the Q&A section on this forum. That is the first step towards a better understanding of the whole procedures. Till later.

mrseze

You're a real sweetie! Thanks for your time. Honestly, I feel that I know family immigration law as well as any licensed practitioner. If you could just read between the lines, I'm telling you that my case file has been destroyed and/or lost...it has simply disappeared from the face of the earth.

Any decent law manual will tell you that more than 50% of all family petitions are suspected to be fraudulent. You'll also read that overseas officers commonly 'mistreat' applications because they know that they are so islolated that no one will bother to challenge them. I assure you I'm up to date on the procedures...it's the little nuances of the laws that are usually not published formally that I'm questioning. A state department official secretly e-mailed me an internal document that has been extremely helpful to me.

Sometimes couples' cases fall through the proverbial 'cracks'...I'm just persistent enough to fall down in the cracks with it to find the bottom. Girl, I love my man! Your time has meant a lot to me.

meauxna

What I read is "we wanted to get married" and "the marriage never occured /or/ was not recorded" and "we ignored all that and filed an I-130".

It seems to me that your I-130 was denied because you don't have a valid marriage/marriage license. The (simplified) purpose of the I-130 is to prove:
1) that you are a USC
2) that you are legally married

If you didn't show that, how can they approve?