bledgeway

I am currently in the process to have the conditions removed on my 2 year green card. The original filing method was spouse sponsored. However, the marriage broke down and we sat down with an immigration lawyer to discuss different options for filing the removal of conditions because a divorce was imminent. As we have a 5 year old daughter, I was told that filing using a hardship waiver/exemption was the best and most logical step. I filed 18 months ago. Two days ago (15th Spet 2018) I received a response citing insufficient evidence that the marriage was entered into in good faith and insufficient evidence that deportation would result in extreme hardship to myself or my child.

In order to receive the conditional 2 year green card, we already had to submit evidence that the marriage was entered into in good faith, and we endured a stern and thorough interview process. Our problem is that we don't have a great deal of solid evidence to support this - we were married in a courthouse due to me having just finished college (we had been together 4 years prior to marriage) - we decided to put off the ceremony until we had the finances to include both families and do it as we wanted, so there is no picture/video evidence which would strengthen our case. We've also never had joint ownership of any house or a joint tenancy agreement on any apartment. This is due to me having no credit history in the US at the time. When we tried to buy a house together the mortgage company would only lend the money to purchase if I agreed and signed documents stating I had no ownership or equity in the house. In fact, getting financed on anything has been a constant stumbling block during my time here - nobody will finance me at a fair rate (I'm paying 13% interest on a car loan).....but this is another story.

The only "joint" things we have are a tax return we filed together. We also have copies of state licenses which show the same address - and my ex wife has me listed on a life insurance policy she took out through her old job.

Regarding the lack of proof for extreme hardship - we have a court ordered consent judgement and joint stipulation. It outlines that we both have 50/50 custody of our daughter and neither parent has more rights than the other. We have a schedule whereby we each have her 3.5 days out of the week. All education, health and other decisions are made together. All finances and costs are split equally. We have documentation showing this. I don't understand how they can view deporting me as being anything other than extreme hardship. Psychologically it would break us both. I'm worried they view the court documents merely as an attempt by me to flout the law and they believe I'm nothing more than an absent father who supports financially from time to time - nothing could be further from the truth. All of the dealings between my ex-wife and myself are civil and amicable. The needs of our child are put first.

In their letter to me they do outline several additional ways to show extra evidence. Here are some which are relevant to my case:

- Potential effects of your deportation on your children and their dependence on your support, such as education, lack of familiarity with your home country, language issues, financial and health requirements
- Major disruption in your family life
- Potential psychological impact of deportation on yourself and your children

We are in the process of scheduling a therapist to interview our daughter and give a detailed professional assessment which we can then submit. As far as major disruption to family life goes, my life is based here. The 2 bed apartment I rent for my and my daughter, my car note, all other bills and commitments are all here.

If there is anybody who has constructive advice or has been in a similar situation I'd appreciate anything you think would help the situation. Is there something obvious that I'm overlooking?

Thanks for reading.

BenK91

I know this doesn't particularly help the situation at hand but as far as getting credit, it wasn't particularly difficult - I followed peoples advice and guides here on BE to obtain a secured credit card. I've been here two years and have a 730 credit score. So obtaining credit wasn't that difficult.

Where were you living? Assuming you were living together then I don't see why your name couldn't have been on the lease. My wife's credit score is pretty damn bad, and she has barely any income due to her being in college (I support us both) and she is still listed on the lease agreement for our apartment and both our car finance agreements.

As far as having a "proper" wedding, I personally don't see that as being a key issue. A lot of people have small and extremely private ceremonies (me and my wife went to a courthouse and got married with just two friends and her mom and step-dad). It's more so that you have absolutely zero evidence that you had a co-mingled life other than a child together. Which again, isn't necessarily proof a marriage was entered into in good faith.

Do you have any joint accounts together with a decent flow of money going in and out of the account? Any health insurance documents showing each other listed etc?

I'm sorry you're in this situation though, hopefully you're able to pull together some more documentation and proof to solidify your status here.

Rete

I am still trying to figure out why an experienced immigration would advise you to file for a [extreme] hardship waiver for the I-751 rather than just filing the normal I-751 based on marriage in good faith.

The following are the grounds for a hardship waiver:

"While the statute does not define or give any guidance as to what qualifies as hardship, it is clear that the hardship must be extreme. In fact, it must be "significantly greater than the hardship encountered by other aliens who are removed from this country after extended stays." Moreover, given that the term is the same as what is expected for other types of hardship waivers, USCIS may consider the following factors:

· Age of the alien

· If the alien has children, the age, number, and immigration status of the alien's children and their ability to speak the language or adjust to life in another country

· Health of the alien and/or health of the alien's child, spouse, or parent

· The alien's ability to earn income and find a job in the country to which he/she would return

· Alien's length of residence in the US

· Alien's family ties in the US

· The financial impact of the alien's departure

· The impact of a disruption of educational opportunities

· The psychological impact of the alien's removal

· The current political and economic conditions in the country that the person would return

· Family and other ties in the alien's country

· Alien's contributions to and ties to the US

· Alien's immigration history

These types of waivers are decided on a case-by-case basis. They are highly discretionary and ordinarily require an interview at the local district office where the conditional resident resides.

If you are English and have to return to England, where is the hardship? You have a child and can work out the custody of that child with its mother if you were to go back to England so that is not grounds. Okay it is a hardship to you not to see the child 3.5 days a week (what a convoluted and hard thing to put a child through no matter its age) but you can petition for holidays and school summer vacations. You can still visit the US to see the child.

Are you telling us that since 2014, you have NOT worked at all. Your degree in finance was wasted and you never were able to find gainful employment and lived off your wife's earnings? That's not bad as it would mean you were a stay at home father which is a full job in and of itself. But you only filed one tax return in all of this time with your spouse? Even without income you gain an extra deduction by filing married joint.

Why are you having difficulty with credit? You posted one thread in 2014 and walked away from a great resource. The are many ways to gain credit that the forum members could have helped you with.

When exactly did you divorce? Have you ever worked? The USCIS wants proof of an ongoing marriage up until the time of dissolution of the marriage. It doesn't have to be a lease or a mortgage. It could be shared health benefits, life insurance policies, shared retirement accounts, shared bank accounts, i.e. checking and/or savings, it is the birth of a child albeit the child was born out of wedlock but it is assumed your name is on the child's birth certificate. Did you file or did your attorney file?

I live in an adjoining to LA and find it difficult to believe that the LA law would not allow your name to be on the deed. My name is not on the mortgage but it is automatic that my name is on the deed. If my husband dies, the house comes to me.

As I said, I am trying to understand but can't wrap my head around what you are telling us.

scrubbedexpat099

Divorce waiver would have been the way to go, still need to show usual stuff about the validity of the marriage but did you not need to do that when you got your GC.

civilservant

While I agree with my fellow BE members that the reason for filing under hardship seems thin, however USCIS has determined that you have failed to even meet the burden of proof for a genuine marriage - this is highly unusual where someone has children and/or a co-mingled life with the ex-spouse.

What exactly did you submit with the I-751 regarding the marriage?

bledgeway

I obtained a secured credit card as well, as well as guidance offline from people in similar situations. The example in my post was a few years back, and my credit score has definitely improved. Although not relevant to the application I was trying to demonstrate the difficulty in co-mingling finances when you are actively being prevented from doing so.

In Louisiana. When we first moved there in Apr 2014 we weren't married, I had just graduated college and was on OPT visa. Finding employment was difficult because companies were unwilling to sponsor a H1B visa. We married in Aug 2014 and then moved into a house in Nov 2014. The mortgage lender told us my lack of credit history would impact the application and reduce the amount of money that could be borrowed.

I can see how it looks. The circumstances and how things have fallen in place are tricky and unconventional. I came to the US and started college here while she had just finished an MA and was getting on the career ladder. Unfortunately I can't file the application with the benefit of hindsight, and I can't submit evidence that simply isn't there.

No joint accounts. There was joint health insurance through her work, she was the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, there's a cell phone family plan with both of us on including her mum and brother, there's a joint tax return we filed in 2014, and we have drivers licenses with the address of the house that was in her name.

Thanks

You are not the first person to tell me they are surprised at the legal advice I was given. The advice we received never expressed in strong terms that a hardship waiver would be very difficult to prove. With the final divorce judgement, joint stipulation containing custody agreement and the binding consent judgement signed by the judge, we were informed that would provide the backbone of our application.

It depends against which part of the criteria you are judging it by. Am I heading back into a war-zone/conflict? No. Do I face persecution due to politics/religion? No. Will I struggle to find a job? No. Would it be a major disruption to family life? Yes. Psychologically, would it have a profound impact on the well being of myself and child? Yes, absolutely. There is no alternative custody agreement to be worked out, it is already in place in the form of a joint stipulation which has been signed into law by a judge. This is no dominant parent. Time is shared equally. We pay for half of everything relating to our daughter (school/health/clothing/extra-curricular) - and proving the flow of money and money transfers between myself and my ex-wife is simple. If I was to be removed from the US then how would these documents be executed? Surely I am no longer bound by US law, and if in theory financial payments were no longer obliged would it not be a hardship on my ex-wife and daughter to be unable to cover that? What about the mental state of a child who no longer understands why her father isn't the mainstay of her life?

I strongly disagree that our way of co-operating is convoluted and it's a burden on our daughter. A lengthy drawn out court battle is convoluted. Using your children as bargaining chips & not allowing children a relationship with willing parents is something else entirely. Every child needs a mum and a dad. Being an absent father is right at the bottom of my list of what is acceptable. We've done it this way for as long as she has known, and contrary to having a detrimental impact, she is a thriving & vibrant kid. As I stated in my original post, I was looking for guidance and advice - flippant opinions without any context just detract from the conversation and are irrelevant. Moving forward I just want to stay on topic.



No, I have worked. We filed one tax return in 2014. The following year we separated and filed separately up until our divorce. She was advised it would be financially better to do it that way.

I stated there was an issue at the time with people using a lack of credit history against me. I was trying to demonstrate the fact that co-mingling things wasn't as easy for me as it was for other people - therefore evidence which could have been an advantage now just isn't there. I am just relaying some of the reasons in this thread as to why it happened that way. As stated above in response to another poster, I was advised to get a secured credit card, and have been able to take other steps in the meantime to slowly improve it. I agree that this forum is a good resource. I just happened to use other sources that gave me good advice.

The divorce was finalized in Feb 2017. Yes, I have worked. There are some pieces of evidence which I listed in another answer above this one which I am collecting to submit - and yes, my name is listed on the birth certificate. I filed the application - the same as I did for F-1, OPT & the conditional Green Card. The irony is this time I actually paid for legal advice and have run into problems. I will however be using an attorney from this point on.

I can't shed anymore light on this for you. The mortgage company explained their position and at that point I wasn't involved in the sale. I'm aware there is a big lack of major evidence, particularly financial - I graduated college in Dec 2013 and didn't work for a while while we moved states with her job. It was May 2014 when I finally got a job. I was making $, she was making $$$$....all of my money just went out the door on groceries and consumables. There was nothing there to co-mingle which is why most of the joint stuff we have were health/life benefits through her work. By the time I was making the kind of money which could significantly contribute or support s household we were in the 1 year separation period and living at different places.

Yes, we did. Which is why I find it strange that the evidence was sufficient to obtain the conditional GC and prove the marriage in the first instance.

I'll admit there are documents I should have submitted in hindsight, and luckily now I have the chance to file them. For instance, I submitted the tax return as evidence for the conditional GC, but didn't submit it as part of the I-751. I thought proof of good marriage had already been met - but it was an oversight on my part to not include that. Marriage certificate, daughter's birth certificate, final divorce judgement, joint stipulation and consent judgement are what was filed along with the usual application forms and copies of licenses/cards. To be honest, my mind was focused more on proving hardship because that was the route the legal advice suggested. The way they laid it out, obtaining the final divorce judgement and the joint stipulation regarding our child was going to be the big evidence. Given the responses I have got, that doesn't seem to be the case.