Budlight

I am married with an American citizen and have F-1 visa. My spouse
has not paid child-support for previous marriage and received an
arrest for warrant. My friend told me that INS will deny to issue GC
for me even my spouse has enough income to be my sponsor for GC
because my spouse has not paid child-support. Is it true? If so, is
there any way that I can solve this problem?

Folinskyinla

Hi:

1. Not true
2. He should pay the child support

Dekka's Angel

I cannot speak to the immigration consequences of this situation, but I can say that to cure the arrest warrant portion he needs to surrender himself. I second Folinskyinla's advice about how to address the larger problem of his delinquent child support.

Let's be blunt. Most folks owing child support are never arrested because warrants never issue. That is in the prosecutor's discretion and because hundreds of thousands of non-custodial parents do not pay their child support, there are simply no resources to prosecute them.

The remedies of bench warrant and/or arrest and/or incarceration in the child support context are reserved for the most egregious violators: the deliberate non-payers, the evaders (i.e those who deliberately change identities, jobs or move from a state to avoid support order's enforcement) and the contemnors (those who a court has found have willfully refused to pay despite means to pay). In each case, the person has no cognizable excuse whatsoever for non-payment -- except callous disregard of their own children.

Needless to say, my concern about reassuring him that he can still sponsor a new bride for immigration purposes when he doesn't care if his own kids eat is therefore approaching 0.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

You echoed my thoughts exactly and expressed what I was thinking when I wrote the succinct item #2.

The other thought -- and this not a "legal" one -- I believe that a person contemplating marriage to another person who can't be bothered to support their children should give a LOT of thought to the character of the person they are marrying.

Mrtravel

budlight wrote:
    > I am married with an American citizen and have F-1 visa. My spouse
    > has not paid child-support for previous marriage and received an
    > arrest for warrant. My friend told me that INS will deny to issue GC
    > for me even my spouse has enough income to be my sponsor for GC
    > because my spouse has not paid child-support. Is it true? If so, is
    > there any way that I can solve this problem?

(on the chance this is real)

The problem can be solved by paying the child support. No mystery there.
If he has an arrest warrant, why hasn't he been arrested?
If he has money to support an immigrant, then he should have money to
support his child (or children)..........

I don't know if USCIS will deny the greencard for this, but they should.

Scottyj

[email protected] (budlight) wrote in message news:<[email protected]. com>...
    > I am married with an American citizen and have F-1 visa. My spouse
    > has not paid child-support for previous marriage and received an
    > arrest for warrant. My friend told me that INS will deny to issue GC
    > for me even my spouse has enough income to be my sponsor for GC
    > because my spouse has not paid child-support. Is it true? If so, is
    > there any way that I can solve this problem?

There is nothing that you can do unless you pay his back child
support. Your Spouse needs to clear up the Child Support issue to
avoid arrest. Did your spouse tell you he was deliquent in Child
Support when you married? If not that does not show very good
Charecter, why did he not support his kids? . He probably needs an
attorney. Good luck, I think you will need it.

Scott

Maryanne Kehoe

Whoa people, lets slow down here.......we don't know the CIRCUMSTANCES
of the delinquent child support (i.e. extended period of unemployment
for example.)

Let's not be so quick to judge here.

Mrtravel

maryanne kehoe wrote:
    > Whoa people, lets slow down here.......we don't know the CIRCUMSTANCES
    > of the delinquent child support (i.e. extended period of unemployment
    > for example.)
    >
    > Let's not be so quick to judge here.
    >

He has an arrest warrant... This means something.
If he was unemployed, then he would have gone to court to deal with the
judge. The judge isn't going to put him in jail for being unemployed
and not able to pay.

Maryanne Kehoe

I hear what you are saying mrtravel, this would happen in a perfect
world but there are a lot of vindictive ex-wives out there to bleed guys
dry.

Here in Georgia if a warrant is going to be issued for child support,
usually it has to be for a minimum amount. It costs time and $$$ to get
a warrant and they aren't going to do it for small amounts (I would say
under $5000, but depends on the judge.)




Re: GC with CHildsupport Enforcement

Group: alt.visa.us.marriage-based Date: Mon, Nov 17, 2003, 9:26pm
(EST+5) From: [email protected] (mrtravel)
maryanne kehoe wrote:
Whoa people, lets slow down here.......we don't know the CIRCUMSTANCES
of the delinquent child support (i.e. extended period of unemployment
for example.)
Let's not be so quick to judge here.
He has an arrest warrant... This means something. If he was unemployed,
then he would have gone to court to deal with the judge. The judge isn't
going to put him in jail for being unemployed and not able to pay.

Mrtravel

maryanne kehoe wrote:

    > I hear what you are saying mrtravel, this would happen in a perfect
    > world but there are a lot of vindictive ex-wives out there to bleed guys
    > dry.
    >
    > Here in Georgia if a warrant is going to be issued for child support,
    > usually it has to be for a minimum amount. It costs time and $$$ to get
    > a warrant and they aren't going to do it for small amounts (I would say
    > under $5000, but depends on the judge.)

Even if the ex-wife is vindictive, it would be unusual for a judge to
issue an arrest warrant without good reason. If the guy is unemployed,
then he goes to court and explains the problem. Since the OP didn't
specify the reason for him not paying, I am going to assume the MOST
common reason for non payment and in the case of the warrant, assume
that it has been going on for a while. In any case, the man is going
to file an I-164 to say he is responsible for supporting an immigrant,
so he should be held to supporting his children first.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

A lot of enforcement actions are when the custodial spouse is compelled to go onto welfare. Local governments try to get reimbursed for that. May some District Attorneys are "vindictive ex-wifes" -- but just gives the motivation I guess to do their jobs better.

Leslie

The "vindictive ex-wife" does not set the rate. The courts do, based on the father's income. It can be adjusted by the courts if there is an increase/decrease in the father's income. Like Folinskyinla said, they usually go after the dead-beat dad when the mother is collecting welfare. The government is a lot more vindictive than ex-wives.

Leslie

Dekka's Angel

Baloney - this person deserves judging.

Here is fact, not opinion: No woman can "bleed a guy" (or vice versa, let's not be sexist) dry when it comes to child support -- the law does that, in every state. A custodial parent can scream all he or she wants about wanting "more" and they will still end up with not a penny more than state-scheduled child support, adjusted only by those statutory factors which are permitted.

Where non-custodial parents have their beef is that the schedule does not care about all the expenses that a non-custodial parent *thinks* are important. Thus, nobody cares that there is a car payment, or that they want to live in a "decent" area so have to pay more rent, or that they like eating out rather than cooking at home, or want to occasionally go out and have some fun or go to the dry cleaners. The paramount public policy is that for the purposes of determining child support, everything you spend except for your taxes and child support owing to other children who were born earlier is disregarded. This is recognition of the principle that your kids are supposed to come first, since they didn't choose to be here, you chose to have them, they need food, clothing and shelter which it is your job to provide, and they are entitled to live life at the best standard that their parents collectively can provide, since it is not their fault their parents' marriage broke up. No matter how unfair noncustodial parents think the rules are, it is very hard to argue with the fundamental truth they reflect, IMO.

Based on my experience, NO arrest warrant issues just for "failing to pay" child support, even when it's a situation where recovery of public benefits is involved. Criminal remedies are truly reserved for someone who is EVADING (i.e. changing jobs when garnishment orders issue, changing names, etc.) or otherwise willfully refusing to pay. But even then it's only after someone has demonstrated to a judge that he can afford it (as the law defines affordability -- see above).

I have never seen a DA act vindictively about this matter. To the contrary, many are unbelievably nice since they have thousands of these cases to resolve and de minimis resources, so they accept pennies on the dollar to close cases, sometimes. But even if a DA was vindictive, he or she STILL has to still get a judge's seal of approval for an arrest warrant (as opposed to civil orders, like lien, driver's license revocation, garnishment etc). And in family court, the standard for avoiding jail under one is pretty low - all a person has to do is show incapacity to pay.

You'd be surprised how hard it is to get someone actually arrested for failure to pay child support. It's easier to get them arrested for bouncing a check to Safeway or for failing to pay a traffic ticket.

Reservation of judgment is best reserved for those who actually have meritorious arguments on their side. Anyone who knows anything about how the child support enforcement system actually works knows that the OP's husband is yet another non-custodial parent who would rather spend money on his new honey than on the lives he helped bring into the world. I will happily judge that type of person, as most people should IMO.

Hypertweeky

That makes me really mad, why can one support and immigrant but can't pay child support?, That is crap, Sorry guys but I am mad

cindyabs

It's like anything else, if you find yourself in difficult circumstances financially you are always advised to work with your creditors. That's what a responsible person does.