Profligatesniper

My wife is American, we met and married abroad, and in 2005 we came to
live in US. I got a conditional resident card, which should be renewed
around August this year. Unfortunately, things did not work out, and we
separated recently. Nobody filed for divorce. We are still friends, and
see each other.

My question is: how screwed up am I? I would like to stay here, I
have already established here, and enjoy living in US. I am sure my
wife would be willing to go to the interview with me, to assure that
our marriage was in good faith. Should I go alone or with her to the
interview? Will I have a hard time? What should I do?

Thank you very much for any input.

--

Noorah101

If you guys are separated and not planning on continuing your married life together, she should not attend the interview with you. Unfortunately, USCIS sees things in black & white. You either have to be in a current, bona-fide marriage, and your separation is only temporary (due to work or school, for example).....or you have to be divorced and have the divorce decree to prove it. Right now you are in limbo, and USCIS has no category for removing conditions for someone in your case. However, someone who is divorced is allowed to file the I-751 on their own, provided they can prove the marriage was entered into in good faith, which sounds like you can prove. But you can't file the I-751 until you have the divorce decree in-hand. If you don't get the divorce decree in-hand before your time expires for filing the I-751, USCIS will allow you to file late, since you were just waiting for the divorce decree to be issued.

You either need to get back together with your wife and have a viable, ongoing marriage, so you can attend the interview together.....or you need to go ahead and get divorced so you can file the I-751 on your own.

Best Wishes,
Rene

[email protected]

On May 11, 10:34 am, profligatesniper
<[email protected]> wrote:
> My wife is American, we met and married abroad, and in 2005 we came to
> live in US. I got a conditional resident card, which should be renewed
> around August this year. Unfortunately, things did not work out, and we
> separated recently. Nobody filed for divorce. We are still friends, and
> see each other.
>
> My question is: how screwed up am I? I would like to stay here, I
> have already established here, and enjoy living in US. I am sure my
> wife would be willing to go to the interview with me, to assure that
> our marriage was in good faith. Should I go alone or with her to the
> interview? Will I have a hard time? What should I do?
>
> Thank you very much for any input.
>
> --

If your wife is willing to sign the I-751 ; and willing to show up at
the interview (if interview there is), then you should be okay.
Otherwise, you would be better off divorced.

Bring your wife with you to the interview. Say the truth, only the
truth, but not the whole truth: If I were you, I would try to
represent ouselves as husband/wifes (who are going thru tough times,
but intend to remain together), rather than merely friends, as long as
you can do so without explicitely lying.

wildestkabs

That borders on the fraudulent, if not fraudulent already.

[email protected]

>
> That borders on the fraudulent, if not fraudulent already.
>
> --
> Posted viahttp://britishexpats.com- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Under which basis?

[email protected]

An attorney who came often on the forum used to say:

"The correct answer to the question "Do you know what time it is?" is
either Yes or No"

Noorah101

However, if this is not the truth (they do NOT live together, they are NOT in a bona fide marriage), if they represent themselves as such, then would that not be willfull misrepresentation? That does not sound like a good idea to me.

Rene

wildestkabs

What you are saying in the above quoted post merely means that answer just the question that has been asked and don't offer information that has not been asked for.

The other post of yours implies material misrepresentation.

The two things are totally unrelated.

Rete

And the I-751 explicitly asks if you are still married and living together in a harmonious commingled fashion.

Your suggestion as to what you would do is answering the question with a "yes" when the true answer is "no"

[email protected]

I didn't recommend them to say that they were living together.

Also, their marriage was entered in good faith (what is your
definition of "bona fide marriage"?).

I didn't recommend the OP to lie. And the OP and his wife are still
husband and wife from any objective standpoint. Actually, at this
point, there is no way to say if the two of them will get back
together or not - sure, a lot of people have opinions (including the
two of them) but nobody knows for sure.

I didn't recommend the OP to lie. If you think I did, please quote the
part of my message in which you think I did.

[email protected]

Now, question: If the morning before the interview, I engage in a
fight with my wife, let's say because she believes that the way I cook
breakfast sucks. And I wish she would no longer be part of my life ...

Would it be fraudulent to show up together at the interview?

Now, let's say that the fight occured a week before the interview and
I spend a few nights back in my parents house ; Would it be fraudulent
to show up together at the interview?

wildestkabs

I don't think that really matters. The OP has clearly indicated that they are separated, and since CIS sees things only in black and white, he'd be well advised to disclose the truth to them. Your post suggests otherwise, and therein, lies the problem.

Do you get it?

Noorah101

The OP said "unfortunately, things did not work out, and we separated recently". This, to me, suggests the marriage is over already. Otherwise he would have said "we are having some marital trouble and are trying to work it out".

The OP also says that his wife is "willing to go to the interview with me, to assure that
our marriage was in good faith". That's not what the interview is for. The interview is for the officer to see that they are *currently* in a valid marriage, not one where they entered in good faith and are now separated. The "good faith marriage" proof is only needed when the OP gets divorced, files the I-751 on his own, and gets called for an interview alone.

The scenarios you suggested are quite different, in my opinion.

Rene

wildestkabs

No it is not, in neither case. The point however is that the OP, most likely is not separated because he, on one fine morning, got into a fight with his wife because she did not like the way he cooked breakfast!!

It is in the larger scheme of things. Lots of things must have happened over a period of time, leading to a separation. Regardless of whether it is repairable or irreparable, fact of the matter is that they are separated, and any information provided contrary to that is material misrepresentation.

wildestkabs

Some things are explicit and some things are implied.

You said:

and you also said

You mention that you did not recommend that they say that they live together but yet furnish all of the information quoted above, meaning, tell CIS that they are married, are husband and wife, show up together, blah, blah, blah. How on earth are they supposed to do that without implying, either implicitly, or explicitly, that they are *NOT* living together?

More importantly, how is CIS supposed to come to the conclusion that even though they are married, they might not necessarily be living together? Therefore, your recommendation implicitly asked them to inform CIS, and for CIS to implicitly assume that they were living together, unless explicitly explained otherwise.