committed fraud way back 2003 and now applying Citizenship...

P

pinaypride

Registered Users (C)
Hi Everyone,

I was about to send my N-400 application but im kind of hesitant because of my previous record with immigration...
here's my story...

Married someone to come to the United States, got Divorced and overstayed for 4 months after divorced was granted, then i was arrested and detained overnight, judge grant me voluntary departure but married the love of my life before i left the US...present husband petition me, waited for 3 yrs because of the previous immigration issues but granted visa and just had my GC and now im wondering if i need a lawyer or should i just provide all the court paper and just be honest filling up the application...please help...TIA
 
pinaypride said:
Hi Everyone,

I was about to send my N-400 application but im kind of hesitant because of my previous record with immigration...
here's my story...

Married someone to come to the United States, got Divorced and overstayed for 4 months after divorced was granted, then i was arrested and detained overnight, judge grant me voluntary departure but married the love of my life before i left the US...present husband petition me, waited for 3 yrs because of the previous immigration issues but granted visa and just had my GC and now im wondering if i need a lawyer or should i just provide all the court paper and just be honest filling up the application...please help...TIA
Click to expand...

I think you may have a tough time getting through if you apply based on 3 year marriage. You are likely to have a better shot with the 5 year rule. Would suggest you take the opinion of an attorney though. Of course the pros here will provide a lot of useful insight too.
 
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What kind of fraud? What was the length of the prison sentence? There are many details involved to determine whether your offense makes you deportable or disqualifies you from naturalization.
 
pinaypride said:
Hi Everyone,

I was about to send my N-400 application but im kind of hesitant because of my previous record with immigration...
here's my story...

Married someone to come to the United States, got Divorced and overstayed for 4 months after divorced was granted, then i was arrested and detained overnight, judge grant me voluntary departure but married the love of my life before i left the US...present husband petition me, waited for 3 yrs because of the previous immigration issues but granted visa and just had my GC and now im wondering if i need a lawyer or should i just provide all the court paper and just be honest filling up the application...please help...TIA
Click to expand...

Did you fraudulent marry your first husband to come to US? Or did you get arrested for overstaying your visa?
 
I think the fraud OP is referencing is in her first line: 'Married someone to come to the United States', as in the first marriage was for immigration purposes.
 
First married was fraud...thats why it took me 3 years to come back to United States when my present husband petitioned me...
The ex husband filed complaint to the Immigration after the Divorced was already granted because i overstayed they arrested me for fraud and overstay thats whats on the paper but the Immigration judge granted me voluntary departure...and now im ready to apply citizenship based on 3 year marriage with US Citizen...
 
Was your original issue (fraud/arrest/judge/vol departure) disclosed during your latest GC processing ? From your writing "thats why it took 3 years", it seems you disclosed it, just wanted to see if you fully disclose the issue at your latest GC processing ?
 
yes i did answer (yes) to the question, Have you been arrested....and submitted a copy of my court documents...
 
I think it would be good to get the help of a lawyer. In my completely non-authoritative opinion I would say that because you had that issue in the past, it might be better to wait a bit longer to have better prove that your current marriage is bona fide. It seems the previous problem is outside of the statutory period, so that might work in your favor. If you go ahead and apply now I would expect extra questioning from the IO to make sure the current marriage is in good faith. Again, this is a completely uneducated guess. I don't think I've ever seen a similar case in this forum.
 
pinaypride said:
just had my GC and now im wondering if i need a lawyer or should i just provide all the court paper and just be honest filling up the application...please help...TIA
Click to expand...

When did you get your GC? Your three-year clock starts from that date, not the date of your marriage.
 
pinaypride said:
waited for 3 yrs because of the previous immigration issues but granted visa and just had my GC
Click to expand...

If you "just had your GC" as stated above you will have to wait for 3 years before you can file for citizenship based on marriage. I think it will be a little tricky to get an approval based on marriage to a citizen since you were already convicted in the past for this reason. If you can elaborate your exact situation with dates (mm/yy) and the nature of your arrest it will be easier for everyone to provide guidance.
 
I'm confused.
You married your first husband to for immigration purposes, but you overstayed after divorce?

To me, that doesn't make sense. What visa were you on that you overstayed? How did you enter the country the first time?
 
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The GC i have is the 10 year Green Card i did the I-751 not too long ago...
I overstayed because i just dont know what to do before and just waited what will happened next until Immigration showed up infront of our door to arrest me, that time i was already out of status since the divorced with the first marriage was already granted, by the way my visa with my first marriage was K-1 and the present marriage is CR-1.
 
So you entered on the K-1 and prior to the AOS interview you got divorced and didn't leave the country?
That's not as bad as it first sounded. I forget which section of the INA it is, perhaps someone else knows, but once you obtain a family based immigrant visa fraudulently you are prohibited from getting another family based immigrant visa (K is non-immigrant). Since you never adjusted your status to PR with your first marriage, it likely saved you from exclusion on the second marriage.

Your previous indiscretion concerned a visa overstay, which, I dont think, is a big deal. Yes, you were accused of fraud previously, but those allegations were never substantiated. You voluntarily left the country, which you would have had to have done anyway given that you were out of status and had no prospect of getting back in status because you were divorced.

The biggest issue, I think, for you is how will you answer the question on the n-400 that concerns lying to an immigration officer. I assume you lied to the consulate regarding your K visa petition.... If you admit it, I'd be surprised if you got approved. If you lie, again, and don't check that box, you'll probably get through.
 
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I dont think i lied... with all the paperwork i submitted with my present marriage (CR-1 and I-751) coz everytime there is a question Have you ever been arrested, detained....i always check the yes box and provided my court documents regarding my removal proceedings way back in 2003...
 
Sorry, I wasn't very clear. I meant lied regarding the K visa for your first marriage that got you into the country. I thought for K visas you had to be interviewed at the consulate in your home country. That's what I was referring to.
 
yes i lied with my first visa and admitted that i committed fraud but somehow i thought that was already resolved since i got this far with my present marriage...i was denied for visa once because consulate thought this present marriage is again fix or fraud but passed through all that because this time i got married in good faith...i am so stressing out right now especially since my husband received his Permanent Change of Station to Okinawa with me and i just want to get my citizenship before we go overseas...
 
Please help me...i cant afford to get a lawyer and i have had a very bad experience with them...dont know where else to go...
 
What month and year was your current GC approved? That is, since when are you a permanent resident? How many months have you been married to your current US citizen husband? In order to apply for citizenship under the marriage rule you have to have been married to your US citizen husband for full 3 years at the time of application and you have to have your GC for at least 3 years minus 90 days. Both conditions have to be met. N-400 will take about 3 to 5 months. I believe there are provision for spouses of military deployed overseas to naturalize abroad. Of course it might be easier to do it here. If your current marriage is bona fide I think you have a good chance of succeeding. However, nobody here is going to be a substitute for a good lawyer. You can try to apply and see what happens, chances are you'll be approved, and if you are denied chances are it won't affect your GC anyway.

I found this link about spouses of military. I am not sure whether this is current information. I hope it helps:

http://legalassistance.law.af.mil/content/legal_assistance/cp/svcmbr_family_immigration.htm

Better yet, check out this page from USCIS:

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/us...nnel=68439c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD
 
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