anyone plz help this poor soul

[robbin]

Here is my story:

I got married to a Permanent resident in 2001 March, He applied I 130 for me. We had our ceremonies , reception and honeymoon and started to live a happy life as husband and wife. In November 2002, we came to know that the priest who said earlier that he would file our marriage certificate in court, did not do that. So our one is a common-law marriage now. We became shocked and once again got married in Houston Court. Then we supplied the new marriage certificates to INS to back up our I-130

This year my husband became US citizen and upgraded my I-130 file to I 485( adjustment of status) , I cleared my fingerprints, recieved my work authorization card and got a notice for the interview for green card on July 29th.

Yeseterday I got a notice from INS regarding my I-130 , that the Texas Service Center has moved my file of I130 to California Service Center for speed processing

What does that mean? We upgraded our I130 and thought they approved that , so they sent me work permit and sceduled me for GC interview. Are the two files going parallel? Can they deport me if they don't approve our common law marriage( the one we did by religious ceremony and could not file due to the priest's mistake)? Under Texas law--- common law marriages must be approved for GC if
1) the couple have been living together as husband -wife
2) Introduced themselves as husband and wife to the world
3)Has intention to marry at the court of law

Which we did.

What should I do now? Plz anyone help me with some advice. We love each other so much and was planning to have a baby next year, now everything is cloudy. Thanks for your patience and reading my story till this point.

 

[LucyMO]

since you filed I-130 and I-485 separately, they will be adjudicated separately. Nothing to it. My case as well. If I-130 is not approved before I-485, it will be approved at the same time with I-485.

 

[robbin]

Thank you much my friend. So ,I'll just wait for my I485 interview in july. and hope for the best.

 

[LucyMO]

what I am wondering about is how did you manage to file I-130 without a copy of your official marriage certificate????

 

[robbin]

We filed I-30 with the marriage certificate the religious institution supplied us at the day of our marriage.( The Al Noor mosque at houston). We were very unlucky, because we were about to go to the court and file our marriage, but then the minister said to my brother that we don't need to worry about those things, they take care of every formalities. We were novish and spent our energy and time in the 3 days ceremony and reception and when we showed the marriage certificate to our lawyer , he didn't advise anything either and filed I130 with our religious marriage certificate.

The Next year( 2002) we read in a newspaper that any marriage in USA must be filed in the court. We called the mosque and found out they didn't do it All they needed to do is to document the marriage certificate they provided us in the court. Since they didn't do it, The next week we had to get our marriage license again and remarry in Houston court. In my conservative society, living together is looked down upon as bad,and now my marriage is like we did living together( common law marriage) then got married according to Texas law

I know it's very unusual and sad , but that's what happened to me.

 

[LucyMO]

perhaps, the mosque could still file your first marriage certificate, and you didn't have to remarry. since the ceremony was performed by an officiant, I'd say it's still a real (not common law marriage). Good luck with your AOS!

 

[dip92]

We filed I-30 with the marriage certificate the religious institution supplied us at the day of our marriage.( The Al Noor mosque at houston). We were very unlucky, because we were about to go to the court and file our marriage, but then the minister said to my brother that we don't need to worry about those things, they take care of every formalities. We were novish and spent our energy and time in the 3 days ceremony and reception and when we showed the marriage certificate to our lawyer , he didn't advise anything either and filed I130 with our religious marriage certificate.

The Next year( 2002) we read in a newspaper that any marriage in USA must be filed in the court. We called the mosque and found out they didn't do it All they needed to do is to document the marriage certificate they provided us in the court. Since they didn't do it, The next week we had to get our marriage license again and remarry in Houston court. In my conservative society, living together is looked down upon as bad,and now my marriage is like we did living together( common law marriage) then got married according to Texas law

I know it's very unusual and sad , but that's what happened to me.

Hello,

As a Muslim wedding you don't need to go to court and get married again. All you need to do all the procedure in the Mosque and bring that certificate from Imam (of course he has license to do that) to local city/town/village hall and they will give you the wedding certificate. It's a very simple and easy process and they will register you immediately. I did that way.

Dip