Like someone said on this forum, as long as the marriage was entered in good faith, then there should be no problem. it was a good faith marriage that went rocky rather quickly.
Just for clarification, what or how does one prove to authorities that marriage was in good faith?
what are the fundamental things they look at?
Thanks in advance.
believe or not, the economical situation of this country does matter. the immigration office goal is not to determine wether you are eligible or not, it is to score the highest denial rate.
unfortunately, humans (OP) are making decisions in your file and very often they based their decision on emotions, prejudice, or even skewing evidence to support denial. if they dont like you, everything in your file can "prove" your marriage was not a bona fide: "photos are staged", all joint mail is "a simple task to put someones name", joint lease "is not a proof you live together", cancelled checks "looks suspicious", etc. on some cases the Board of Immigration finally cleans up after District Director's mess approving cases, but who wants to be put in time and emotion-based waiting line for 2 years?
as of your file, if for any reason OP dont like you (for example you were married before, you have criminal record, you traveled to we-dont-like-those-places countries, you have a child from outside you marriage, etc) the OP will do his best to deny. His/her denial can be very biased, but still denial is denial as this system works on approve/denial basis. Later, nobody cares _why_ you were denied - it only matters you were denied. period.
You marriage went "rocky rather quickly". In your example, the OP will try to prove you are not living in this country (or being married) long enough that you have some roots and need to stay here and cant live back at your homecountry. You tried to migrate based on marriage. Now, marriage is over, OP will try to denied any further benefits. Most likely they will put a lot of pressure on your wife (so she can put some dirt/shame on you which will make it easy to deny), since most marriages - when it comes to divorce, they obviously hate eachother, so make sure your wife can write nice affidavits telling you are a good guy, you go to the church, you dont drink, etc etc, oh make sure all this is true. - example with church, get letter from the priest that he sees you in the church often. Get affidavits from your neighbors stating you are a good man, helpful, friendly, etc. Anything that can help. But like I said, if OP wants to deny they will deny no matter how stupid their opinion sound. Remember it is a government, USCIS, "Service" making decision -- not a person that signs his/her name on the letter so you come back and ask why", therefore "USCIS" as an organization's decision can sound very ridiciolous sometimes, and it does. But this adding evidence to your file will help Board to make favorable decision.
You wrote "as long as marriage was entered in a good faith, you should be fine". Well, unfortunately, the immigration manual book does not exactly states what "good faith marriage" is. For one OP, it is two people getting together and marrying. Period. For other, if marriage end up quickly with divorce, it was "never entered into good faith, as you and beneficiary were blind, fall in love, and could not foresee what everyone else could see that your marriage to beneficiary will end up quickly". This lets OP skew the evidence enough to deny. You have to be careful with that "good faith" and make sure you got all type of evidence back to day # one you met, to prove your marriage was entered into "extremly good faith". And yes, make sure you got all type of evidence showing you two met before, spend time together, etc, everything before marriage point is important.
