Help! Law Suit ruining GC chances?

[jac8724]

Hi everyone, I wanted to post my problem on the forum here because everyone seems so knowledgeable.

My husband and I are facing a little nightmare and I'm not sure if there is anything we can do. Im the petitioner.

We got married in January of this year and about 3 weeks ago finally got our whole packet of paperwork for the GC submitted. We already received the notice that they got it. We were hoping he could get travel clearance to see his family by Xmas.

The 2 years previous to our marriage my husband lived with a roommate who was terrible- she scammed him out of every dollar she possibly could (and he's a nice guy/pushover). I just started law school and I knew he could legally recover for the utility bills she forced him to put all in his named and never paid a dollar on. While he was living with her, and he was out of status, sometimes when he asked her to pay her bills she threatened to call immigration on him.

Well now that we are married I put together the whole law suit and when he went to court last week, her defense was that she didnt have to pay the bills because he was illegal, he has a fake marriage, and an ICE complaint against him. On the podium where she was standing was a post-it with the ICE complaint case number and the date she called and made the complaint about our "fake marriage". Not only was this complaint to the ICE made by her in retaliation for us suing her, but she called in the complaint the same day she received a court summons from us.

She made statements in court that made him look like a terrorist and rapist, stating that he prays on women, uses them, has all kinds of fake ids, she said he beats me, and that I am using him for money. All of which are complete lies and this is probably what she told the ICE. The fake id statement was made because his OPT card had his name spelled wrong, which was not his fault, and i think we had an addendum in our GC packet clarifying this.

What do we do?!?!?! I cannot afford any charges brought against me as I am in law school, I wont be able to practice then, and still be buried in 100K plus debt from it. More importantly what if i lose my husband to deportation? If there is any justice in this country hopefully that wont happen. But will this delay our paperwork making it impossible for him to see his family for Xmas for the first time in 4 years???

Im super worried please help with any info you might know!

 

[LucyMO]

I would worry less about seeing his family for Christmas. And start worrying about all the false allegations and disproving them. You are in law school, you should know better.

 

[constructus]

This is the heart talking here, not the brain. I am not a lawyer just giving my POV.

Was the money really that important? By that I mean did you guys really need to get that money back?

If no I would try first to talk (free consultation) to a lawyer and see if you cannot drop your suit against her with no loss towards you guys. Don't just try to withdraw your suit just ask a lawyer and if that's possible make sure in the settlement she cannot counter sue you still.

You may have to pay some fees I guess.

This is a business/finance/econ guy talking, so I do not know what to do, but I personally would probably do what I said, because I wouldn't want to have anything negative said about my AOS to ICE because IT COULD delay your case or raise some red flags.

A successful AOS is going to give you more in return then getting back a few bills money. By that I mean first of all you won't be separated from your husband, and once he can work legally he will make more money than what she owes him.

Just my POV.

 

[constructus]

As the previous poster said, you shouldn't be focused on traveling now, but resolving that situation.

 

[fff_666]

If you are together in the process I don't think that woman
can ruin your application and marriage. What's to her to
decide?

By the way how much debt are you talking about?


I wish you the best, hopefully justice will be done soon.

 

[jac8724]

Well we won our lawsuit, but only recovered half of what we were asking for so now in retrospect I wouldn't have filed the suit if i knew she was going to do such a heinous thing over a couple hundred bucks. And i was the one who told him to sue her so now i feel terrible that all this happened.

She just took advantage of him for thousands of dollars I felt like trying to atleast recover something was the right thing to do. This girl goes around using everyone and stealing from them so more lawsuits are going to come her way im sure. I called immigration and asked them if there was anything we could do, like write a letter, and they said no. So were supposed to just sit and wait? What is going to happen? Geez what a mess.

 

[new_member12]

I wouldn't drop the case because if you do, you will prove her right. In addition they claimed to have already called the immigration.

Whether or not your husband was illegal doesn't give her the right to live for free when she is supposed to be paying or take advantage of him. If she thought he was abusing or praying on her or other women, she should have called the cops right then like a regular citizen would have done. It looks suspicious to me that she is bringing all these things after been summoned for the lawsuit. The Judge will see that.

He is now your husband, and the responsibility to prove that your marriage is a good faith marriage dwells on you not on her nor her attorney. Continue your case on the basis of the law and don't back off you just because you're afraid.
The immigration officers are not stupid. They know that there are people out there taking advantage of immigrants and sometime blackmailing them.
If you know your husband is in the truth, you should continue your lawsuit.
This is just my opinion.

 

[constructus]

Oh good, you already won your lawsuit.

Ok, then you cannot remove it. As for the AOS you definetely must continue that. She already has written to immigration officers, so since you are married in good faith, all you will have to do is to prove that it is a legit marriage (photos, bills with both names, leases, ...)

Good luck, everything should be fine since she just was blackmailing him. As the previous poster said a lot of people must be doing that since they think that if a person is illegal, who is he going to complain to. USCIS must have already come uppon such cases, and who knows she may be asked to prove all this or be accused of making false statements and be in trouble herself.

 

[Al Southner]

It is a landmine...

Well we won our lawsuit, but only recovered half of what we were asking for so now in retrospect I wouldn't have filed the suit if i knew she was going to do such a heinous thing over a couple hundred bucks. And i was the one who told him to sue her so now i feel terrible that all this happened.

She just took advantage of him for thousands of dollars I felt like trying to atleast recover something was the right thing to do. This girl goes around using everyone and stealing from them so more lawsuits are going to come her way im sure. I called immigration and asked them if there was anything we could do, like write a letter, and they said no. So were supposed to just sit and wait? What is going to happen? Geez what a mess.

Jac,

First of all, forget about your husband travelling because with these allegations, he can be stopped on his return and barred. ICE and CBP have a greater latitude with screwing people w/o due process of the law at times, so you should only focus on helping your husband disprove these claims.

The burden of proof is always on the applicant and beneficiary, to prove that their marriage relationship is bona fide. From what you post, it appears as if your husband was been muscled by a deadbeat for money and stuff...

As a student of law, you should have waited for your husband's greencard to be adjudicated before starting to recoup all debts from deadbeats...
It is very hard to disprove claims which are done to an agency such as ICE, so you should start compiling list of items to prove your marriage as legitimate. In addition, if your husband in indeed loaded and you are currently in Law school and he's paying, it has a potential to feed into her claim that he's into the marriage for papers, b/c he can spend on you... So, this is a landmine and you should thread carefully....

NB: You husband should not travel overseas until he's issued a plastic greencard. If you screw-up on this issue, you are going to suffer for the next 10 years while is banned or barred forever depending on what ICE does.

 

[Al Southner]

It is a landmine...

Well we won our lawsuit, but only recovered half of what we were asking for so now in retrospect I wouldn't have filed the suit if i knew she was going to do such a heinous thing over a couple hundred bucks. And i was the one who told him to sue her so now i feel terrible that all this happened.

She just took advantage of him for thousands of dollars I felt like trying to atleast recover something was the right thing to do. This girl goes around using everyone and stealing from them so more lawsuits are going to come her way im sure. I called immigration and asked them if there was anything we could do, like write a letter, and they said no. So were supposed to just sit and wait? What is going to happen? Geez what a mess.

Jac,

First of all, forget about your husband travelling because with these allegations, he can be stopped on his return and barred. ICE and CBP have a greater latitude with screwing people w/o due process of the law at times, so you should only focus on helping your husband disprove these claims.

The burden of proof is always on the applicant and beneficiary, to prove that their marriage relationship is bona fide. From what you post, it appears as if your husband was been muscled by a deadbeat for money and stuff...

As a student of law, you should have waited for your husband's greencard to be adjudicated before starting to recoup all debts from deadbeats.
It is very hard to disprove claims which are done to an agency such as ICE, so you should start compiling list of items to prove your marriage as legitimate. In addition, if your husband in indeed loaded and you are currently in law school and he's paying, it has a potential to feed into her claim that he's into the marriage for papers, b/c he can spend on you... So, this is a landmine and you should thread carefully....

NB: You husband should not travel overseas until he's issued a plastic greencard. If you screw-up on this issue, you are going to suffer for the next 10 years while is banned or barred forever depending on what ICE does.

 

[jac8724]

Al Southner, your so right i should have waited till the paperwork went through! I was just doing standard law suit timing, sending a payment demand letter with a deadline for action and filed suit the morning after the deadline. I dont know why i didnt see this coming- the day we left that apartment she was screaming about how she never saw the bills (lies!) so i figured she would come to court with that defense so i prepared for that and not all this mess.

And haha i wish my husband was paying for law school but that is just not the case got my own (huge) pile of loans! I also help pay rent and live modestly so there is nothing like that going on.

So you guys are saying that in my interview i just need to prove that our marriage is legit, and that i dont have to prove that she is a crazy person?

 

[Al Southner]

nail her butt...

Al Southner, your so right i should have waited till the paperwork went through! I was just doing standard law suit timing, sending a payment demand letter with a deadline for action and filed suit the morning after the deadline. I dont know why i didnt see this coming- the day we left that apartment she was screaming about how she never saw the bills (lies!) so i figured she would come to court with that defense so i prepared for that and not all this mess.

And haha i wish my husband was paying for law school but that is just not the case got my own (huge) pile of loans! I also help pay rent and live modestly so there is nothing like that going on.

So you guys are saying that in my interview i just need to prove that our marriage is legit, and that i dont have to prove that she is a crazy person?

If you can prove she is a crazy person, then more power for you. If you can mount a vicious attack on her credibility, to the point where ICE will doubt and suspect her stories, then you will prevail in style, but it doesn't preclude you from proving the legitimacy of your marriage.

If you can nail her ass to the wall by proving she's a nut, then she can be charged with a felony offense for making a false statement to a federal agent, which is punishable by some time behind the slammer... Focus on proving your relationship and finding a way to discredit and impeach her credibility...

 

[austriacus]

I'd say focus on your evidence for a bona fide marriage just like everyone else does. If the USCIS puts any weight on this complaint, the should also have to show how the person is a credible witness. It's not like you submitted her complaint into the evidence yourself. I'd say having won this civil judgement against her is one proof you already have that she's not credible. But if you have the usual evidence that everyone has (living together, common leases, property, accounts, insurance, all the answers to interview questions, yada yada) I would find it hard to believe they would not approve your application.

 

[aymannada]

Al Southner, your so right i should have waited till the paperwork went through! I was just doing standard law suit timing, sending a payment demand letter with a deadline for action and filed suit the morning after the deadline. I dont know why i didnt see this coming- the day we left that apartment she was screaming about how she never saw the bills (lies!) so i figured she would come to court with that defense so i prepared for that and not all this mess.

And haha i wish my husband was paying for law school but that is just not the case got my own (huge) pile of loans! I also help pay rent and live modestly so there is nothing like that going on.

So you guys are saying that in my interview i just need to prove that our marriage is legit, and that i dont have to prove that she is a crazy person?

It was a very interesting case, but I am happy for you that you won the case.
The Law suite that you filled was a nightmare for you, and I can see that,,, but you learned from it and it was a good lesson for you. Now, for the future, you will be more prepared and you will forsee things before it happens. I guarantee that.
However, forget about you guys travelling for Christmas, and focus on your paper work now until every thing settledown.
However, regarding your Husbands situation, I won't lie about anything with the immigration because lie is like pregnancy. It doesn't take long before every one see it.
Keep this in mind, and I have a faith that you will be fine.