need an opinion

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nikol

Registered Users (C)
Hi, I am currently married to a USC and I guess I have a lot of questions in my mind, having in mind that we have to go to an interview and prove our love with papers. First off ,I came to US on J-1 visa in 2002 and overstayed quite a bit. For my 9 years being here I have been married 4 times including my current marriage. To make long story short my previous marriages did not work out (obviously) all for differnet reasons, just a quick note -I have never filed any forms with USCIS previously,because that wasn't my first priority after getting married, although all of my previous husbands are USC. My husband now is USC and we are also from the same country, he is a dual citizen. I am at a point in my life where I do want to have kids and start a family and really do not feel like fooling around with that process if I knew that it's not going to work out and that I will be scrutinized by the IO for my previous marriages. Right now my husband and I are trying to decide if we should just give up without a fight and go back home and start a family or we should spend the money and go on with the whole stressful process. I guess you can imagine that our decision is not an easy one, having in mind that we both have spent the past 9(me),10(him)years here and it basically feels like home... so if you have any thoughts on how my past could affect our case, please share.
Thank you in advance!!!
 
nikol said:
Hi, I am currently married to a USC and I guess I have a lot of questions in my mind, having in mind that we have to go to an interview and prove our love with papers. First off ,I came to US on J-1 visa in 2002 and overstayed quite a bit. For my 9 years being here I have been married 4 times including my current marriage. To make long story short my previous marriages did not work out (obviously) all for differnet reasons, just a quick note -I have never filed any forms with USCIS previously,because that wasn't my first priority after getting married, although all of my previous husbands are USC. My husband now is USC and we are also from the same country, he is a dual citizen. I am at a point in my life where I do want to have kids and start a family and really do not feel like fooling around with that process if I knew that it's not going to work out and that I will be scrutinized by the IO for my previous marriages. Right now my husband and I are trying to decide if we should just give up without a fight and go back home and start a family or we should spend the money and go on with the whole stressful process. I guess you can imagine that our decision is not an easy one, having in mind that we both have spent the past 9(me),10(him)years here and it basically feels like home... so if you have any thoughts on how my past could affect our case, please share.
Thank you in advance!!!
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First things first, are you subject to INA 212(e) associated with many J visas? That would be the 2 year home residency requirement. It should state either subject or not subject on the actual visa in your passport. If subject, you cannot adjust without either going back home for 2 years OR getting a waiver. That waiver is on form I-612.

If not subject or if able to get a waiver, you could file for adjustment of status as the spouse of a USC because you originally entered with a visa. Since your visa expired long ago, any departure (even with advance parole would trigger the unlawful presence bar---this is true even if you have already departed and returned after the visa expired and after you were out of status for 6 months).

IF you have triggered an unlawful presence bar, a waiver is available for that with proper evidence. You only need to look into that if it applies. That waiver is on form I-601.
 
nikol said:
No, I am not a subject to a 212(e) waiver.
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IF you have NOT departed and returned after the end of the authorized stay AND you have no criminal issues, it should be an easy case to adjust status.

The USC spouse files an I-130 concurrently with your I-485, I-765 (forget about an I-131--you can't use it). You will need a medical exam and he will need to file an I-864 for you.

ALL the forms and information are at www.uscis.gov within weeks after filing you will be notified to go get fingerprinted, then the EAD will show up, then you will likely get an interview notice and then a greencard.

If your current marriage is less than 2 yrs old on date of APPROVAL of the I-485, you get a conditional card and within the 90 days before the 2nd anniversary of APPROVAL you file the I-751 to lift conditions. After the I-751 is approved, all the conditional time counts towards naturalization. As the spouse of a USC, you can file for naturalization (N-400) after 2 yrs and 9 months of LPR status.

READ and FOLLOW the form instructions!
 
Thank you for the encouraging words BigJoe5. Still I am not convinced that my case is so easy, having in mind that I have been married a few times.Just from what I have read in other posts IO is looking for something like that to make your life miserable.
 
I think what Big Joe means is you do not have any technical problems however yes expect to be scrutinized a little bit more because of your marriage history. The good thing though is you never filed for a green card with those marriages.
Good luck!

nikol said:
Thank you for the encouraging words BigJoe5. Still I am not convinced that my case is so easy, having in mind that I have been married a few times.Just from what I have read in other posts IO is looking for something like that to make your life miserable.
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Thank you ,ananga73 for your input. I studied the whole process a few days ago and I think technically you are right, I should be able to apply with no problems regarding the adjustment of status. My question is how my previous marriages affect that process?
 
nikol said:
Thank you ,ananga73 for your input. I studied the whole process a few days ago and I think technically you are right, I should be able to apply with no problems regarding the adjustment of status. My question is how my previous marriages affect that process?
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Your previous marriages mean additional paperwork for you to gather as evidence. You have never tried to use any of them to get an immigration benefits so they merely make people look at you and wonder what the heck you were thinking and that you might be a flake. Being a fickle flake is not a crime just an oddity. Probably less of an oddity in American than other places.

If this current marriage is still too new, you will only get a LPR conditional period and then further subjected to a "back-end" burden of proof that the greencard marriage was (and hopefully remains) a REAL marriage through a showing of evidence around two years down the road with the I-751. If you had a series of short marriages with failed attempts to adjust status, then things would be quite different, but you have stated just the opposite. What are you worried about? You even said this is the one you want to have kids with!
 
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