Urgent Advice needed regarding previous divorce decree and filing GC

letmelive

Registered Users (C)
This is my sad story in brief:

I am from India and am on a work visa in US. My ex-wife from India, came to the US when we were married on a dependent visa. She stayed here with me for a total of 11 months and returned to India more than 2 years back. Mine was the other way round where I was abused and used by her and her parents in almost every which way. I put with a lot of threats, blackmails and violent outbursts for a lot of time trying to make this marriage work. After she went to India, she continued the same behaviour over the phone. I had hoped that the distance would make her change but alas I was wrong. So after few months of giving it yet another chance, I told her I wanted a divorce. She was very shocked and taken aback as she never expected that from me. She refused to give me a divorce and said she will make my life hell even if try to file for one. She and her parents also left their village and kept changing their addresses after few days at different relatives houses so that I am not able to serve her divorce orders. Tired, I contacted a lawyer in my state in usa and he said that I can file for divorce by publication which is allowed by my state as I had been separated for more than 1 and a half year from her at that point of time and more importantly because it was a short term marriage with no children or property to divide. My ex-wife never worked after marriage. So I filed for it and got my one sided divorce decree by publication sometime last year. Meanwhile she has filed many false cases WITHOUT any evidence in India about dowry and harrassment which is very common in India nowadays called the 498A in India which are 98% false according to records by Government of India itself. I know my divorce decree is not valid in India because its from USA and I was married in India and she can null and void it in India. However, it is legal in USA as it was filed according to jurisdiction and laws of my home state here.
Meanwhile, all this mess is going on, I met a wonderful person here in USA who despite all this is ready to marry me as we both love each other very much. She is a US citizen and is ready to file for my green card. She cannot see me suffer all this and is very afraid that once my visa expires and I have to go to India, I will be arrested and harrassed by the corrupt Indian police for bribes and money to get free from these cases which even they know are false. Yes people, this is true and anyone from India here on this forum would be able to relate to this. So my question is:
1.) Can I marry my Girlfriend here in USA and can she file for my green card?
2.) Is this divorce decree valid in the eyes of USCIS? Will USCIS accept my one-sided divorce decree as legal termination of previous marriage or will they insist on divorce from India? If that is the case it will take years and years due to backlog of cases in India and can anywhere from 5-6 years.
Please advise me if we can ahead with this petition as I fear that if I go to India, I will never be able to return to USA and lose whatever I have left of my savings and also lose my job which is their agenda. Thanks everyone for reading my story.
 
first of all I am really sorry to hear about these things it is indeed sad that you are going through so much. I have just filed for my green card and my husband filed divorce for his ex wife while she was in Pakistan (by publication) but she has to sign some papers which court ask us to get those sign from her. May be it was because he had kids from her who were US citizen too and she held a green card. That is all i can tell you they might dont ask those things if you dont have any kids from her but I am not very sure. I wish you good luck.
 
1.) Can I marry my Girlfriend here in USA and can she file for my green card?
2.) Is this divorce decree valid in the eyes of USCIS? Will USCIS accept my one-sided divorce decree as legal termination of previous marriage or will they insist on divorce from India? If that is the case it will take years and years due to backlog of cases in India and can anywhere from 5-6 years.


1. Yes. Your girlfriend can petition for you when you get married
2. IMO the divorce decree is valid. Like you explained, you cannot serve your ex-wife with divorce papers if you cannot find her. The fact that your ex-returned to India over two yrs back is clear evidence that your marriage is dissolved.
3. If I were you, I would file for divorce in India as well before getting married. At least that would be evidence that you attempted to divorce her but were unable to locate her. I'm sure a divorce lawyer in India can help you obtain the paperwork needed to demonstrate that you attempted to divorce your ex.

Good luck...
 
@Manalive and @ diyakhan thank you for your replies.
Oh I would have loved to file for divorce in India long back but its full of risks and biggest of them is not being able to return to usa. I have consulted many good lawyers in India and all have told me that I would have to come down to India atleast twice even before case goes for trial. So lawyer can file case on my behalf but Indian court will have counselling session with me and my ex twice in order to see if it can reconcile us. For Indian courts divorce is still looked down upon and marriage is considered heavenly and judges would try best not to grant divorce even if they see marriage has broken down!!! Especially if it is not mutual and it is the female who says she does not want divorce. I am not exaggerating. In my case, my ex does not still want divorce and is ready to keep this case hanging for years. This is her vengeance and revenge to screw my life. She is enjoying her life in India and there are more sad details to the case including her having a boyfriend there who is also married to someone else. So she wants to stay married to me so she can enjoy on my money and have other pleasures with her BF in India! Sorry to write so much but I had to vent it out. But if I go to India, I will be harrassed by police and my passport will be immediately impounded because of these false cases. Police will leave me after my family fills their pockets with lots of money and they will still keep my passport for months making my return to usa impossible. So lawyers have advised not to come to India right now as it is very risky and they cannot guarantee my return to usa and I may lose my job here. They advise to somehow try and convince the ex to settle for mutual consent divorce and withdraw these false cases. Meanwhile we are already fighting these cases but the way things are going with backlog of cases and similar other cases, it will continue for 4-5 years to be least conservative. How can I put my life on hold for so long friends? I don't know what to do? I really love my girlfriend and do not want to lose a person who despite knowing all this is ready to stand by me.
If my usa divorce decree is valid for uscis purposes I want to go ahead with marriage and file for my GC. My GF wants me to make sure of this part as she does not want to land up into any trouble because of all this. Thanks friends.
 
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Here is what I gathered from your lenthy post:
1. You broke up with your ex over two years ago.
2. She move back to India over two years ago after you guys broke up.
3. You successfully secured a one sided divorce decree.
4. You have been unable to locate your ex so that you can serve her with divorce
papers because (a). she is out of the country, (b). you don't know her wherebouts in
India and (c). she indicated that she would NOT grant you a divorce without a fight.
5. Its pretty obvious that your ex abandoned the marriage for whatever reasons
and that you have both moved on. The good thing is you did not have kids or property to divide.

Going back to India to follow up with the divorce issue is obviously not advisable.
Have a lawyer file the divorce papers on your behalf. Since you indicated that you have been unable to reach your ex - because you don't know her wherebouts, have your lawyer in India write a letter indicating that he or she was unable to locate your ex.
He should also send you records proving that the divorce papers were send to her last known address - with no response.

If you can't find her, you can still divorce her.
 
Thanks @Manalive and sorry for the lengthy post.
I can have my lawyer file a case for divorce but would immediately have to go to India for counselling sessions or else the case will not move forward and no judgement can be made. What to do but these are the crazy Indian laws!!! And like I said, if I go to India, its extremely risky. So its a catch 22 situation.
I consulted a lawyer here regarding what to do but he had no idea about foreign domestic laws so would have to find a lawyer who has knowledge about foreign domestic laws and what to do in such cases. So my exwife is my ex according to USA laws but not according to Indian laws!
You can read an article regarding this at this link of one of our national newspapers
articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-06-12/hyderabad/28282211_1_divorce-decree-hindu-marriage-act-family-court

Please add http in front as I yet not eligible to post urls

She already filed false cases including DV case giving false residential address of one of her relatives where we know she does not live. The case is still pending as she has no evidence and like I said, it will probably go on for years. I don't know if I should mention this on my I-485 as there are no arrests or convictions yet.
Thanks everyone again as it sometimes gets demoralizing fighting such odd situations in life.
 
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