USC with son born abroad out of wedlock

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pawe

New Member
Greetings! I would like to ask for any recommendations or advice.

Situation:
I am a naturalized US Citizen by way of marriage with a USC spouse. Because of cultural and financial issues, we contemplated on having a divorce 2 yrs into the marriage.

I went back to the Philippines to cool off when I met someone there and I got her pregnant while Im still married to my USC spouse. Eventually, I got divorced. So now, I want to straighten everything out this time and be a good father and bring in my child and my fiance to the US.

few notable dates:
- Son out of wedlock was born November 9, 2008
- I got my US citizenship June 2009
- Got the final divorce decree November 1, 2009 from my USC wife.


Question:
1. Can I apply a fiance visa for my son's mother who is in the Philippines right now even when i just got divorced?

2. Since the child was born while I was still married to my USC wife, will that pose a problem with the petition? (I also wasn't able to include my son's name on my N400 because the mother hid the whole pregnancy from me because she knew I was married)

3. I am already a USC when my son was born, is he automatically a USC too? The mother included my name in the child's birth certificate and the child has my last name. My date of entry to the US is June 2005. I have been financially supporting them since I learned that I had a baby with her.

Any helpful advice will be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
 
1) You cannot file for a green card for a new spouse until 5 years after you obtained your own green card via marriage. Even upon waiting for the 5 years, your case will be subjected to additional scrutiny due to having the classic signs of fraud. It is a common situation where people enter a sham marriage with a USC, get citizenship, get divorced shortly after, then marry somebody from the original country who they really wanted all along. The 5-year waiting period is designed to discourage this.

In addition, your own citizenship may be revoked for fraud, if you obtained citizenship based on the 3 year marriage rule and your divorce papers were filed before you became a US citizen. The 2008 child and the time in the Philippines to "cool off" is also another red flag, even if your divorce was filed after June 2009.

So, was your citizenship based on the regular 5-year rule, or the 3-year marriage rule? If it was the 3-year rule, you can expect BIG PROBLEMS.

2) Yes it's a problem, given that you were married to somebody else and did not know of the pregnancy. To convince USCIS you are the father, you may have to provide other evidence of fatherhood, like a paternity test.

3) For your son's citizenship, see http://travel.state.gov/law/info/info_609.html
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Oh, so it doesn't matter if I am already a naturalized citizen when it comes to petitioning for a fiance visa.
- My greencard anniversary is May 2006, so basing on your post, I can petition a fiance visa not until 2011.
- My citizenship was based on the 3 yr rule and my ex-wife filed the divorce 3 months after my oath taking.

Marriage fraud is the first thing that popped in my mind because I have all the signs of obtaining GC thru marriage. I guess it will all just be a matter of convincing and proper evidence to prove I didnt enter into marriage just to bypass the immigration. Its just frustrating that honest people have to suffer for other people's decisions in con-ing the system.

Thank you for your very informative reply. I hope others would chime in too so this thread can be a good reference for similar situations. I will update everything so we can also help others.
 
Jackolantern, do you have a link of the 5yr greencard rule so I can read it and study and see if there is anything I can do to expedite my K1 filing?
 
Pawe:

I am living a similar situation like you lived in the past. What was the result of that? What does an immigration officer told you about your case? Have you start to filing I-130 and it was aproved? Hope all is doing well with your case, please, share and update me your experiences. If you want to contact me via email is smithj1972@rocketmail.com

Thanks

pawe said:
Greetings! I would like to ask for any recommendations or advice.

Situation:
I am a naturalized US Citizen by way of marriage with a USC spouse. Because of cultural and financial issues, we contemplated on having a divorce 2 yrs into the marriage.

I went back to the Philippines to cool off when I met someone there and I got her pregnant while Im still married to my USC spouse. Eventually, I got divorced. So now, I want to straighten everything out this time and be a good father and bring in my child and my fiance to the US.

few notable dates:
- Son out of wedlock was born November 9, 2008
- I got my US citizenship June 2009
- Got the final divorce decree November 1, 2009 from my USC wife.


Question:
1. Can I apply a fiance visa for my son's mother who is in the Philippines right now even when i just got divorced?

2. Since the child was born while I was still married to my USC wife, will that pose a problem with the petition? (I also wasn't able to include my son's name on my N400 because the mother hid the whole pregnancy from me because she knew I was married)

3. I am already a USC when my son was born, is he automatically a USC too? The mother included my name in the child's birth certificate and the child has my last name. My date of entry to the US is June 2005. I have been financially supporting them since I learned that I had a baby with her.

Any helpful advice will be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
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