Adjustment of Status - I-485

I’m writing this to give hope to others that are still waiting through this AOS journey.

My initial journey started in the Fall of 2012. At the time of my first marriage, I had just graduated from grad school in a long distance relationship. I lived in the Midwest and my ex-husband lived out East.

Fortunately, I was able to find a job in my then home state before graduation which meant I had to live apart from my then boyfriend. I used my OPT for my job and there came a proposal. Ex-husband and I got married and decided to live apart until our traditional and church wedding.

First interview was in May 2013. We were separated and had no idea what else to expect. We were upfront with USCIS about our living situation and outlined our plans to live together once we had our ceremonies done.

We magically got called for a second interview in November of 2014. To say we were shocked about this is an understatement. We decided to retain an attorney as insurance. That interview was very unpleasant as the IO came at us from different angels.

We received nothing in reference to a decision until Fall 2015. It was a NOID ( notice of intent to deny). Mind you, we both lived in the same state and address at this time. We responded to the NOID but we were eventually denied based on some things I did not know about my ex-husband and therefore couldn’t fight. (My husband had kids before us and he never told me but accept USCIS, that would have been fine but he didn’t disclose). I then got a NTA for removal proceedings as a result of the denial.

That started our problems and issues although we continued living together. Our relationship strained and he became abusive. At the advice of a friend, I filed for VAWA (got 2 EADs) and 1 RFE. VAWA was eventually denied because I was not able to prove a bonafied marriage. They did believe the abuse and all the other stuff.

I eventually sought divorce based on abuse in Spring 2017.

In the summer of 2017, I met a wonderful guy through my best friend and we got married in Winter 2018. We also had a traditional and religious ceremonies.

Round 2 of AOS began. I was scared to go through with this as I was in removal proceedings and had no idea what was to come.

We have our initial interview in January 2019 where my husband and I were separated. After comparing our answers, there was only 2 things I had forgotten - number of guests at our traditional wedding and our last trip lol. Interview went well but IO was hard to read.

About 6 weeks after the first interview, we received another notification for a second interview. I was scared but my husband wasn’t.

Our second interview wasn’t bad at all. IO asked us about 7 pages of questions (150 in total which she told us at the end). We got everything right with the exception of 1 my husband couldn’t remember (my take home pay after taxes). We told IO i had immigration court coming up. She assured us she’d make a decision between 2-4 weeks so we can get on with our lives.
About 2 weeks later, we got our approval emails. Both I-130 and I-485! According to our lawyer, they never approve the I485 when you’re in removal proceedings BUT they did!!

We showed up at my removal hearing yesterday and the DHS attorney agreed to dismiss my case. She also asked to see my green card in person but I didn’t carry it with lol (I told my husband I feared they’ll take it from me lol). The judge dismissed the case based on the approval letters and copy of the green card. The DHS lawyer asked my attorney to bring the green card to her some time this week so we won’t have to file to reopen.

All in all, it has been a crazy journey but there is hope. My first marriage was real but it didn’t fit USCIS’ definition of a traditional marriage. I guess it also revealed something about my ex-husband I may never have known.

I hope this brings hope and peace to someone going through something similar. All cases are different but we can pick bits and pieces from places.