Divorce/Green Card - complicated situation

[coyote]

I would like to share my situation and hope to have some point of views.

I was married to an American citizen for 2 years and we had been together for 6 years. I am a French citizen. After 14 months of marriage, I received my conditional GC without any interview with the USCIS. Unfortunately, things were not doing well and we split after 2 years of marriage. We first agreed on a smooth separation and divorce. We were both young and did not have many assets. After the separation, we were living in 2 different states far apart. Therefore, to not add up stress, we took our time to resettle before filling for divorce. Once she received her belongings/funds, she turned around and filed for divorce asking for a high amount of money, 9 months before my GC expires. Without entering into details, she knew that I had deadlines but dragged the divorce along even though there was nothing left to argue about.

I consulted an immigration attorney. He told me that I had 87 days from the day I send my application to the USCIS to provide the divorce decree (RFE). Otherwise, I would have run the risk to be put on a removal status. Here my timeline :

- Divorce trial : mid-December 2017
- GC expiration : End of August 2017
- Application deadline : I could have pushed it to a week before expiration.
- RFE : around mid-November 2017.

In 06/2017, I knew that the other party was well aware of this specific details and was playing with the clock. I did not want to run the risk to be put on a removal condition. That would have made my situation worse, especially with the divorce on the line. So I chose to leave the country for a while. My company wanted me to stay with them. So they transferred me to Europe. My divorce got finalized a week ago. This is leaving me wondering what I should do about this GC... Prior to the marriage, I had studied and lived in the USA for quite a while. So I let you imagine the hard decision to leave the place where I established myself.

I saw that there might be a solution to renew this GC now that the divorce has been completed. Also, I saw that there was a form that can be filled with USCIS if a resident is working for a US company overseas (Form N-470).

I am also going back to the USA in a few months for business with my company and I am worried of my arrival at the port of entry.

Any point of view or advice would be welcomed. Thank you !

[newacct]

Hello everyone,

I would like to share my situation and hope to have some point of views.

I was married to an American citizen for 2 years and we had been together for 6 years. I am a French citizen. After 14 months of marriage, I received my conditional GC without any interview with the USCIS. Unfortunately, things were not doing well and we split after 2 years of marriage. We first agreed on a smooth separation and divorce. We were both young and did not have many assets. After the separation, we were living in 2 different states far apart. Therefore, to not add up stress, we took our time to resettle before filling for divorce. Once she received her belongings/funds, she turned around and filed for divorce asking for a high amount of money, 9 months before my GC expires. Without entering into details, she knew that I had deadlines but dragged the divorce along even though there was nothing left to argue about.

I consulted an immigration attorney. He told me that I had 87 days from the day I send my application to the USCIS to provide the divorce decree (RFE). Otherwise, I would have run the risk to be put on a removal status. Here my timeline :

- Divorce trial : mid-December 2017
- GC expiration : End of August 2017
- Application deadline : I could have pushed it to a week before expiration.
- RFE : around mid-November 2017.

In 06/2017, I knew that the other party was well aware of this specific details and was playing with the clock. I did not want to run the risk to be put on a removal condition. That would have made my situation worse, especially with the divorce on the line. So I chose to leave the country for a while. My company wanted me to stay with them. So they transferred me to Europe. My divorce got finalized a week ago. This is leaving me wondering what I should do about this GC... Prior to the marriage, I had studied and lived in the USA for quite a while. So I let you imagine the hard decision to leave the place where I established myself.

I saw that there might be a solution to renew this GC now that the divorce has been completed. Also, I saw that there was a form that can be filled with USCIS if a resident is working for a US company overseas (Form N-470).

I am also going back to the USA in a few months for business with my company and I am worried of my arrival at the port of entry.

Any point of view or advice would be welcomed. Thank you !

It was a really bad idea for you to have left the US. You may have misunderstood the situation, but the fact that the divorce wouldn't have been complete for a long time just causes some hassles for Removal of Conditions, but it won't prevent you from getting your conditions removed in the end. See this memo for the issues surrounding divorce during Removal of Conditions. If you file ROC on the basis of divorce while it is pending but when it's not final, USCIS will issue an RFE to respond with the final divorce order within 87 days. That's 87 days from the date of the RFE, not 87 days from when the ROC was filed. It's true that if the divorce is not final by that time, USCIS will deny the application and ask you to appear in removal proceedings. That sounds scary but it isn't. It's just a normal part of the process in such a situation where the divorce takes a long time. When you appear in removal proceedings in immigration court (which may be a significant time later), if your divorce is final, the immigration judge can remove your conditions; if your divorce is still not final, the immigration judge will wait for it to finish. The immigration judge is not going to deport you no matter how long it takes as long as your marriage was legitimate. You will eventually get Removal of Conditions approved by the immigration judge as long as your marriage was bona fide. And you remain a permanent resident during the time you are in removal proceedings, and can stay and work in the US during this time.

Now that you are outside the US after the 2-year card expired, it's a big problem. You could file Removal of Conditions from outside the US, and in a case where you are not filing jointly (you are filing by yourself on the basis of divorce), you don't need a good reason to file late. But you need to be in the US to attend the biometrics appointment and interview, and you don't have any document that allows you to enter the US. If USCIS accepts your application (and they should from my understanding), you should get an I-751 receipt that doubles as an extension letter that extends your green card for one year; if you get that, you should be able to return to the US on your expired green card + extension letter. I am not sure if there is any difference in the extension letter procedure for someone filing late and/or filing from outside the US. In case you get an I-751 receipt but it doesn't serve as an extension letter, you might be able to get a transportation letter from a US consulate.

[coyote]

Thank you for your reply.

I can return to the USA without any problem with my French passport and the ESTA. Does the USCIS ask why a person filled late?

[newacct]

Thank you for your reply.

I can return to the USA without any problem with my French passport and the ESTA. Does the USCIS ask why a person filled late?

As a permanent resident, you shouldn't enter the US as a nonimmigrant. That would only cause more problems for your status.

There is a rule that late jointly-filed petitions need to have a good reason, but there is no such rule for late waiver petitions (i.e. self-filed, including on the basis of divorce). In any case, your divorce not being final until now is a good reason, since (technically) you do not qualify for ROC on the basis of divorce until you divorce.