Removing conditions on green card-Praetorian or any senior member please guide.

[indianinus]

Hi,

This forum has always come to my rescue whenever i had any question. I am sure i will get some good advice this time also. Here is my story.

I came to US on a H1 visa and got married to a US citizen in my native country. It was a genuine marriage and I have all the proofs. We applied for AOS here and I got my conditional GC. My in laws had a major problem with me and my wife also supports them. I was living with them and was planning to move out with my wife. But before that could happen, I was kicked out of there house, they stole my GC and marriage cert. as well. I have already applied for a duplicate GC and marriage cert. I am living separately from my wife. We are not divorced and we are not talking also. I have to remove the conditions next year. Following are my questions. please help.

1. Should i file jointly or should i file alone? Its obvious that things are so bad, my wife will never sign on the form nor she will come to the interview if we are called for one.

2. I have some proofs about my marriage like the certificate, pics of wedding, pics we took together after wedding, videos, joint car insurance and some joint account statements(she closed the joint bank account also). Is this proof enough?

3. Can i file taxes jointly with her? I know for sure she will never let me do that but can i file taxes jointly? I understand that joint tax returns are really really helpful.

4. Is my status legal as of now coz we are living separately?

5. In case if i dont get my permanent GC after filing for it, can i in the meantime, get another H1 petition from a sponsor so that if i am asked to leave US, I can atleast be on H1. Note that i already have an H1 stamp on my passport. Will my application go in the lottery or can i get a petition straightforward without going into the lottery? My original H1 petition expires in october 2009 and the visa would expire in october 2010.

6. Any tips on how i can secure my GC when i am called for an interview.

I appreciate the help i will get. thank you.

indianinus

[indianium]

First, try to reconcile your relationship with her.
If not possible (forget your ego, if you have) then, change (and I hope you already did it) your address (you can do it online both at USPS and USCIS websites).
For GC, file I-90.
You will get your marriage certificate from county office where you get married.
Retain all the proof of relationship (bills, bank statements, credit card bills, junk mails, greeting cards, e-mails from her or her relatives, pictures, etc.), that will help you to prove your relationship with her.
To remove condition on you GC file I-751 under part 2 e OR g which is hard to prove (I posted same thing for someone else). Later, if you divorced file I-751 again under part 2 d stating that you are withdrawing your earlier case. Get advice from any experience immigration attorney on this matter.

1 & 3. You cannot file your tax jointly if she will not sign the form. File your tax return under “married but filing separately”. This is good enough to prove your marriage (if you will not get divorce until that tax year).
2. You have enough evidence.
4. Your status is legal until you have conditional GC or you have any pending case related to your conditional Green Card.
5. You are permanent resident of USA and I hope you have EAD to work with any company, so forget H1 or lottery, things do not go backward, unless you have expired GC or won‘t remove condition on GC.

Only thing, you have to remove the condition on GC. So, contact immigration attorney.

*This is not a legal advice. Please consult your immigration attorney for legal advice.

[indianinus]

Thank you very much for your reply. Yes i already filed for GC and gave my fingerprints last month but i again got a fingerprint notice. i dont know why.
Marriage is over. I killed the little ego that I had but they are hell bent on separating us and my wife is a hopeless case.

I have also chnaged the address for my mail. Should i fill the AR11 form online right away because the correspondence happening right now with USCIS is at the new address. Should i still use AR 11 and change the address. this is confusing.

Married but filing separately looks to be a good option for tax returns.

I was just hoping to be on safe side and be ready with an H1B petition in case my deportation orders come out. CAnt i do this?

Really appreciate your reply.

indianinus

[indianium]

Second finger-printing notice may an error or sometimes first fingerprint not good enough so they do send second notice but you must go on your second appointment.
Your marriage is over but your problem is still there. Get experience immigration attorney advice.
Best way is to change address online and you do online then you don’t need to send AR-11 by mail. By online address change, you will get confirmation, print it and keep it for your record.
If marriage is over then forget about “married but filling separately” tax returns. Now, you are single and file in this category.
Things will take time, do not worry.

*This is not a legal advice. Please consult your immigration attorney for legal advice.

[indianinus]

Thanx a lot for the great advice.i appreciate it a lot.

[touchsky88]

I don't think it's a good idea to reconcile your relationship with her. I have 2 stories to tell here, maybe you can get some ideas what to do.

Story 1:
My ex and I had a really bad situation when it was the time to remove my condition on the GC. He used the green card to hold me and force me to sign a contract with him with about 40 obey-lists on it. It was absolutely no possible to sign it. Besides this, we had too many other issues as well. I talked with a lawyer, he suggested me that the first thing I needed to do was divorce. The second thing to do was to collect all of the good faith marriage evidence. The thrid thing to do was to collect the broken marriage evidence. And then file the petition on removing condition by myself. Luckily, I got my green card a few months ago, file the petition on my own with the layer's help.

Story 2:
I had a co-worker. His wife was a British. Thier marrige was broken less than 2 years of after they got married. They had a baby girl. The wife filed for a separation. But they are still married. They are still friends cause they have the baby girl to bind them together. They applied for the removing on her GC condition together. They went to interview a few weeks ago. The interviewer said to the wife: I don't believe your story. I will give you 4 moths and within the 4 moths I will send people to check on you. So, she was not right away being denied, but she wasn't that lucky eitehr.

My advice: When the marriage is broken, don't rely on it to get the GC. It makes thing worse.

[indianinus]

touchsky88,

thank for the inputs. so what do u want me to do. file for a divorce. i dont want to divorce her. its she who wants it.

what do i do?

[consultant]

if fixing your marriage is not an option, file for divorce, file to remove conditions with the divorce decree and along with all the evidence of marriage that it was entered into a good faith as many documents you can put together will help. (pictures are very important).

this type of cases are very hard, so consult with an experience immigration attorney before submitting an application to show all the documents to check if they are good enough

[touchsky88]

I think consultant is right. You really need to talk with an attoney. These kind cases are elusive and sensitive. Doing it in the RIGHT way is very important for you to get the GC.

[indianinus]

thank you touchsky and consultant. i did contact an attorney and he told me not to worry till the time comes to remove ur conditions. he told me to meet him when u need to remove the conditions and thats when we'll decide what to do.

[lastlogins]

I face almost the same problem

We registered our marriage in India. my GC expires on march of 2009. she wants me to leave her now. I came here on immigrant visa.
should I look for a sponsor to give me a work visa?

[indianinus]

lastlogins,

keep that as an option if u dont get the conditions removed. or maybe a student visa.

[C4us]

You need to prove that the marriage was done in good faith - true until you had your differences. It can be difficult to do so therefore I suggest that you consult an attorney. You will need one for a divorce; perhaps you can find one with both specialties.

[txh1b]

lastlogins,

or maybe a student visa.

That isn't possible.

[indianinus]

txh1b

Do u mean advice given by indianinus is not possible or advice by c4us.