Albany, NY Immigration Law Firms & Lawyers

More information is needed. If all of the documents 'were submitted' to the National Visa Center, including the I-864 and DS-230, then you will likely have to contact the consulate or embassy that will process the visa make sure that the petition is properly revoked. This can get complicated, since she is just waiting for the interview. The visa packet may still be approved and issued unless you can get acknowledgement that the visa is revoked by the consulate or embassy. You should consider hiring a competent attorney to try to confirm the revocation is completed. You will need to take care of this as soon as possible and need to properly document any and all action taken. This can get frustrating. If you are unsuccessful, you can be responsible for supporting your step daughter each year for the next ten years or until she becomes a naturalized U. S. Citizen, whichever comes first. If you or the attorney are unsuccessful, then you may be liable for over $100,000, perhaps $200,000 or more, for the duration of the ten year period. Good luck. The above is general information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney client relationship. I recommend an appointment with a competent and experienced immigration attorney at a minimum, but some matters are best handled by an attorney.

If you feel physically threatened, the first thing to do is to get a restraining order. Annulment would almost certainly lead to termination of your wife's green card, but it is rather difficult to obtain. Divorce is generally easier (although there is no such thing as an easy divorce - unless you have a complete agreement of the spouses to part ways amicably). Revocation of a green card is a very rare event. Usually, the Immigration will simply wait for the conditional green card to expire and then consider the marriage. Your wife's green card was issued to 2 years and made conditional on your marriage. At the end of the 2-year period, both spouses must sign an application to remove conditions on permanent residence and submit evidence that their marriage is real and that they continue to live together as a family. If no such joint application and evidence get filed, the 2-year green card expires, and the alien spouse must leave the U.S. In theory, this procedure should filter out permanent residents who marry U.S. citizens just to get a green card. In practice, for many reasons, it does not happen that easy. Your wife will not be denied a permanent green card and asked to leave the U.S. just because you would not sign her application and come with her to an interview. Neither would any divorce lead to that result. You have to take certain actions; and they should be done sooner than you wife takes her own steps to keep her green card. I cannot discuss these steps on an open forum as such a discussion would, in effect, tell persons like your wife how to game the system. Retain an attorney. You need one anyway - for termination of your marriage. So, make an extra effort and find an attorney who knows the immigration law, too.

It depends on where your spouse lives and whether your spouse can adjust her status in the U.S. or must go through consular processing. Depending on the circumstance, you may be looking at anywhere from 6 months to more than a year.