14 Feb Request for Waiver of Joint Filing Requirement for I-751 Petition Granted and I-751 Petition Approved after Divorce from U.S. Citizen
Our Philadelphia immigration lawyers successfully obtained a waiver of the joint filing requirement for a client seeking to remove the conditions of her permanent residence after the dissolution of her bona fide marriage to a U.S. Citizen and USCIS approved our client’s I-751 Petition.
Our client, an Australian national, began dating her ex-husband, a U.S. Citizen, while both were in high school – our client was a foreign exchange student at the time. The couple dated for nearly six years before they decided to get married in the United States, and our Philadelphia immigration lawyers were there to help them through the process of filing their marriage based immigration petition, adjustment of status application, and applications for travel and employment documents, all of which were approved and/or granted for our Australian National client. However, approximately six months into our client’s marriage, the couple started experiencing severe marital problems which eventually led to a divorce that was finalized approximately ten months before our client’s two-year conditional period expired. Despite this divorce, our Australian National client continued to want to live in the United States, but faced the problem of no longer being in the marriage that was the basis of her conditional permanent residence.
Our immigration lawyers in Philadelphia assisted our client in applying for a waiver of the joint filing requirement for an I-751 Petition to Removal Conditions on Residence. In order to receive this waiver, our immigration lawyers presented evidence proving our client’s marriage to her U.S. Citizen husband was bona fide at its inception and that their bona fide marriage had unfortunately become irretrievably broken and ended in divorce through no fault of our client. Such evidence included a sworn statement by our client that she had entered into her marriage with her U.S. Citizen husband in good faith not for any immigration purpose, and e-mail correspondence showing that her U.S. Citizen husband had moved out of their marital home and demanded a divorce despite our client’s wishes to work through their marital problems. Our lawyers also submitted letters from our client’s former U.S. Citizen in-laws attesting to bona fide nature of our client and her U.S. Citizen husband’s marriage, and documentary evidence including the couple’s conversations, bank statements, cell phone records, and travels together during the six-years that preceded their marriage as well as evidence of their marriage during the time period they resided together after her receipt of the green card. After a request for further evidence, our client secured a statement from her ex-U.S. Citizen spouse providing further proof of the bona fide nature of their marriage. Our client attended her interview with USCIS and USCIS granted our client’s petition to remove the conditions on her residence, making her a Lawful Permanent Resident without restrictions.