British Expatriate Network

I came to the US just over 1yr ago on a K1 visa. Was married within a few weeks and will unfortunately be divorced next month.

I have contacted an attorney, who has told me that getting the 2yr conditional status removed from my green card will be no problem. This, she explained, is because they will be looking for fraud and since I entered on a K1 visa I already convinced them that a legitimate relationship existed. This and because the reason for the divorce is abuse, from her toward me, I will have few queations from INS about whether they should remove my conditional status or not.

My question, if anyone has been through a similar situation, is Is it going to be as easy as my immigration attorney is leading me to believe, to get the conditional status removed from my greencard and be allowed to stay?

Haven't been through this personally but your lawyer is basically right. Although you will still have the burden of satisfying the INS that you really did enter for a bone fide marriage and not for a green card. You still have that hurdle when you stay married let alone when the marriage fails. You have already to some extent convinced them of the validity of your marriage in order to get the conditional residence status but still the INS often call for more evidence and sometimes another interview when it's time to have the conditions removed.

The fact that you are now divorced means that you don't have to wait the 2 years to apply to have the conditions removed but when you do apply be prepared to provide evidence that your coming here was genuinely a marriage reason.

If you post this question on http//www.britishexpats.com/ in the US marriage forum there are some real experts there and links to a few people who have gone through this experience and this may reassure you and help you prepare.

*Edited incorrect URL*

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by maczippy on 2002-05-06 1406 ]</font>