Trent

If this has been discussed earlier, I apologize.

A friend of mine has
been happily married with a USC. Her conditional residency was converted
to LRP (non-conditional) status after the couple jointly filed an I-751
within the 90-day period. She never got around to applying for
Citizenship after 3 years. Around 4 years after becoming Permanent
Resident, they are now getting divorced. She is not in a hurry for
citizenship so she can wait. However, what complicates matters is that
she is considering marriage with someone from the UK (her present
country of citizenship) and getting this guy here on an I-130 just like
she came here.

Now, considering that she got her LPR status based on
bona fide marriage and even though the condition has been removed, now
as she wants to marry and bring this guy here on the same grounds she
came into this country, would this weaken her application for
citizenship or her future husband's AOS? Though the conditions are
removed and she has been married for almost 4 years, will CIS question
the validity of the marriage since she is applying for a new I-130 for
her new husband.

I know it sounds weird but we all run into situations
like this, breaking up with someone and hooking up with another. She is
very confused whether she should file I-130 now or wait until she
becomes a US citizen (which will take another 2 years until final
approval and all?). Does it make any difference if she applies now? What
she worries most is if her own LPR status will be questioned by CIS (at
the time of N-400) doubting that she tried to gain an immigration
benefit.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

Aguila

Originally posted by Trent
    > If this has been discussed
earlier, I apologize.
    >
    > A friend of mine has been happily married
with a USC. Her conditional residency was converted to LRP (non-
conditional) status after the couple jointly filed an I-751 within the
90-day period. She never got around to applying for Citizenship after 3
years. Around 4 years after becoming Permanent Resident, they are now
getting divorced. She is not in a hurry for citizenship so she can wait.
However, what complicates matters is that she is considering marriage
with someone from the UK (her present country of citizenship) and
getting this guy here on an I-130 just like she came here.
    >
    > Now,
considering that she got her LPR status based on bona fide marriage and
even though the condition has been removed, now as she wants to marry
and bring this guy here on the same grounds she came into this country,
would this weaken her application for citizenship or her future
husband's AOS? Though the conditions are removed and she has been
married for almost 4 years, will CIS question the validity of the
marriage since she is applying for a new I-130 for her new husband.
    >
I know it sounds weird but we all run into situations like this,
breaking up with someone and hooking up with another. She is very
confused whether she should file I-130 now or wait until she becomes a
US citizen (which will take another 2 years until final approval and
all?). Does it make any difference if she applies now? What she worries
most is if her own LPR status will be questioned by CIS (at the time of
N-400) doubting that she tried to gain an immigration benefit.
    >
    > Any
advice will be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

She will be
better off waiting to have her US citizenship before applying for her
new husband, because it will not speed up the process any faster, an I-
130 filed by an LPR can take years to process, as oppose to a USC filing
an I-130 where now the husband becames and immediate relative and thus
do not need to wait for a visa. In addition filing it now, it will
definitely make her n400 process to be more scrutinized.., also I must
say that by law an LPR cannot file for another husband if that LPR got
status from a prior marriage to USC, the LPR must by law, wait 5 years
to file for a husband :-)

Folinskyinla

Originally posted by Trent
    > If this has been discussed
earlier, I apologize.
    >
    > A friend of mine has been happily married
with a USC. Her conditional residency was converted to LRP (non-
conditional) status after the couple jointly filed an I-751 within the
90-day period. She never got around to applying for Citizenship after 3
years. Around 4 years after becoming Permanent Resident, they are now
getting divorced. She is not in a hurry for citizenship so she can wait.
However, what complicates matters is that she is considering marriage
with someone from the UK (her present country of citizenship) and
getting this guy here on an I-130 just like she came here.
    >
    > Now,
considering that she got her LPR status based on bona fide marriage and
even though the condition has been removed, now as she wants to marry
and bring this guy here on the same grounds she came into this country,
would this weaken her application for citizenship or her future
husband's AOS? Though the conditions are removed and she has been
married for almost 4 years, will CIS question the validity of the
marriage since she is applying for a new I-130 for her new husband.
    >
I know it sounds weird but we all run into situations like this,
breaking up with someone and hooking up with another. She is very
confused whether she should file I-130 now or wait until she becomes a
US citizen (which will take another 2 years until final approval and
all?). Does it make any difference if she applies now? What she worries
most is if her own LPR status will be questioned by CIS (at the time of
N-400) doubting that she tried to gain an immigration benefit.
    >
    > Any
advice will be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

Hi:

There is
a provision in the Immigration & Nationality Act that if a person gets a
green card via a marriage and FILES a second spousal petition based upon
a marriage to another spouse, there is a presumption that the FIRST
marriage was not bona fide. Note that this is for the purposes of the
visa petition and is NOT a presumption for purposes of the government
sustaining its burden of proof in removal proceedings.

This section is
seldom used these days given the backlogs in the "F-2A" category for
spouses of permanent residents. When the provision was inserted into
the law by the 1986 "IMFA", there was little or no backlog in the
classification.

Trent

Originally posted by AGUILA
    > She will be better off
waiting to have her US citizenship before applying for her new husband,
because it will not speed up the process any faster, an I-130 filed by
an LPR can take years to process, as oppose to a USC filing an I-130
where now the husband becames and immediate relative and thus do not
need to wait for a visa. In addition filing it now, it will definitely
make her n400 process to be more scrutinized.., also I must say that by
law an LPR cannot file for another husband if that LPR got status from a
prior marriage to USC, the LPR must by law, wait 5 years to file for a
husband :-)

Thanks Aguila,

I am confused. She must wait 5
years AFTER becoming a USC herself?

Trent

Originally posted by Folinskyinla
    > Hi:
    >
    > There is a
provision in the Immigration & Nationality Act that if a person gets a
green card via a marriage and FILES a second spousal petition based upon
a marriage to another spouse, there is a presumption that the FIRST
marriage was not bona fide. Note that this is for the purposes of the
visa petition and is NOT a presumption for purposes of the government
sustaining its burden of proof in removal proceedings.
    >
    > This section
is seldom used these days given the backlogs in the "F-2A" category for
spouses of permanent residents. When the provision was inserted into
the law by the 1986 "IMFA", there was little or no backlog in the
classification.

Folinskyinla,

I am trying to understand all
the legal mumbo jumbo. :-) Does this mean she CAN apply however she must
be prepared to supply the same (or more) evidence that she did when she
applied for her removal of conditions (I-751)? I have looked up
USCIS.GOV and I do not see this kind situation addressed or what the law
states as far as the restrictions on second I-130 is concerned. I am
sure she will go through the lawyer but this is too early in the stage
and she wants to first gather a little more about what she is getting
into before consulting a lawyer.

Folinskyinla

Originally posted by Trent
    > Folinskyinla,
    >
    > I am
trying to understand all the legal mumbo jumbo. :-) Does this mean she
CAN apply however she must be prepared to supply the same (or more)
evidence that she did when she applied for her removal of conditions (I-
751)? I have looked up USCIS.GOV and I do not see this kind situation
addressed or what the law states as far as the restrictions on second
I-130 is concerned. I am sure she will go through the lawyer but this is
too early in the stage and she wants to first gather a little more about
what she is getting into before consulting a lawyer.

See
Section 204(2) of the Immigration & Nationality Act. In the regulations
see 8 CFR 204.2(a)(1)(i).

Contrary to what you stated, both of these
are on the CIS website. It pays to remember that the Immigration &
Nationality Act and the regulations [primarily Title 8] give you much of
the information you need to know.

Any attorney should know that.

Ray6

I think all your questions will be answered here.

http://uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/spouselive.htm

Trent

Originally posted by Folinskyinla
    > See Section 204(2)
of the Immigration & Nationality Act. In the regulations see 8 CFR
204.2(a)(1)(i).
    >
    > Contrary to what you stated, both of these are on
the CIS website. It pays to remember that the Immigration &
Nationality Act and the regulations [primarily Title 8] give you much
of the information you need to know.
    >
    > Any attorney should know
that.

Thank you Folinskyinla,

This really helped a lot.
Thank you for pointing out to the specific law. I found it on
USCIS.GOV site:

]http://uscis.gov/lpBin/lpext.dll/inserts/slb/slb-1/slb-
9960/slb-12595/slb-12697?f=templates&fn=document-frame.htm#slb-
8cfrsec2042[/url]

It says:
Marriage within five years of petitioner's
obtaining lawful permanent resident status.

Please correct me if I am
wrong, that means if she obtains her USC after a couple of years, she
would already have been an LPR for over five years? Now, conditional
residence counts toward this "five years of obtaining lawful permanent
resident status" requirement or not? If the conditional residence does
count, then everyone who is applying for USC after 5 years will not
fall into this category.

Trent

Originally posted by ray6
    > I think all your questions
will be answered here.
http://uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/spouselive.htm


Thank you ray6,

I had already looked at that one but it didn't talk
about the situation my friend was in i.e. LPR status through USC,
divorce, then marriage again. Folinskyinla pointed out to the section of
the law that discusses this.