My husband is a Us.Citizen, we have an 8 year old son, we got married on October 2000, and my husband filed the petition on Sept 2002.

My husband has been acting violent and I've had to get a protective order that restricts him from being within 200 yards from home. Therefore, he moved out of the house two months ago.

I had an interview this past week and the officer told me that because we are not living together this could negatively affect the processing, specially if he withdraws the petition...and chances are that I will be deported.

Please advise, I can't sleep and think straight since that day.

I appreciate your comments.

Here is a very quick reply - others will fill in more details.

You can apply for an abuse waiver of joint filing of removal of your conditions. This involves obtaining documented proof, from certain types of people (ie: police, Dr's, etc...) of spousal abuse. There is some info about this on the actual I-751 itself but you need to dig into this (or you could indeed end up being deported).

Good luck and hopefully others will give some more insight... - Just ignore the ignorant comments that are likely to come from some of our resident 'j e r k s'...

ARQU

Have you had your AOS interview already? Do you have conditional green card? or you remain only with employment authorization?

Did he ever hit you? Why was the restrain order granted on your favor? Do you know that there is a section on immigration law that allows to obtain permanent residency based on his abuse?

Go to www.uscis.gov and check the form I-360 [Violence Against Women Act - VAWA]. You would have to file under this section of the law if you do not have conditional green card. If you have a conditional green card, you could file for divorce and file an I-751 based on two waivers: first for being divorced but you entered into the marriage in good faith and second for being subjected to battery or extreme mental cruelty.

In any event you have a very delicated case and I highly recommend you to visit a competent immigration attorney.