Battered spouse / VAWA

[klinus]

Actually to be clear I came to this board to find out about battered spouse / WAVA and how she could abuse it to short-circuit the immigration process.
Also, i actually know about women who are genuinely abused and are in shelters because they they have a genuine need; this one does not. I an NOT putting down women (or men for that matter) who use shelters that have a genuine need.
If is proven (to the family court, who apparently will do a much more rigorous examination since the shelters are funded by the state) that she lied - it could be interpreted as kidnapping.
I will not apoligize for wanting my son to stay in California; none of her behaviour over the past 2 years indicates a desire to be in this country. I will not put it past her to lie to get her green card, take the child and disappear

the one thing that i still don't have clarity on is how easy it to get a self-petition through VAWA and how long it will take?

[sisadee]

My case was 90 days.....
The shelter is not a bad place at all especially when compares to nice home with angry husband....

Hudson is absolutely correct..
USCIS has different criteria when it comes to VAWA...

You don't really care about your child... all you want is to get revenge......

[Aroha]

If your sole concern is that she'll flee with the child, there are other steps that can be taken. For example, most countries will stop a child's passport being issued if there's evidence of a potential parental abduction. Also check out information regarding the Hague Convention.

However, I agree with previous posters. It sounds like a revenge issue and you have forgotten about what's really in the best interests of your child. Fortunately, the family courts are well versed in being able to weed fact from fiction. They've heard it all before.

I wish you luck, and hope you sort through your current hurt and anger, for your son's sake.

[NeedHelpFast]

I don't buy it.
There's a reason she's in a shelter with the child, and I don't think the reason is to keep the child away from the father.
Sorry, doesn't make sense.
I'd also like to get her version of events.

[NeedHelpFast]

And I have not met an abuser yet that admits to abusing.
They are usually very sick individuals. Charismatic and charming to the world, but something else behind closed doors.

[Aroha]

For my part, the revenge factor comes in from some of his statements. The most condemning of all to my mind is his attempt to bribe her with an offer to support the removal of her visa condition provided she agreed to his custody and, presumably, divorce settlement demands.

I can only guess at the reasons why he filed for divorce just prior to her 2 year conditional visa expiring, however given his statements, which have the distinct air of vehemence, I find it difficult to believe that this was not done with a deliberate goal in mind.

All in all, his statements, his contradictions and his back-tracking leave the distinct impression he has a desire to hurt the mother and keep her from the child.

I could be wrong and really, it doesn't matter. He asked a question about the WAVA, and whatever the reasons behind his need for the knowledge, he got the answer.

[NeedHelpFast]

Originally posted by Aroha:
For my part, the revenge factor comes in from some of his statements. The most condemning of all to my mind is his attempt to bribe her with an offer to support the removal of her visa condition provided she agreed to his custody and, presumably, divorce settlement demands.

I can only guess at the reasons why he filed for divorce just prior to her 2 year conditional visa expiring, however given his statements, which have the distinct air of vehemence, I find it difficult to believe that this was not done with a deliberate goal in mind.

All in all, his statements, his contradictions and his back-tracking leave the distinct impression he has a desire to hurt the mother and keep her from the child.

I could be wrong and really, it doesn't matter. He asked a question about the WAVA, and whatever the reasons behind his need for the knowledge, he got the answer.

I agree.

[Aroha]

You would go to a shelter if you had no means to go elsewhere. He stated that he cut up the joint credit card and removed the battery to a vehicle so she wouldn't have access to it. He also stated her 1/2 a mil (if it exists) was tied up in a Canadian account. No transport + no immediate funds available = necessity.

There are also many types of abuse. Emotional abuse and indirect violence/control are not as easily proved and as the accused abuser is able to attend the hearing, it usually comes down to he said vs she said and who the judge finds more believable at the time. Quite frankly, there are a lot of people, even in the court system, who believe that without black eyes and broken ribs, there is no abuse.

Now I'm not anti men and I'm not saying there aren't things that his wife did (or is doing) wrong. There are, after all, three sides to every story - his, hers, and the truth. I just don't think his story rings like he's an innocent bystander in a malicious plot by his wife.

Frankly, they both need to grow up, stop punishing each other, and realize that their child is the most important thing. Their behavior will only hurt him in the end.

[max-one]

In the next room on my other computer I am editing a documentary film on this subject.

Here's just a little of what I got.

Here is some with and about immigration attorneys

Interview with a Russian women immigration attorney
who's filed over 200 I-360 spousal abuse petitions. 12
of those were for men claiming to be abused by their
American wives. Every one of those petitions were
approved except for two. One was rejected because the
RW filing the petition made a 'fiancee swap' (married
another man) once she got here. The other rejection
was a RW who was found to have 14 arrests for
prostitution and didn't disclose this on her
application. All of this filmed in the interview.


Interviewer: "Does the INS investigate spousal abuse
claims?"

RW Attorney: "I'm sure they do."

Interviewer: "Do you know of any such cases?"

RW Attorney: "Yes, just last year more than 20 exotic
dancers filed joint I-360 (spousal abuse) petitions
each with the same story. They all worked at the same
strip joint and had identical stories. The INS decided
there must be something wrong so they decided to
investigate. I don't know how it turned out but they
did investigate."


RW Attorney: "There is a Russian language radio
program where callers call in and ask questions to
this (Russian/American) immigration attorney. This one
woman calls in and says "My husband has never abused
me but if I call the police on him will I get a Green
Card?" (The RW attorney rears back in her chair and
laughs) and he said "Yes you will!" (more laughter)"

Below is an interview with an American woman who was a
victim of marriage fraud.

American woman: "When I first was doing my legal
research I ran into a class mate an old college class
mate at the law library. She put me in touch with a
lawyer she dated in the past. He was now working on
immigration law and since I was a friend of a friend
when I came into his office the first thing he stated
kvetching (Yiddish) about was the woman who just
walked out of his office. She just sent two women on a
plane to Jordan to marry two men, two strangers and
now he had to start the process to bring them into the
country. She was obviously a marriage broker and this
was his client and his office was in this seedy
Newark, New Jersey neighborhood and it felt like it
was out of this pulp fiction novel." "That was some of
my first exposure working with an immigration
attorney. Granted not all immigration attorneys are
like that but you do have a large number of
immigration attorneys working on marriage broker
deals, marriage fraud deals and they do tell their
clients to claim abuse so they can bypass the system,
the marriage based system if the marriage isn't
working out or if they can't figure a way for an
immigrant to enter the country they will say "Is there
an American you can marry?" And this isn't stuff I am
making up. This is clearly documented in Congressional
hearings, in the media and with and in all types of
evidence that we are working with"

There is a partyline, many immigration officials don't
admit that marriage fraud is a problem. Many do but
kind of off the record and in little comments. Like
the first immigration investigator I talked to "If I
had a nickle for every story I heard like this I would
be a rich man" Or one of the supervisors at the
Philadelphia office "Oh marriage fraud is out of
control, We can't handle the cases we already have".
There are certain government documents that still say
it is rampent and out of control. But once you talk to
the press office or other offices they say "Why should
you expect immigrant marriages be more successful than
marriages between two Americans?" That is their
partyline. But when I ask for the statistics "OK what
is the average length of these immigrant marriages?"
and compair them to the census numbers they just don't
keep track. So it's a partyline based on nothing on no
evidence and I have seen nothing out there and I have
done allot of research, legal research, research in
the media, investigative research and I have seen
nothing on how to combat marriage fraud"
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Bottom line is the USCIS does not want to challenge an abuse claim. It is easier and cheaper for them to grant the self petion (I-360) than not to. The system is set up to hear only one side, the side that is filtered, the side of the immigrant spouse be it a woman or a man. I know of a case that I will be interview next of a man who had his marriage anulled because his wife was still married to another man. The bigamy charge, annulment papers and the falsefied G-325a biographical was not enough evidence for the local department of I.C.E to investigate. The "husband" accused of abuse was told that they could not get involved and would not get involved unless ordered to by a Federal court judge. But he was told he could send his evidence to the Vermont Service Center. He did. He heard nothing for almost a year. Then one day in his mail was a letter sent to him by accident from the Vermont Service Center saying that her self petition as an abused spouse of a USC has been approved and she could go to her local service center to get her LPR card (good for 10 years without conditions).

I have seen allot of people, USC bang their heads against the wall trying to get justice or even a little attention. It's fruitless.

[Sprint_girl07]

Quotes:

Sworn depositions from pre-school and 15 neighbors about no physical abuse and how 'she was happy as a clam' until i filed for divorce

How will the Vermont Service Center react to the Family court transcripts (which include at least 50 neighbors who are royally pissed off at her kidnapping the kid and making him live in a shelter for a month)

Everybody who knows the two of us have testfied that she is, well, a little nuts. Importantly that includes three people who saw her and talked to her just before she left for the shelter.

Honestly I don't care if she stays or goes; just stay away from my son, the damage to whom she has done will take years to repair...

I'm staying calm (tough as that may be given the above); after endless googling I've found the penal code which she has violated that's a felony which makes for automatic deportation and hopefully ensures that the alien never harms my boy again.



Klinus...this says it all to me. Between the two posts you have posted, there are differences.
And even though I can imagine how desperate you are to get your son back, this is all down to revenge and do what you can to get rid of your wife so you have full custody and not let her see him again.

You are looking out for your own interests, not your sons.
You are wanting to find ways where you can have her deported or have her done for fraud etc..
Why don't you work in trying to do what is best for your son, he will not forgive you for trying to have his mother taking away from him and being around for his upbringing.
You have not said that she was abusive towards you or your son, so she is not a bad mother. Yes she took him into a shelter, she had her reasons. And no they are not full of drug addicts! If anyone is caught taking drugs or seem to be on drugs they are evicted.

Calm down and do what you can to help your son have both parents around for his upbringing.
Stop trying to find ways in having her kept away.
Put yourself in her position, being in a country without permanent residence, its scary I can tell you, especially when you have a child together.
I really hope that you both can sort this out for the sake of your child.

[Sprint_girl07]

Just because you are now a USC, doesn't give you a right to put her down by calling her an alien, you were one too, even if you are now a USC.

[RationalE]

To max-one:

There always is a flip-side of the coin.

Your documentary may all be true and accurate, but unintended consequence of collective indignation with pseudo-battered spouses could be enaction of laws barring I-360 filings by all abused spouses or a kind of atmosphere where a bloody bruise on the face of the abused wife gets shrugged off as "another fraudulent attempt to gain a GC by banging her head on the wall".

This is not to say that current pattern of fraudulent filings [that you have documented in your film] should be be accepted without regard to objective factors justifyng them.
Only that there should be maintained a balance and to that end wiser methods employed to discriminate between eligible and non-eligible cases.

[max-one]

RationalE posted

To max-one:

There always is a flip-side of the coin.

Yes, and I am trying to show the other side of the coin. In today's environment it's a tough sell. The general public has little patience for USCs that marry foreign spouses and then cry about their being taken advantage of.

Yes, there needs to be wiser methods to deter fraud. My hope is to get an interview with a retired District Director of the INS that I know. This issue has always been a thorn in his side.

[RationalE]

Yes, and I am trying to show the other side of the coin. In today's environment it's a tough sell. The general public has little patience for USCs that marry foreign spouses and then cry about their being taken advantage of.
Yes, there needs to be wiser methods to deter fraud. My hope is to get an interview with a retired District Director of the INS that I know. This issue has always been a thorn in his side.

In all simplicity:

If you want to reflect the reality, then you should be showing the both sides of the coin.
On the other hand, if you have certain objective, then you can show just one side of it (depending on what your agenda is).
Either way, it's your documentary and you are free to express yourself as you wish.

As to the interview, you may want to talk to an active duty DHS Directors as well,so your documentary would be more up to date.

[max-one]

In all simplicity:

If you want to reflect the reality, then you should be showing the both sides of the coin.
On the other hand, if you have certain objective, then you can show just one side of it (depending on what your agenda is).
Either way, it's your documentary and you are free to express yourself as you wish.

As to the interview, you may want to talk to an active duty DHS Directors as well,so your documentary would be more up to date.

There is one side on this issue that has had a free reign to present it's issue/cause in the way that is most advantageous to their side. To be a complete counter to that it would seem I would have to be their complete opposite. This cannot be the case. True abuse DOES occur and I-360s and self petitioning ARE needed. However to "balance" the issue in what I am doing would delute the message I am trying to portray. The public who this is meant for IMO cares little about the problems of USCs who marry and then get into trouble with their foreign spouses. To show 3 foreign women that have been horribly physically abused. Then show 3 American men having their lives psychologically shattered. Which one would the public wish to put their sympathy towards? Of course the women. Men are supposed to "**** it up" and take it.

A year or so ago I was in a camera equipment rental house. The kind of place the pros go to rent booms and tracking for dolleys for their films. Sitting on the counter was a brochure from the local women's shelter. They were asking documentarians to put together a film about abused women and children. Do you think an independent filmmaker would get their grant money if he proposed a "balanced" film? One that shows how false abuse charges are used to bolster custody cases? Or to secure greencards? I was told be several women connected with various women's shelters that more than half of all women at shelters for spousal abuse were there for either one of these two issues and NOT because they were abused. They weren't. Would the shelter promoting the film wish that these women with their views about the commonness of false abuse charges be interviewed to present balance? I rather doubt it. This is and has been an issue they own,

To me the way to present "balance" is to
1) admit that true abuse DOES happen and that immigrant women need the ability to self petition themselves
2) Spend the rest of the films, say 95% of it, presenting cases were this self petitioning process is being massively taken advantage of. This is a way to balance the above.

Actually this is what I am doing. I have had many interviews with a broad spectrum of people. Four trips so far and several more about to be scheduled.

Talking with an active duty DHS Director is a good idea. It would no doubt show the USCIS partyline which will look quite transparent when I am done.