RFE - Child Support For Estranged Child

[Miami33]

So, I've sat in the wings reading this forum for the the last 17 months, the recent request from USCIS has me panicked and I need to reach out for help.

Attended infopass in Missouri to get updates and general guidance. They informed us that we'd been scheduled, but not, called for interview in March 2018, in Miami (prevention address), yet our attorney never informed us.
Fast forward to September, after several info pass appointments and sound advice from UScitizenFilingForSpouse, we have an interview date 16 months after PD. We sacked our attorney at this point as the money they were charging versus the advice being given was not comparable. There was no advice! They left it until two weeks before the interview before reaching out to us, after I had to send them our interview notice, which they promptly sent back but on their letterhead paper. Before we sacked them they assured us there is nothing unordinary about our case and is pretty straight forward. How wrong they were!

Interview Time - this was both short and bizarre. The officer made a joke about water boarding which struck me as odd given the setting, maybe trying to lighten the mood. There was a gentleman sitting in the corner observing and the interviewing officer was shaking like a leaf.

Started off with pleasantries, talked through the information on application and then brief details of how my wife and I came to be. Simple stuff. The sticking point came when he asked about my child, who I am estranged from through no choice of my own. He spent 50% of the time asking about child payments, why I don't see the child, what happened, will i see her in the future, where will you see her. It unsettled me, and I know it showed, as I am still traumatized by events with my ex (she was a bully, manipulator, narcissist and just wanted a sperm donor).
We had a whole binder full of evidence to support the validity of our marriage and he din't seem interested, he took it from us as an afterthought.
The interview ended and they officer was saying he couldn't see any reason why I am inadmissible, he's 99.9% sure it's a green light, go out and celebrate he just needed to go over things.... well that was a load of crap.

Two weeks later RFE lands in the mailbox with 7 points to fulfill, whilst 5 of them are easy 2 have us panicked.

1) Submit a copy of child support arrangements.
2) Submit evidence of adherence to the child support arrangement for..., including but limited to, copies of checks, transfers to national child support account, or any other document you believe will prove that you are maintaining your obligation to your minor child.

There is no child support arrangement and there is no evidence I am maintaining any supposed obligation. At this point you make think I am the problem but please try not to judge. I spent roughly $25,000 in court and attorney fees to try and remain in my childs life. The mother played the family court system to her advantage and was granted the right to live in a different country that is not part of the Hague Convention nor can it enforce a REMO agreement. She chose to move and sever the father/child relationship. There was a court order in place that stated she is to come back to the my home country (Europe) every other month and I can see my child for 5 hours a day but not overnight, and vice versa. I was to go to the non European country every other month. The journey would involve flying, hire cars, boat and take approximately 14+hrs each way. It would also need to align with my schedule and be completed in the two consecutive days I had off. It's just not practical for either person, needless to say it never happened and I've not seen my child since. The emotional and mental damage these proceedings caused has been overwhelming, for which I have sought counseling on and off.

My question is; as I can't provide evidence is this an automatic disqualification?

I can certainly provide court orders of the proceedings, of which none addresses child arrangements, and I can probably get a letter from my attorney at the time to state just that. I can also prove I paid for my child up until they left, at which point all hope was lost and I had to move on to stop depression sinking in any further.

[cali2018]

Very unfortunate scenario. Truly you need a very good lawyer who is versed in both divorce and immigraton law. Seems you picked one of the usual, help make sure your paperwork is all correct lawyers. You need someone much more knowledgable, someone who deals with waivers/family/asylum heavy stuff.

Issue is, the only to fix this RFE will require a well worded explation letter with proof of the court proceedings, your attempts to reach out, etc...It is not an easy one. Not a standard RFE at all.

That said, why did your RFE have 7 items of criteria...when the officer said there is 99% chance everything looks good. In your mind do you think you were missing some key evidence? Or has the IO just printed a bunch of typical RFE criteria and then the main concern they have to make sure they all get all the same evidence again?

[Miami33]

Thank you for the response.

I have 5 court orders from proceedings and none of them address any form of Child Arrangement Order, it was never part of the hearing and I was paying up until they left. No one in their right mind is going to keep paying money in to an arbitrary account in the hope that's it's spent on the child.

I'm thinking if I can get a letter from my attorney stating exactly that, then we should be ok. Child arrangements were not part of proceedings, which will be confirmed by an attorney, put with the court orders and an explanation of what happened...

The impact that court proceedings had on my health, I was in no position to reach out to carry on the torment after they disappeared. A line had to be drawn and I had to face up to the fact that the system is unjust and very broken. I'm a grown man, I've deployed to war ones numerous times and I was reduced to tears almost daily.

I think you were spot on with your judgement of the paper processing attorney. They knew I had an estranged child and there was no payment scheme setup yet failed to say anything about it possibly coming up in the interview. They also advised that the official Immigration Criminal Background Check I have from my home country would be sufficient, it isn't. 2 of the requests pertain to this although I sent in the official document stamped with watermark. the IO wants to see from the court I was processed in 20 years ago, the disposition, police report, indictment, charging document and arrest report. The best part is, it's all on the document I provided but he said it's only assumed not proven. Why would I make up an arrest? I was issued a DUI and pled guilty, paid the fine and walked out the door.

The other requests relate to obtaining 'certified' copies of divorce documents and birth certificate for said child. Again, the attorney said what I provided would be fine. The weird thing is we provided a photocopy of wedding certificate and nothing was said. There's definitely some inconsistency in what this guy is doing.

[4EVER]

Two weeks later RFE lands in the mailbox with 7 points to fulfill, whilst 5 of them are easy 2 have us panicked.

1) Submit a copy of child support arrangements.
2) Submit evidence of adherence to the child support arrangement for..., including but limited to, copies of checks, transfers to national child support account, or any other document you believe will prove that you are maintaining your obligation to your minor child.

There is no child support arrangement and there is no evidence I am maintaining any supposed obligation. At this point you make think I am the problem but please try not to judge. I spent roughly $25,000 in court and attorney fees to try and remain in my childs life. The mother played the family court system to her advantage and was granted the right to live in a different country that is not part of the Hague Convention nor can it enforce a REMO agreement. She chose to move and sever the father/child relationship. There was a court order in place that stated she is to come back to the my home country (Europe) every other month and I can see my child for 5 hours a day but not overnight, and vice versa. I was to go to the non European country every other month. The journey would involve flying, hire cars, boat and take approximately 14+hrs each way. It would also need to align with my schedule and be completed in the two consecutive days I had off. It's just not practical for either person, needless to say it never happened and I've not seen my child since. The emotional and mental damage these proceedings caused has been overwhelming, for which I have sought counseling on and off.

My question is; as I can't provide evidence is this an automatic disqualification?

I can certainly provide court orders of the proceedings, of which none addresses child arrangements, and I can probably get a letter from my attorney at the time to state just that. I can also prove I paid for my child up until they left, at which point all hope was lost and I had to move on to stop depression sinking in any further.

Wow what a tough RFE. Sorry you had to go through all that. Maybe you should proceed as how an applicant for naturalization would.

From what I read, one of the requirements for naturalization is good moral character (GMC). Under GMC, there are general conditional bars to establishing GMC - one of which is 'Failure to Support Dependents'. The USCIS manual says, failure to support dependents means, 'Willful failure or refusal to support dependents, UNLESS extenuating circumstances are established.' If the applicant shows extenuating circumstances, the conditional bar (in your case, failure to support dependents) do not apply.

See Section K: https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/H...-Chapter5.html
See Section G: https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/H...pter2.html#S-A

Your IO probably wants to establish your good moral character this early, although you're not in a naturalization process.

So what are these extenuating circumstances. Accdg to USCIS:

Extenuating Circumstances

If the applicant shows extenuating circumstances, a failure to support dependents should not adversely affect the GMC determination.

The officer should consider the following circumstances:

-An applicant's unemployment and financial inability to pay the child support;

-Cause of the unemployment and financial inability to support dependents;

-Evidence of a good-faith effort to reasonably provide for the support of the child;

-Whether the nonpayment was due to an honest but mistaken belief that the duty to support a minor child had terminated; and

-Whether the nonpayment was due to a miscalculation of the court-ordered arrears.

You should probably submit a notarized affidavit stating that there was no child support/arrangement in the custody process, explain what happened during and after the court proceedings, state the payments you made (attach evidences, e.g., checks, money order, bank transfer or how it was done, and proof that payments were received), state there were good-faith attempts on your part to support your child (e.g., payments you made before mother and child left the US) and good-faith attempts to be in your child's life (attach evidences, e.g., emails/phone calls to ex, letters to child, etc), mention that your ex chose to live in a non-Hague Convention country (so you didn't and currently don't have a legal way to bring your child back), state how the whole ordeal affected your overall health (attach evidences of counselling), and other pertinent details that would overcome the conditional bar, and prove that you did not willfully fail or refuse to support your child.

Maybe affidavits from other family members attesting to your attempts to gain custody or provide support would also help. If you can get an affidavit from your ex stating that you did not willfully abandon your child, it would probably help, too. And, a good immigration lawyer will surely help.

I wish you all the best in your AOS journey.

[lay.k]

wow! just wow!
I am so sorry you re going through this.
we will keep you in our prayers.

a couple of questions are crossing my mind right now..why did they ask in the first place.. is it because the child is still a minor?
what brought up the child support issue?
are you the petitioner or the applicant?

I can t imagine why would they ask about your previous marriage child support in an AOS interview.

sorry again for what is happening. I hope you get out of it soon.

[Miami33]

Update

So, after receiving the RFE pertaining to my application, I sought guidance from a few attorneys. The first laughed and informed me the IO "was a joke" as he knew him personally, and that we shouldn't worry as he is a "jobsworth". Easy for him to say. The attorney wouldn't accept our case as he would feel bad taking our money, to him this was just a formality. We had mixed emotions about this. Slightly comforted that it may not be as bad as we thought, but also do we trust ourselves to do it and not have the backing of an attorney.

We decided we definitely wanted the help of an attorney.

The next attorney was a god send, Versfeld & Hugo in Kansas City. He cut straight to the chase, explained the IO wants to see A, B and C ( again, he had no idea why it was being requested) and our reply should contain the answers to the points he wants. It wasn't easy getting the requested information and involved attorneys from my home country who specialize in child law but we had a response together and submitted in 2 months.

Long story short, 3 months after the RFE and our case has been approved. We are elated. Next hurdle for us is to recover it from the address the USCIS sent it to, they didn't update their systems from months ago. No one said this would be easy. 19 months later and we are able to put this hellish episode behind us and move on with our lives. Being held in a state of limbo for so long is enough to break your last nerve.

[WaitedLongEnough]

So, after receiving the RFE pertaining to my application, I sought guidance from a few attorneys. The first laughed and informed me the IO "was a joke" as he knew him personally, and that we shouldn't worry as he is a "jobsworth". Easy for him to say. The attorney wouldn't accept our case as he would feel bad taking our money, to him this was just a formality. We had mixed emotions about this. Slightly comforted that it may not be as bad as we thought, but also do we trust ourselves to do it and not have the backing of an attorney.

We decided we definitely wanted the help of an attorney.

The next attorney was a god send, Versfeld & Hugo in Kansas City. He cut straight to the chase, explained the IO wants to see A, B and C ( again, he had no idea why it was being requested) and our reply should contain the answers to the points he wants. It wasn't easy getting the requested information and involved attorneys from my home country who specialize in child law but we had a response together and submitted in 2 months.

Long story short, 3 months after the RFE and our case has been approved. We are elated. Next hurdle for us is to recover it from the address the USCIS sent it to, they didn't update their systems from months ago. No one said this would be easy. 19 months later and we are able to put this hellish episode behind us and move on with our lives. Being held in a state of limbo for so long is enough to break your last nerve.

I remember your story and glad it all worked out . All the best and thanks for coming back to share

[Jess007]

Well, your case is really difficult but it's not the reason to give up. This information https://lawfirmcarr.com/child-custody-lawyer/ may help you in some way ..but I think that the best solution would be to retain a good and reliable lawyer