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VAWA + deceased spouse's belongings
Hello
I need assistance with my recent abusive husband's passing away while I was abroad and how to exercise my legal rights regarding the whereabouts of his belongings and cremations. Also how to go about obtaining his death certificate to start my VAWA case.
My case goes like this: We got together while I was visiting friends in the midwest back in 2012. We started a romance and serious relationship and eventually I went back on my tourist visa before it expired. So we decided to meet again at my country of origin and live there and travel together during six months before his tourist visa expired. He (born citizen) eventually went back to the U.S. and waited for me to meet with him there a few months later. We got married on a whim as we didn't plan on immigrating but he thought it was fine to do so. Later on that day I found out it was rather risky to do that since i could lose my tourist visa privileges and would most definitely need a sponsor. Basically after the impromptu wedding he became mentally and physically aggressive and erratic due his mental illness and many things triggered him that I had no idea about. It was very hard for me to get away from him as he and his family were controlling and it came to a point where I had no money since I couldn't work without a work permit, etc. Two years and half went by and I managed to escape him, fully knowing that it would make it very hard for me to sort my visa due to my overstaying more than 2 years. I brought as many pertaining documents of his and our relationship (marriage certificate included) as I could and have many witnesses on my side.
So recently I heard the news of his passing away. Heavy grieving aside, it's increasingly clear that his family and friends do not think I have any rights over his belongings and his ashes. I've been trying to contact them but they just ignore me or feed me lies to get me out of the way. I want to know if I can exercise my rights as a widow of a U.S. citizen even as no paperwork has been filed due to 'extreme cruelty' on their part. Can they overpower my rights being as I'm not able to be physically there?
Thank you for your time,
-Olivia
I need assistance with my recent abusive husband's passing away while I was abroad and how to exercise my legal rights regarding the whereabouts of his belongings and cremations. Also how to go about obtaining his death certificate to start my VAWA case.
My case goes like this: We got together while I was visiting friends in the midwest back in 2012. We started a romance and serious relationship and eventually I went back on my tourist visa before it expired. So we decided to meet again at my country of origin and live there and travel together during six months before his tourist visa expired. He (born citizen) eventually went back to the U.S. and waited for me to meet with him there a few months later. We got married on a whim as we didn't plan on immigrating but he thought it was fine to do so. Later on that day I found out it was rather risky to do that since i could lose my tourist visa privileges and would most definitely need a sponsor. Basically after the impromptu wedding he became mentally and physically aggressive and erratic due his mental illness and many things triggered him that I had no idea about. It was very hard for me to get away from him as he and his family were controlling and it came to a point where I had no money since I couldn't work without a work permit, etc. Two years and half went by and I managed to escape him, fully knowing that it would make it very hard for me to sort my visa due to my overstaying more than 2 years. I brought as many pertaining documents of his and our relationship (marriage certificate included) as I could and have many witnesses on my side.
So recently I heard the news of his passing away. Heavy grieving aside, it's increasingly clear that his family and friends do not think I have any rights over his belongings and his ashes. I've been trying to contact them but they just ignore me or feed me lies to get me out of the way. I want to know if I can exercise my rights as a widow of a U.S. citizen even as no paperwork has been filed due to 'extreme cruelty' on their part. Can they overpower my rights being as I'm not able to be physically there?
Thank you for your time,
-Olivia
