Deported From U.S. Without Knowledge

[hinke]

Hi,

I used to be on a F1-visa from 1994-1998. I met my wife (American) in college and we got married 1998. After our marrige I applied for the green card while I was working in the US. I finally got my green card early 2000, but during the time of our application we decided to move out of the US and did so middle of 2000. We did not know if we were coming back or not. Well, we never came back except as tourists. During this time we failed to report a change of address so the US government never knew we had moved out of the US so they thought after 2 years I was living in the US illegally so they filed a warrant for deportation that I never received or knew about. I did file a I-407 in 2003 were I surrenderd my green card (because we thought we wanted to come back when our daugther was older). Now in 2007 we want to move back and we started filing a immediate family immigrant visa adn everything was fine until my interview were I was questioned heavily on where I was at certain dates. I did not understand what was happening and the consular soon realized this. The reason I was able to go in and out of the US as a tourist was because they misspelled my name on my green card + I got a new passport with a new passport number.

The embassy now has told me that I need to file a I-212 with supporting documents to Cleveland where my warrant for deportation resides, they never gave me an address so I assumed it was the UCIS field office in Cleveland, they mentioned ICE. We have now sent that form with proof that I have been living in a different country all this time and not in the US. I have a letter from my employeer and papers from my government.

What are they rules for deportation? And do you guys think they will remove this bar and resolve this issue?

I know we made a mistake for not notifying of our new address but we never intended for all of this to happen and we just want to start our new life in the US.

So our application for visa is now pending...

Cleveland has received our application (I-212) and has cashed our check. Still waiting for some aknowledgement of who is processing our case...either Nebraska or the Cleveland field office.

Thanks.

[emt103c]

I would advise speaking to an attorney. They may know a way to go about getting the deportation canceled since you were not in the country and did not actually overstay AND have proof...Otherwise you would have to do the I-212 and that takes usually a year or more in a local office (from what I hear.)

Since it is a mistake there should be a better way than the 212.

[mymexicanman]

why would they think that u have lived in usa 2 years illegaly ? sorry but i dont understand the connection here. u said u got ur gc in early 2000 and that u left mid 2000 and u traveld as a tourist. now they thought u were here illegaly ... well, they must have known that u left otherwise they wouldnt think that...may u explain a little better please ?

if you had a gc since 2000 and uscis did not know that u have left usa as u stated why would they think then that u were here after 2 years illegaly ? 2 years after u recieved ur gc ? explain pls.

[hinke]

Sorry if I was unclear. My green card was a temporary one since I had only been married for a short time. These green cards needs to be renewed.

One problem that occured with my last green card (temporary) I got while living in the US was that THEY misspelled my name. I did not correct it since I had to pay for THEIR mistake + we had already decided to move....

I got a green card in early 2000. We had already then decided to move out of the US back to my home country of Sweden. We then moved to Sweden in may of 2000. We did not tell anybody at the USCIS that we left. We had forwarded our mail for 1 year. They sent out letters that I needed to renew my green card, we never got those letters. They sent out letters that I needed to come infront of a judge to get deported from the US, we never received those letters or knew about it. We did not show up for court for valid (did not know) reasons so the judge ordered a warrant for deportation.

We decided 2003 to send in my green card to the embassy and filled out for I-407, we have a stamp in the passport.

I was probably able to enter as a tourist since my name on the green card was misspelled and I had just gotten a new passport (new passport number). So I was able to enter 2003 and 2006 without problems (I did not know at that time they wehere lookiing for me). 2001 I entered the US on my green card.

I wish the embassy in Stockholm would have told the USCIS that I surrendered my green card back in 2003, but they did not. No such cooperation :(

At first the embassy had talked to someone in the US and they said I needed to hire an attorney, but they called someone else that said the easiest thing would be to file a I-212.

One problem is that we have sold our house (which we should not have), so now we need to find some place to live while we wait....

Have I confused you guys some more?

Is it recommended to send in more proof that I was not in the US between May 2000 and now?

[blueblue]

You certainly have an interesting case. The green card you got wasn't temporary, it was conditional. You were supposed to file I-751 to remove conditions about 2 years after you got it. Is that why they initiated the deportation, although it seems a bit strange they were so on top of it.

You should probably start by trying to find out exactly why you were ordered deported, did they assume you overstayed somehow or is it related somehow to not removing conditions? It is a bit hard to prove something when you are not sure what you are trying to prove. Apologies if you do know exactly, but from your post is seems a bit ambiguous.

Do you have a copy of the I-407 you filed? Do you have a copy of the deportation order? Answering a few more questions will help to direct where you should go next. Perhaps others with more experience in deportation issues will pop in with other suggestions.

[hinke]

Yes, I do think I have an interesting case myself. The US Embassy in Stockholm have never dealt with a case like this ever.

The consular at the Embassy made phone calls while I was at my interview and he is the one that figured out the problem.

I have no idea why they were so on top of my case.

The reason for deportation was that I did not "renew" my green card, or probably as you say, I did not file I-751. Since I did not show up in court the judge ordered a warrant for deportation that is now located in Cleveland. They (Embassy) mentioned dates like January 2003, and the consular wanted to know where I was February 2004. I can only guess that's when I was supposed to be in court in Cleveland. He never said why he asked these questions.

This is what the letter from the Embassy says:

"Since the procedures for removing conditional sentence was not properly recorded and the notice to appear in court was not heeded, which resulted in the immigration judge issuing a warrant for deportation you need to file a I-212....."

I have the I-407 stamp in my passport with the date. I do not have a copy of the deportation order, I never received one (since they did not know where I lived at the time). They could have easily figured it out by asking my wifes relatives in the US where we were living.

I wish I could contact someone in the US that knows more about my case since the embassy won't lift a finger anymore until this order of deportation has been removed, but that will probably take a year or so.

Tomorrow I am going to the tax authorities to request tax documents stating that I have paid tax in Sweden from 2000 until now, and mail them as more proof that I have not lived in the US during this time. We actually never thought about that as proof at the time we submitted the I-212, we where so stressed at the time. We have shown that our daughter was born in Sweden 2002 and I have a letter from my employeer + all copies of both my passports (the old and the new one) + our marriage certificate.

Thanks for listening and responding.