I am a retired U.S. Air Force Master Seargent. I am planning on going to Australia to Marry my fiance. She has 4 children, two are over the age of 18 and live with their father. Two (13 and 11) live with their mother. Neither of our divorces are final as of this posting, mine will be final in about 30 days. She must wait until July to file then add 4 - 6 weeks for finalization. We had planned on marrying sometime in late Sept. My question (s) are 1) I have reciently found out that she has been physically abused and mentally/emotionally abused for the past 22 years of her marriage. Is there anyway that she can and the two kids immigrate here under a battered/abused spouse waiver and if so how do we go about acquiring one. 2) When we marry how do I go about relocating them back to the U.S. supposing they want to come. 3) As I am a retired member of the Armed Forces are there any special waivers available for people like me?
4) If she came here alone to get away from her ex-husband and rest and I asked and received a yes to Marry her can she stay? I and she Thank You in advance.

Ken

Dear Ken:

For your fiancee to file as an abused spouse, she would have to be currently married to a US citizen, or lawful permanent resident alien. We assume from your e-mail that she is not.

After you marry her you can file a visa petition for her and one for each child. Since you are a member of the US armed forces serving in the country where you will marry, the US consul has jurisdiction to approve the I-130 petitions without the need of sending them to INS in the US, which will take much longer. Also, they will qualify for the new K visa, if you decide to go that route.

If she enterd the US lawfully as a visitor, and then you decide to marry her here, she could apply for residence in this country without having to return. Good luck.

Thank you very much. I would like to clarify one item the is possibly critical. I am retired and currently in the U.S. planning on 1) visiting in April and 2) visiting her again in Aug/Sep and getting married. Will the U.S. consulate in Sydney still have the authority to approve the I-130 for her and the Kids? Also as I understand it her ex-husband has to sign the paper work for the kids to get a passport to even apply for a visa. Is this true or will just having the visa be enough? You assistance in this matter is extremely appreciated.

Dear Mr. Sparks:

If you do not reside in the consular district, the consul may accept the petition at its discretion. You may wish to phone the consul and get more information.

We are unable to advise as to the laws of Australia in applying for the kids' passports. If they have passports, the consul usually does not inquire as to custody issues when they apply for visas to the US. Good luck.

Thanks...

I really find the first paragraph of this man's post silly, even laughable. The words "abuse", "battered", and "domestic-violence" are so overused and ingrained in the psyches of Americans, thanks to greedy lawyers, that this man even thinks it may be possible for his girlfriend, who is not an American Citizen and who is not even married to an American Citizen, to come to this country and claim she was abused by her Australian husband who she lived with in Australia for 22 years. Maybe this retired military man is even hoping the US Air Force or some other government agency will go to Australia and "get that guy". Amazing!

Dear Anonymous:

Thanks for your post. Because abuse of women is such a frequent occurence, especially in many societies outside of the US, it is very important that an independent person obtain all of the relevant information before any conclusion is reached. The worst thing that could happen is to summarily dismiss a claim, and then later learn that the claim was true and nothing was done to prevent it from continuing.

In the instant case, there is no relief under US immigration law, since the spouse was not a US citizen or permanent resident, but if the husband was physically abusive, he should be held resposible for it.

While there may be greedy lawyers, as there are greedy persons in all other occupations and walks of life, we fail to see the correlation between that, and someone beating his wife. Thanks again for your comments.