Discrepancy Between IMBRA and Draft 129f?

[Gator]

I have been reading for a few hours about IMBRA, etc.  Hopefully I am missing something because I see a problem for those of us who have filed in the past.  Can someone reconcile the differences among these three sourcs:

1.  IMBRA says:

A consular officer may not approve a petition under paragraph (1) unless the officer has verified that _
(i) the petitioner has not, previous to the pending petition,  petitioned under
paragraph (1) with respect to two or more applying aliens; and
(ii) if the petitioner has had such a petition previously approved, 2 years
have elapsed  since the filing of such previously approved petition.

2.  Every since this law was passed, I have been reading various legal and layman interpretations that were consistent with the immigration attorney Gary Bala’s words from his webpage.

Some petitioners will need to wait before they can successfully file for a fiancee visa. For example, if you filed two (2) or more fiancee visa petitions in the past, and at least one of them was approved, you must wait two (2) years from the filing date of the last approved petition before you can be successfully approved for another fiancee visa petition. (Exception: Under some circumstances, a petitioner may be able to obtain a "waiver".)

3.  The Draft I-129F (5/23/06) has been released.  Item 4 of the instructions says: 

If you have filed two or more K-1 visa petitions at any time in the past or previously had a K-1 visa petition approved within two years prior to the filing of this petition, you must apply for a waiver.


Do you see the discrepancy?  Is the USCIS misinterpreting the law?  The instructions suggest that the law in stating “such a petition” means a single petition regardless of whether it was the only petition or one of two or more petitions.  Also, the law states that the two-year waiting period begins with the date of filing the approved petition; however, USCIS draft instructions say the two years begin upon its approval. 

These two inconsistencies hopefully are just sloppy work by the USCIS and will be corrected in the final version.

BTW, Item 9B of the instructions uses proof death as the only example for  a waiver.

[William3rd]

The USCIS and DOS has indeed interpreted the AND as an OR. However, I just started getting my waiver cases back and apparently, they are handling the waivers as part of the initial evaluation of the K process. This means that the grants of waivers are being handled in a similar fashion as waivers for the meeting requirement based on hardship.

Since I am now filing for a waiver for myself, this is an improvement on the worst case scenario that I envisioned.

[Turboguy]

I am doing the same William.   So far from floating around VJ and doing a lot of reading it sounds like they have not been to tough on waver requests or IMBRA complications such as convictions etc.   I hope that they continue not to make things too tough.

[William3rd]

I also have a case with a DV conviction and another case with 5 drug/alcohol convictions which were approved. The convictions were a subject of the interview but the clients had already explained their prior history with their fiancees during the courtship process-which is what it is all really about

[Turboguy]

The last I heard Maxx had sort of given up on finding a gal in the FSU over the false DV charge his GC ex filed and started to look for an FSU woman in the USA.   I think it would be less an issue for him than he realizes.

[jb]

If Maxx is smart he'll make a trip to Florida to see the rs899's sister-in-law.  She seems to be a viable option for a guy like Maxx.

[Maxx2]

I am friends with Natasha Spivak of Encounters International in Washington DC. There is LOTS of available FSU women here in the US that she comes in contact with. So when I am ready... who knows. The whole INS hassle with the worrying etc. is just something I don't want to do again. Frankly the thought of running through their gauntlet really pisses me off. They should be answering to me not the other way around. rs899's sister-in-law looks really nice

Maxx