Opinion ID: 2716505
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Denial of Duque's joint I-751 petition

Text: On January 11, 2008, Duque and Gladys submitted a joint I-751 petition to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (the CIS), seeking to remove the conditional basis of Duque's lawful permanent-resident status. On April 30, 2009 they appeared for an interview with a CIS officer. During Gladys's individual interview, she withdrew from the joint petition and claimed that: (1) she and Duque had lived in different residences since his arrival in Puerto Rico; (2) she and Duque had never lived together as husband and wife; and (3) she had married Duque because she wished to help him, but also because he offered to pay her $2,000 in exchange for her assistance in securing lawful residency. Unsurprisingly, the CIS denied the joint petition and terminated Duque's permanent-resident status. In its decision, the CIS stated that Gladys admitted that the joint petition contained false statements, and that the credit cards presented to the CIS officer by Duque to evince joint accounts -- purportedly held by both Duque and Gladys -- were actually held in Duque's sole possession and were only provided to Gladys the week of the interview. The decision also mentioned that the CIS interviewer offered Duque the opportunity to rebut Gladys's statements, and he initially claimed that her statements were false. However, when asked later if he wanted to change anything in his statement, Duque admitted that he and Gladys never lived together as husband and -3- wife, that she married him as a favor, and that he would provide Gladys with monetary aid when necessary.