Boston Divorce Lawyer Blog

[Good Morning America]

Keith A. Pabian, Esq. is an immigration attorney with Pabian & Russell, LLC, a law firm in Boston with practice areas including corporate law and estate planning.

GUEST BLOGGER – Keith A. Pabian

If you are a person that immigrated to the United States through a marriage that was less than 2 years old when you received your green card, then you received your green card on a conditional basis.  In other words, you are known as a conditional permanent resident.  This conditional status lasts for 2 years after your green card was granted.  But what happens if you and your spouse get divorced before the end of those 2 years while you are still in the United States as a conditional permanent resident? Do you lose your green card?

Usually, the United States Citizenship & Immigration Service (USCIS) requires that a spouse granted conditional permanent residence file to remove the conditional residence jointly with his or her spouse.  However, there is an exception for a person that has been divorced before filing to remove his or her conditional residence.

If you are a conditional permanent resident and you are divorced, then you may file an I-751 petition without the help of your ex-spouse to remove your conditional residence if you can show that you entered into your marriage in good faith and that the marriage has legally been terminated.  Therefore, if you can show that you and your former spouse had a real marriage and that you have obtained a legal divorce, then you can file an I-751 petition by yourself.  Similarly, children of divorced parents can also file an I-751 petition by themselves if they can show that their parents entered into a good faith marriage and that they were legally divorced.

To show that you entered into a good faith marriage, you should submit as many documents as possible with the I-751 petition to show that you had a real marriage.  Documents such as joint bank account statements, a lease or mortgage with both your name and your ex-spouse’s name on it, and birth certificates of any children than you had together are helpful in showing a valid marriage.

Keith A. Pabian, Esq. is an Immigration Attorney at Pabian & Russell, LLC. Mr. Pabian can be reached at (617) 951-3100 or by email at kpabian@pabianrussell.com if you would like to schedule a consultation or are in need of immigration assistance or advice.

[Second Life Affair Ends In Divorce]

CNN reports on a couple who met online and married on Second Life and is now divorcing because the wife has found her husband cheating on her with another woman – of course – in Second Life.

I’ve often (read: once) thought about opening a virtual law office in Second Life.  I’ve never played the game.  I don’t know the logistics of malpractice and bar admissions criteria for practicing in a virtual world.  I also don’t know who’d want to hire an attorney in Second Life.  I do know one thing though – I need to provide excellent service to my clients in this first Life, first.

[Youths called to 'sexting' hearing]

Why are prosecutors wasting their time on this?  Why isn’t this left to the parents and the school to handle instead?

I understand that sometimes you have to make an example of some people in order to send a message to the general public.  This however, is teaching no one anything. These are children texting a picture of a classmate who has one of her breasts exposed.  If we had cell phones when we were their age, we would all be doing the same thing but instead, we passed around playboys.

The school should be banning texting in class.  They could suspend the kids involved.  The parents of the children (including the girl ‘victim’) should punish the children and be teaching them that this type of behavior is not acceptable and can seriously land them in trouble when they’re older and can do serious harm to a person’s reputation and future.  The prosecutors – well, they should spend their time going after real criminals and real child pornographers and molestors.

I highly doubt that this is what the legislature intended when they passed the law on child pornography.

**Update

[Teens Accused of Distributing Topless Photos of Classmate]

Are they going to be charged too?  These two unrelated events concerns me and should concern any parent.  But again, isn’t it going too far to prosecute these kids as distributors of child pornography when they are children themselves?  Are we going to tarnish these kids’ future by requiring them to register as sex offenders?!?

I’m rolling out some notable new features and contents on this blog.

First, on each blog post, readers will now have the option to bookmark the post with a number of different bookmarks, ranging from google to delicious to facebook.  Have fun and feel free to share.

Second, I’ve added a new “Free Resources” tab to the top of the blog – in addition to the free Legal Guides and Q&As that I write for Avvo.  The Free Resources tab contains a listing of agencies and their respective phone numbers for free legal service, info and advice in Massachusetts.  There’s no advice like free advice – is what somebody once said.