What is the chance of Pajeet getting an I-130 approval, assuming everything in their marriage is in order but given 1) Pajeet's history of illegal employment and 2) the fact that they only submitted the application after Pajeet was busted?
Oh, it's still possible but a lot harder. A lot will depend on who is assigned to their case and does the interviews. The reason I keep harping on the illegal work shit is because that is the probably the best chance of 86'ing the case and the best reason USCIS will have for denying the case. Nina came here on a work visa, so that has them looking for possible evidence of economic migration motivation. Then she actually worked illegally, which is far stronger (well it's actual evidence) of economic migration AND breaking the law.
My husband couldn't work until his greencard was approved. He was careful to invest money becoming a partner in a business that generated profits, but even that we had to be very careful to be sure we remained within the letter of the law.
Actually this just made me realize something critical that could be the real reason Greta didn't get that paper work submitted for Nina.
See the i-130 application puts a lot of responsibility on the citizen petitioner (Greta is the petitioner and Nina will be the applicant). The petitioner has to straight up say "I will be financially responsible for support of applicant in all respects." USCIS doesn't give a shit how hard it is for someone not to be able to work while they process the application. Pleading hardship as a reason someone worked illegally isn't tolerated. Even after someone gets their spousal greencard, if they get divorced and the greencard holder becomes a unemployed bum the govt will go after the petitioner/former spouse to take care of that shit.
This could be the real reason this application never got done. Greta realized she would have to be financially responsible for Nina (and Greta hasn't even done that for her own kid) as long as Nina is in the USA (even if they get divorced later) AND you have prove a certain amount of income to sponsor someone.
If TLL has been doing funny stuff and Greta has been syphoning off money under the table to fund the never ending vacation they seem to be on, and under reporting income on her taxes, she might not be able to sponsor Nina even if they are legitimately married.
At one point when we were submitting a bunch of documents I got a rejection notice because it said I didn't mean the financial threshold to be a sponsor. What had happened was USCIS had actually overlooked a bunch of my documents and thought I was reporting what amounted to less than a 1/3 of my actual annual income. The financial threshold isn't that high, but given what a scumbag Greta is I bet she tries to vastly under-report her income to the IRS to avoid paying much in taxes. Your tax returns are the only documentation USCIS will look at for proof of income and ability to sponsor and applicant. The TLL scam may actually be preventing Greta from being Nina's sponsor.
This is an interesting factor I had not considered until really thinking about the I-130 application process in-depth.
Sorry for the tangent, but yes their application could still be approved but the illegal work combined with maybe trying to avoid reporting actual income to the IRS could either prevent Greta from even being a sponsor/force her to truthfully report her income/TLL to the IRS to qualify as a petitioner and/or she may not want to be ultimately responsible for her boytoy for the next decade or more (petitioning for Nina puts heavy financial responsibility on Greta for Nina.)
Shit, they may only have the defensive asylum case avenue to use to get Nina legal if Greta's scammy behavior is a deep and long as I have a feeling it is. Trying to petition for Nina could open her up to all kinds of problems that she would probably dump Nina than try to face. (And no you can't fundraise/get charity to meet income requirements to be a I-130 sponsor)
