Renewed Visa Already Married to a Citizen

I hope someone here can help me.

My wife is from China and she came to the states on a J-1 work visa at a University. We married at her second year here. We spoke to a lawyer about getting a waiver for the 2 year home residency requirement and he came to the conclusion that she would qualify for a waiver as she is not on the special skills list and the J-1 was not financed by a government entity.

Everyone was going well until the lawyer said that we needed a Tax Clearance form from her last employment in China. That document has been hardest thing to get. This was in September of 2011 and her visa was due to expire in April of 2012. Her visa was for 3 years with the option to extend 2 more for a 5 year total stay.

She renewed her visa in March. The lawyer had told us that he didn't think the renewal would affect the waiver but could cause issues for the green card. Now we have one her workmates sending her the document and should be here in a few weeks, hopefully.

The problem now is one of the other lawyers at the same firm sent us a letter that reads;

The Problem is that the J-1 visa is a nonimmigrant visa, and anyone who
applies for it must have nonimmigrant intent. This means that the visa applicant
cannot intend to use the visa to permanently move to the United States. When Mrs.
Smith renewed her J-1 visa, she was suppsoed to do so only if she had
nonimmigrant intent. However, at that point Mrs. Smith was already married to a
U.S. citizen and trying to apply for a waiver of the two year foreign residency
requirement. Unfortunately, under these set of facts, we believe that USCIS will
think that Mrs. Smith had no intentions of returning to her home country when
she renewed her J-1 visa and consider the visa renewal an act of fraud.

Because we believe that USCIS will consider Mrs. Smith's visa renewal an
act of fraud, we believe that she will not be eligible for a green card unless she also
files a fraud waiver application that is approved by USCIS. This type of waiver is
available to spouses of U.S. citizens, and it requires that Mrs. Smith prove that
Mr. Smith would suffer extreme hardship if she is not permitted to remain in the
United States.

On the other hand, if Mrs. Smith does intend to return to her home
country, then USCIS will not consider her J-1 visa renewal an act of fraud if she
returns to the China, obtains a waiver of the two year foreign residency
requirement and applies for an immigrant visa at the U.S. consulate.

end,

Now I only just received this letter Friday so I haven't had the chance to speak with
the main lawyer regarding this.

What we were told and what is in the letter seem to conflict a bit. We have paid him so
far for the handling of the waiver only. My question is this. Is my wife in danger of visa fraud
is she in danger of never receiving a green card?

The main lawyer never spoke in such a dire tone regarding if she renewed her visa.

Correct, if she applies for a non immigrant visa and lies, which she did, she can be refused the right to stay in the US. She needs to leave and process everything from out of the country.

Was the first attorney a senior member of the firm with extensive immigration experience or a junior associate? I suggest looking at the experience level and credentials of the two individuals before going into panic mode.

Her problem is she lied in the March renewal. One of 2 scenarios could play out. If she leaves, before the one year is up, they could decide she earned a 3 year ban and she can then start proceedings after that date or second, she did not commit fraud because she left and did not stay for an answer on a waiver. Waiting beyond one year, she risks being assessed a 10 year ban.