Hello everyone,

I thought I'd share my experience with you since there is a lot of controversy about that subject in those forums.

As you can see both my I-130 ans I-129F were approved 2008-03-10 after a long long long wait...
My 3 kids I-130 are still pending though.

Anyways my husband and I had decided I'd take the chance to visit for our first anniversary before we were approved.
So when the approval came, just 2 weeks before departure it was too late to change our plans anyways.

So I left with my 3 children for a 6 weeks visit to the States.
We arrived at LAX POE on March 30th.
We had no visa, we travelled under the VWP which allows us 90 days in the US.
I had brought all ties of intent of return with me and my husband had written a letter for the POE officer and an affidavit of support for our stay, as advised by our lawyer.

Questions at POE:

Are you visiting friends or family?
Yes family.

Where are you staying in the US?
In 'such state' ...

How long are you staying for?
6 weeks, we leave on May ...

He got our picture, our finger prints, and said have a nice stay.
No documents were asked for, the immigration process was never mentionned and my 3 kids and I were done in less than five minutes.

We did not travel light since we thought we'd take the opportunity to bring as much as we could, but we were not even checked out on our lugguages.

Since then an interview date has been set at the embassy which we will attend on our return.

I was more stressed out by all the stories I had heard about than the POE process itself was.
So I know some people have problems visiting while waiting for their visa, I just thought I'd share a good story for once.

Christine.

I am glad to hear it worked out for you and the family!!! Congrats!!!!

Thankyou for posting this, it's really helpful thankyou. I'm pleased you had a lovely stay and no issues.

Sarah, are you trying this option (visit) ???

You look pretty tooooooooooooooo...

Awe, thankyou Loto .... you wouldn't say that if you saw me right now but I really appreciate that.

Me? ..... try to visit? ..... would love to, but have been told not to attempt it by an Immigration Lawyer and Officer.

I don't have enough documented ties to the U.K. to make an Immigration Officer happy at POE and all my charm was sucked out of me a few days ago when we got turned down for an expedite following a close family bereavement and another close family member being diagnosed with terminal cancer with a couple of months to live .... I'm still in shock that USCIS said no.
I was going to risk trying but that expedite denial stuffed me quite a bit and I'd probably just look like too much of a bag of nerves if I tried to enter the US as I'd be flying in to help the family as well as see my Husband.

... so hopefully Hubby will be over for a couple of days in the summer .... can't wait .... but really wish I was over there to help with the awful situation.
If I don't have my NOA2 by the end of the summer, I'll probably try it .... and everytime I read that others got though, it really helps

Hang in there Sarah and good luck to you all.