Visiting partner in the US a few times a year - how to?

[Rosenrot 0]

Hello,

I am new here and should explain about my situation. I am a German citizen and are in a relationship with an American citizen. By now we are visiting the other (less than three months stay) and live on different continents. In the long run our plan is to get married and him moving to Germany. So I have no intention to ever stay in the USA permanently.

I have read very often about people getting in trouble when they entered the USA regularly to just visit, because they thought they might stay illegally. I have no such thing in mind. But I plan on going there three times in 2010. Two weeks in early April, two weeks in June and five weeks in August/September.

I have an unrestricted employment at a German school and also own property in Germany. So I could bring copies of that.

I understand by law I could go there on the visa waiver program the three times. But I have heard about quite some people getting in trouble when entering more often, especially when you are in a relationship with an American.

What is the best way to make sure I can visit without any bother? Would it make sense to get a tourist visa, although I do not want to stay longer than three months?

Or am I very unlikely to get in trouble and should just bring some copies of work-contract....owning property and such....

I also would like to know what would be the case if we would get married, but would still live in different places until he moved here. Would it be easier for me to enter or maybe even harder?

As I said....I have no intentions to stay in the USA permanently due to job and family ties....but I would like to enter trouble-free a few times a year until he moves here.

I would appreciate some advice very much

Rosenrot

[lucyrich 19]

This is an area where US immigration law doesn't serve you well. Apparently Congress thinks that anyone married to a US Citizen either wants to come to the US to live indefinitely, or doesn't want to visit the US at all.

If you wanted to immigrate to the US, the process is straightforward. As detailed in the guides, there are several routes to getting a green card. The green card would let you come and go as you please, but you'd have to maintain your primary residence inside the US. If your primary residence was outside the US, you'd probably be found to have abandoned your green card, and you'd have to start all over with a new immigrant visa.

I've heard of people in similar situations getting an immigrant visa for each trip, but that sounds like an awful lot of expense and paperwork.

If you stayed in the US long enough to become a US Citizen (about three years, plus processing delays which would probably add about another year or so), you could come and go as often as you please, and live outside the US for as long as desired, while always maintaining the right to come to the US, no matter how long you'd been outside. That's probably the ideal situation when you're finished, but it requires spending years as a resident in the US, which you don't want to do.

If you're not willing to do that, then you're stuck with a non-immigrant tourist entry, for which you must always prove that you don't intend to immigrate. You've got to show evidence that you have strong ties to your home country and not to the US. A tourist visa may make it a little bit easier than using the visa waiver program, because you go through most of the scrutiny at the consulate instead of at the port of entry, and if they deny you at the consulate, you aren't out the money for an airplane ticket. But you're still always at the mercy of a CPB officer at the port of entry, and if the officer believes you haven't sufficiently proven non-immigrant intent, he can turn you away, even if you have a tourist visa.

One little thing you could do to perhaps make things a little easier is to arrange your flight schedules to go through a pre-clearance station in Ireland. That way, you go through US immigration before you get on the plane in Ireland. So if they DO decide to turn you back, at least it's before you've flown all the way across the Atlantic Ocean.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,235]

Rosenrot,

Hundreds of millions of people want to immigrate to the US, and many of them would without hesitation cut off one of their limbs or kill their grandmother in order to be able to do that. Thus, people who already live here in paradise can simply not conceive that somebody would actually want to move from the country of the brave and free to Germany. Heck, I myself can't think of a single reason why anybody would want to do that, but that doesn't really matter.

For your purposes the VWP is perfectly suited to serve your needs. Since you are only visiting for a few weeks, you should encounter absolutely no problems at all. I have many, let me repeat that, many business associates from Germany, England, and France who come here 3 or 4 times a year and stay for 3 to 6 weeks every time, and none of them ever had a problem. Since the CBP immigration drones at the US airports are easily confused, I wouldn't tell them that you are visiting your boyfriend; I would just tell 'em that you are a teacher with several months of paid vacation per year (hard to believe for Americans, yet absolutely true), and prefer spending some of that time and much of your disposable money in the US.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

and many of them would without hesitation cut off one of their limbs or kill their grandmother in order to be able to do that

!!!

Anyway, definitely think about doing the pre-clearance in Dublin or Shannon Ireland. No matter how much proof you carry with you there is still a legitimate chance you may be refused entry. Do you have other reasons to visit the US? That might help as well.