Anyone been through Thailand office for waiver?

[spyrals 0]

Well, today was our final interview after a very smooth process of CR1 through dcf in Australia. Unfortunately, my previous overstay of my tourist visa was ground for inadmissibility. I overstayed by more than 180 days but less than 1 year (I didn't realise I had to come back to Australia after 6 months). When I overstayed, the people at the airport immigration told me that this will not impact my getting the correct visa so I can enter the US in the future. I guess they lied! Too bad we already left our apartment and I quit my job and bought tickets. So now I have to get a waiver of inadmissibility which the consulate officers said takes 6 months. We're totally devastated The waiver will have to go through the embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. I can't find any info on their turnaround times so I don't know how long it generally takes. 6 months seems like such a long time! So this is really bad news. If anyone has any info they would like to share, please do...

[Kathryn41 3,205]

duplicate post in DCF forum removed as this is the appropriate and best location to get the requested information.

spyrals, I'm sorry for what happened. Hopefully someone here will be able to provide you with some good advice. Unfortunately, many of the border officials are not as familiar as they should be with immigration regulations and requirements. You are not the first who has been negatively impacted by their bad advice/information. It is not so much that they lied but that they think they know more than they do or their knowledge is out of date.

[kuhio 1]

Hello Spyrals,

Sorry to hear about your problems with an overstay. It must be quite disheartening to get all the way to the interview expecting no problems to be hit with this, especially when you were told that there would be no problem by US Immi. I will be going through the waiver process in Bangkok as well after we have our interview. Which won't be for another month or two though. So I don't have any first hand knowledge, however I have been told by my lawyer and seen a bunch of cases which people posted online saying that the waiver process through Bangkok has taken less than 6 months. In some exceptional cases a lot less. However, as always, you never know what you are going to get.

Putting aside the time frame though, I think your primary concern should be talking with a US Immigration Attorney who can advise you on your case as soon as possible. It will take some time to put a waiver package together and most agree that it is best to use an attorney that has experience in the USCIS jurisdiction where the waiver will be adjudicated to put the waiver package together. The waiver approval hinges on demonstrating "extreme hardship" to the US citizen spouse if you were not granted the visa. It is not at all automatic. A good attorney can evaluate the particulars of your case. A look trough threads on this forum as well as the immigrate2us forum (which specializes in waivers) will give you a good idea about the waiver process.

Since you were able to do a DCF I assume your spouse lives with you in Australia at the moment? If you don't mind if I ask, how much longer do you have until the 3 year ban expires?

Again, sorry to hear about the visa denial, best of luck going forward.

[spyrals 0]

Hello Spyrals,

Sorry to hear about your problems with an overstay. It must be quite disheartening to get all the way to the interview expecting no problems to be hit with this, especially when you were told that there would be no problem by US Immi. I will be going through the waiver process in Bangkok as well after we have our interview. Which won't be for another month or two though. So I don't have any first hand knowledge, however I have been told by my lawyer and seen a bunch of cases which people posted online saying that the waiver process through Bangkok has taken less than 6 months. In some exceptional cases a lot less. However, as always, you never know what you are going to get.

Putting aside the time frame though, I think your primary concern should be talking with a US Immigration Attorney who can advise you on your case as soon as possible. It will take some time to put a waiver package together and most agree that it is best to use an attorney that has experience in the USCIS jurisdiction where the waiver will be adjudicated to put the waiver package together. The waiver approval hinges on demonstrating "extreme hardship" to the US citizen spouse if you were not granted the visa. It is not at all automatic. A good attorney can evaluate the particulars of your case. A look trough threads on this forum as well as the immigrate2us forum (which specializes in waivers) will give you a good idea about the waiver process.

Since you were able to do a DCF I assume your spouse lives with you in Australia at the moment? If you don't mind if I ask, how much longer do you have until the 3 year ban expires?

Again, sorry to hear about the visa denial, best of luck going forward.

Thanks kuhlio, I'm sorry to hear about your situation as well. Yes, my spouse came over from the US to be with me because this is taking so long. He is a resident in Australia. It was only last year that I overstayed so it's been about 8 months since my ban started.

I don't know about a lawyer, we've already had a bad experience once at the beginning of the process (after the incident at the airport where I discovered my visa was overstayed!). We went through the entire CR1 process very smoothly and did everything ourselves. The waiver seems pretty straight forward, as long as you can come up with convincing argument to hardship and evidence. I'm doing a lot of research at the moment to come up with a good extreme hardship letter. Too bad we don't have any medical hardships and will have to rely on financial and emotional reasons.

I read a few personal timelines for Bangkok processing and some people had their waver in as little as a month. Out of 10 cases I found, 7 were approved and they took around 2 months to process. This is pretty encouraging news to me. I'm hoping that will be the case with us too.

Do you have to do a waiver because of an overstay or another reason? Thanks for i2us forum referrals, I've already registered and started reading. Very helpful info there. I'm also going to check out Amazon to see if I can find any books on the subject.. Had this great book on fiance and spouse visas originally that made the process so far a breeze. Let me know how you go! I'll keep putting up updates too as soon as I have any.

[Sergi9 110]

Thanks kuhlio, I'm sorry to hear about your situation as well. Yes, my spouse came over from the US to be with me because this is taking so long. He is a resident in Australia. It was only last year that I overstayed so it's been about 8 months since my ban started.

I don't know about a lawyer, we've already had a bad experience once at the beginning of the process (after the incident at the airport where I discovered my visa was overstayed!). We went through the entire CR1 process very smoothly and did everything ourselves. The waiver seems pretty straight forward, as long as you can come up with convincing argument to hardship and evidence. I'm doing a lot of research at the moment to come up with a good extreme hardship letter. Too bad we don't have any medical hardships and will have to rely on financial and emotional reasons.

I read a few personal timelines for Bangkok processing and some people had their waver in as little as a month. Out of 10 cases I found, 7 were approved and they took around 2 months to process. This is pretty encouraging news to me. I'm hoping that will be the case with us too.

Do you have to do a waiver because of an overstay or another reason? Thanks for i2us forum referrals, I've already registered and started reading. Very helpful info there. I'm also going to check out Amazon to see if I can find any books on the subject.. Had this great book on fiance and spouse visas originally that made the process so far a breeze. Let me know how you go! I'll keep putting up updates too as soon as I have any.

The Waiver process is anything but straightforward. And while you do have to come up with a convincing argument and evidence to prove hardship its based in the end on the discretion of the adjudicating officer and station chief. Its also highly specific to your individual circumstances so pay special attention to proving why you deserve discretion.

Good luck and if I were you I would not spend a lot of time researching a book on I601 waivers, there is none that I know of and the info you will get off the research links on this forum and the actual experiences with that USCIS suboffice in the country where your waiver will be adjudicated will be much more relevant and up-to-date.

Good luck.

Edited February 2, 2011 by Sergi9