A hard decision (revisited)

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Salutations all,

I am new to this forum so I will try to share as much information as possible to get the best answers:

I am a Untied States Sailor stationed in Scott AFB Illinois. I just wed my wife on June 4, 2011. She is from Malaysia, so I am in the process of filing the I-130 petition for her to come here to live with me. I have read the stories on here so I can't really complain about the month I have been waiting for the approval.

Here is my question, we were looking at doing a tourist Visa so she could come here for a short time then go back for her medical process and interview. She was denied a tourist visa 2 months ago by not having strong enough ties to the US to go on vacation(go figure, I thought it would be the other way around). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

V/R

YN2

[TracyTN 237]

I don't think I'm following what the question is - are you asking if she'll be denied again? Possibly, but - you never really know unless you try.

I'm not sure why this thread is in the K1 forum, so I'll move it to the forum about tourist visas.

[Boiler 43,436]

Try, you only have the fee at risk.

[Jacque and Gerry 5]

Salutations all,

I am new to this forum so I will try to share as much information as possible to get the best answers:

I am a Untied States Sailor stationed in Scott AFB Illinois. I just wed my wife on June 4, 2011. She is from Malaysia, so I am in the process of filing the I-130 petition for her to come here to live with me. I have read the stories on here so I can't really complain about the month I have been waiting for the approval.

Here is my question, we were looking at doing a tourist Visa so she could come here for a short time then go back for her medical process and interview. She was denied a tourist visa 2 months ago by not having strong enough ties to the US to go on vacation(go figure, I thought it would be the other way around). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

V/R

YN2

If you are in the military did you request an expidite? Regarding your question, you are saying she is currently in Malaysia and wants to come to Illinois to visit you. You then say she was denied a tourist visa by not having strong enough ties to the US...? That doesn't make sense, you mean she doesn't have strong enough ties to Malaysia to come to the US on a tourist visa?

Edited July 7, 2011 by Jacque and Gerry

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Hello all,

I feel bad because I posted this on the visa topic page, I wasn't aware there was a page dedicated to Malaysians. So here goes:

I'm a United States Sailor just recently coming back from being stationed in Japan for 3 years, I am now based in Scott AFB, IL. Last year I met the woman that would become my wife, she is Malaysian. We were wed on the 4th of June, and I had to fly back on the 11th due to her not having a visa. In my ignorance, I thought an ID card and command sponsorship letter would be enough to get her to the states, but to no avail. I have filed an I-130 and received my NOA on the 24th of June. They have also agreed to expedite the process. I have 2 questions:

1. How much time would be cut of by the expedite request, and would it be beneficial to file a K3 spouse visa?

2. We were thinking about doing a tourist visa to get her here just for a short time and send her back for her interview, she was denied before due to no strong ties in the US. Would that be of help?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[WaitingToExhale 3]

the process at uscis they say takes 5 months.mostly they do it in 3-4 months.an expidite should have you an noa2 in 1 months timeor 2 months the most!some persons have it in 2 weeks after an expedite approval so goodluck.

she wont get a tourist visa becos they cant consider 2 different visa at the same time m- they are already considering a spouse visa so a tourist visa more than likely wont be considered and based on the fact that her husband is in the us that automatically makes them think she has less ties in her country...worth a try if u wanna but i doubt it much...

[Casprd 167]

K3 visa won't really help and in general it is administratively dead. The CR-1 which is what you will be going for is the best bet as when she arrives she can get a green card and be in conditional LPR status right away. Bringing her over on a tourist visa is going to be a no-go since she doesn't have strong ties and with the I-130 no filed the consulate will look at it as trying to circumvent the system to get her here and then adjust status. If she was denied once for this, now that you are married it will be even harder so better not to waste the time and money. Sounds like your best bet is to stick with the I-130 and run through the process. Normally it is about 8 to 10 months, but with the expidite it should shave a few months of USCIS. Don't know how it will affect the NVC and consulate steps though.

If you haven't already, start compiling all your evidence now. Hopefully you already did this and it was included with the I-130 package.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

K3 visa won't really help and in general it is administratively dead. The CR-1 which is what you will be going for is the best bet as when she arrives she can get a green card and be in conditional LPR status right away. Bringing her over on a tourist visa is going to be a no-go since she doesn't have strong ties and with the I-130 no filed the consulate will look at it as trying to circumvent the system to get her here and then adjust status. If she was denied once for this, now that you are married it will be even harder so better not to waste the time and money. Sounds like your best bet is to stick with the I-130 and run through the process. Normally it is about 8 to 10 months, but with the expidite it should shave a few months of USCIS. Don't know how it will affect the NVC and consulate steps though.

If you haven't already, start compiling all your evidence now. Hopefully you already did this and it was included with the I-130 package.

Thanks for the quick replies, this has been exhausting since the day we started. I feel like a heel since most folks go so long without their spouse and here I am bitching abou the month I have been apart from her. If the expedite process takes a month or two, I guess I can just keep waiting. I turned in all of the evidence when the RFE came in one day after I received it. Hopefully things will go smoothly God willing...

[Ban Hammer 12,839]

duplicate topics merged.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

If you are in the military did you request an expidite? Regarding your question, you are saying she is currently in Malaysia and wants to come to Illinois to visit you. You then say she was denied a tourist visa by not having strong enough ties to the US...? That doesn't make sense, you mean she doesn't have strong enough ties to Malaysia to come to the US on a tourist visa?

See that's what I said, I thought it would be the other way around. But she said they didn't she had strong enough ties to go to the US. But I did ask for the expedite request and they said they approved of it, so I got my first RFE on the 3rd of July and I sent it back on the 5th. So it looks like I have to play the waiting game. I just pray things go smoothly so there won't be any hangups....

[Darnell 8,478]

RFE is a good sign, actually - it means your casefile is at the head of the queue, an adjudicator has reviewed it.

So 2 to 3 weeks after you mailed back the RFE packet, you should know something on the I-130 approval.

Since you got an expedite at USCIS, you prolly want to chase after an expedite at NVC, when the casefile travels there.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

RFE is a good sign, actually - it means your casefile is at the head of the queue, an adjudicator has reviewed it.

So 2 to 3 weeks after you mailed back the RFE packet, you should know something on the I-130 approval.

Since you got an expedite at USCIS, you prolly want to chase after an expedite at NVC, when the casefile travels there.

Definitely on the top of my to do list:) I was reading on those websites about lawyers and organizations that do the paperwork for you and they said the RFE was the worst thing to get since it means they are sitting on your request until they get the paperwork. I sent everything off as soon as I got my hands on it. Guess I will have to wait and see what the next step it...

[Darnell 8,478]

http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/EZGuideSpouse