Visiting While the I-129F Processes

[f1000 0]

Hey all.. I never thought about this until reading this topic, but my fiance is a flight attendant for a private company overseas and travels to the US every few months (2-3x a year). She has a crew visa as well as a 10 year tourist visa. Now I am wondering if her entry into the US as a crew member on a working flight will be an issue while the 129F processes? She also visits when she can arrange a week off here and there, and that is using her tourist visa. When they scan her passport does it pop up that a K1 is being processed?

Thoughts?

[mr.j.j.s. 1]

There are NO guarantees....the border folks have complete discretion...

So much power, applied arbitrarily by the hands of a single individual. Scary ...

[ckel11310 10]

That has yet to be decided. Ideally, the longer the better - It would be awesome if she could stay for at least a month. But I have the feeling that anything over 2 weeks might arouse suspicions.

The fact that she doesn't have a job will definitely work against her. When my fiancee came to visit this past April, the officer almost didn't let her through because she didn't have a job. Because she won't have a job, there is a chance that she might not be allowed to come in - it all depends on the officer. He let her through because our stories lined up and I was honest from the beginning. He asked me if I was travelling alone, and I said "No, I'm with my fiancee but because she's not a citizen, she's on the non-citizen line over there." Little did I know that because there were so many people on the non-U.S. citizen line, they sent the non-citizens to the citizen area to be checked after all the citizens were checked.

If you don't want to take the risk, you could possibly think about sending in your I-129F while your fiancee is in the States.

We filed the I-129F in December, my guy visited from England for 89 days under the visa waiver program with no problems from February until the beginning of May. He was up front about having a pending K1.

I made a post in the site discussion forum to have a thread pinned about visiting: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/67796-yes-you-can-visit/ but the mods seem to be ignoring it?

You were very fortunate. My fiancee was almost denied access, and she was only visiting for a month (we entered together on April 23, and she left by herself May 22).

[Noah Lot 387]

So much power, applied arbitrarily by the hands of a single individual. Scary ...

I salute them...they (CBP) have a thankless job....let someone in who does us harm, everyone whines....deny admission to some young single woman from eastern Europe, people whine...my take? Let them do their job...they are better trained than anyone else who has an opinion and little else. There is no 100% solution.

Hey all.. I never thought about this until reading this topic, but my fiance is a flight attendant for a private company overseas and travels to the US every few months (2-3x a year). She has a crew visa as well as a 10 year tourist visa. Now I am wondering if her entry into the US as a crew member on a working flight will be an issue while the 129F processes? She also visits when she can arrange a week off here and there, and that is using her tourist visa. When they scan her passport does it pop up that a K1 is being processed?

Thoughts?

the holder of a crew visa cannot do AOS....so when she arrives as such, no one will give her a second look....however, if she chooses to arrive as a tourist, well, all bets are off.

[jaycali 415]

Hey all.. I never thought about this until reading this topic, but my fiance is a flight attendant for a private company overseas and travels to the US every few months (2-3x a year). She has a crew visa as well as a 10 year tourist visa. Now I am wondering if her entry into the US as a crew member on a working flight will be an issue while the 129F processes? She also visits when she can arrange a week off here and there, and that is using her tourist visa. When they scan her passport does it pop up that a K1 is being processed?Thoughts?

No one will care.

No CBP officer will ask a crew member "are you married or engaged to a US citizen?" And few will even ask too many questions about their entry other than the usuals. The I-129f won't pop up like a big red flag when the passport is scanned.

I've entered three times on the VWP since I got married, no problems any of the times. First two times the officer never asked me who I was meeting. The last time I entered, I actually entered with my wife at the same booth. He asked us how we were related, we said we're married and to my surprise the officer didn't even ask anything other than whether I had ESTA and when I was leaving. He was more concerned about making the US stamp look better than the Canadian stamp on the same passport page.

Edited June 3, 2012 by jaejayC

[jaycali 415]

In fact, no one at USCIS will likely know who she is until they work on the I-129f. Between the time it's received and the time it gets approved, it just sits in a storage box. The first time I entered, we hadn't filed yet, but the second time I entered was 3.5 months after we filed the I-130, and the officer never asked me who I was meeting. She just asked how long I was staying. If "MARRIED TO US CITIZEN" had popped up on her screen, I'm sure she would have asked.

Edited June 3, 2012 by jaejayC

[f1000 0]

the holder of a crew visa cannot do AOS....so when she arrives as such, no one will give her a second look....however, if she chooses to arrive as a tourist, well, all bets are off.

When she gets the K1 she will be quitting her job to move to the US so the crew visa will be voided by her employer. My question was until then she might be doing flights to the US as crew and be on a layover here and if that would present an issue? When she visits on her time off she comes in using her tourist visa.