visitor visa validity

[WaitingStill 24]

My fiancée and I are awaiting our NOA2. She would like to visit me here in the US, but is afraid they wont admit her.

Last year she visited the US and while changing planes in New York, Customs found a piece of sausage in her luggage, accused her of bringing in undeclared goods, and made her pay a $300 fine.

welcome to America.

My question is this: is there a way to check whether there would be a problem about this BEFORE we spend a couple of thousand dollars on a plane ticket?

I know, sounds crazy. All over a piece of sausage.

Thanks

[Dave&Roza 748]

My fiancée and I are awaiting our NOA2. She would like to visit me here in the US, but is afraid they wont admit her.

Last year she visited the US and while changing planes in New York, Customs found a piece of sausage in her luggage, accused her of bringing in undeclared goods, and made her pay a $300 fine.

welcome to America.

My question is this: is there a way to check whether there would be a problem about this BEFORE we spend a couple of thousand dollars on a plane ticket?

I know, sounds crazy. All over a piece of sausage.

Thanks

As long as she is given a tourist visa from the Embassy, I see no problems of her visiting. Tell her this time to leave the sausage at home . CBP will be the ones to admit her not customs and you can never tell about them. The only people they have to let into the country are USC. Everybody else is on a case by case basis. Usually if the traveller has a valid tourist visa you are okay. You might want to e-mail her the NOA1 so she can show them you are going about it the correct way. After all, she has to be in her home country for the interview and if she stays and you try to AOS after getting married with a pending K-1 the USCIS will be all over that--so she has every intention to go home and the NOA1 should help show that.

Good luck and you should know by now in dealing with USCIS and CBP that there are no guarantees.

Dave

[aaron2020 11,651]

Okay. How did the sausage get in her suitcase?

[WaitingStill 24]

She was bringing it as a gift for a friend. She worked at a food service company where she was responsible for all the meat, and this was their top of the line sausage. At the airport in New York her flight had been delayed and she was about to miss her connection. She was asking the people in the line ahead of her if they would let her pass. She was just scared. She was carrying the sausage in a bag. A woman took her aside and told her to put it in her carry-on, and she did. A cruel joke by an American. Of course, they took her aside, searched everything and found it. Then treated her like a smuggler. It cost her $300 and a missed flight. It has taken me nearly a year to even get her to even consider coming back. And when I go to visit her in Ukraine, I know better than to ask if she wants to go out for some sausage....

[WaitingStill 24]

By the way, she's been here twice but we were not engaged at the time and had no pending petition. But each time she was admitted with just a few basic interview questions.

She never told me whether they let her keep the sausage....

[rade2rising 205]

the sausage is very important in this story

[X Factor 1,112]

the sausage is very important in this story

[WaitingStill 24]

Olha's Note:

There is nothing as tasty as home made kovbasa. This sausage does not have to be smoked.

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/ukrainian-homemade-sausage-kovbasa-77547#ixzz1zZqZBLTr

[JohnR! 5,495]

She would like to visit me here in the US, but is afraid they wont admit her... All over a piece of sausage.

Thanks

You ARE talking about food right? :rofl: (Sorry, the devil made me do it!)

On a serious note, she should not have any issues other than maybe having to go through customs, if they keep track of TWS - Traveling While Sausage - in the d-base.

[X Factor 1,112]

Olha's Note:

There is nothing as tasty as home made kovbasa. This sausage does not have to be smoked.

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/ukrainian-homemade-sausage-kovbasa-77547#ixzz1zZqZBLTr

Looks yummy. I may just have to try that receipe

[WaitingStill 24]

More info...

I'd never really asked about the details of the sausage incident. It seems my fiancee only had 20 minutes to get to her connecting flight and was asking people in her line if she could go ahead of them. But here's the twist: Apparently, in Ukraine and thereabouts, this is common and routinely done. When the people in her line refused to let her go ahead of them she did not understand what the problem was...then a CBP officer got involved and told her that she had to wait in line like everyone else. At this, my fiancee got into an argument with the CBP officer over the relative humanitarian qualities of Ukrainians vs. Americans. So they pulled her from the line. She said that they put her passport number into a computer, and they requested a cell phone number but she did not have an American phone.

bottom line is she missed her flight, they took her sausage, and she had to pay a $300 penalty. But they admitted her to the country even after all of that, so I don't see why they wouldn't now.

And yes, that sausage sure looks good....

[rade2rising 205]

well its probably not a good idea to piss off the CBP folks

am sure she will be fine

[jaycali 415]

If she has a valid tourist visa, she shouldn't have many problems, although she may face some further questioning by CBP when entering since she has an American fiance.

The sausage story won't matter. She paid her $300, and was admitted. They may or may not have a record of it in their database, but that would only count against her if they found another undeclared sausage (or any undeclared food) in her bag.

Edited July 6, 2012 by jaejayC

[WaitingStill 24]

You ARE talking about food right? :rofl: (Sorry, the devil made me do it!)

On a serious note, she should not have any issues other than maybe having to go through customs, if they keep track of TWS - Traveling While Sausage - in the d-base.

Well she does talk about sausage a lot...I assumed it was the contraband she was referring to....

And she says she will teach me how to make Okroshka to go with the Kovbasa

[WaitingStill 24]

In the continuing saga of the sausage...

She was told she had three days to pay the fine.

She went to a bank after she reached her destination and her friend purchased a cashier's check for $300 payable to the U.S. Treasury. She put her name on it and mailed it to the address they gave her.

But she forgot to put the case number.

I told her as long as she still has her copy of the check she should be ok.

And I asked her how much the sausage weighed.

Her answer?

"about a kilo."

now that's a BIG sausage!!!!!!