Wait to submit K-1 til after visit starts?

[Aps1979 1]

First off I know the answer the the basic question, can one visit the intended country once a K-1 is in process, yes. I have read most of those threads. My question is more about opinions.

As mentioned in a previous post, my fiance is Australian so when she visits the US she comes on a VWP (visa wavier program), not an actual tourist visa. On a VWP you can stay in the US for

90 days at a time before having to return home. Once you are home there is "technically" no time limit before you can return. However if you try to enter the US before you have been out longer then you stayed in, they do tend to flag you for the round of scrutiny to prove you are not trying to stay, or jump the gun on your K-1 as the customs officer told me. Ideally we would love to stay together from the time I file until she has to return home for her interview and medical. I had though she could come here for 3 months, go spend a month or so with her family, then return for 3 months but that would be risky as it would be up to the customs officer on duty to determine whether she was planning to return or stay after being out for so long between long trips. As a side note any experience on this would be cool to hear.

This brings me to my more specific question. We were planning to submit our first filing for the i-129 on April 1st as I am waiting on a few more documents from her to arrive by mail. She is planning to visit me in the US for 90 days starting on April 29th. On one hand, we want to get these forms in and working as fast as humanly possibly because we would love a shot at a wedding by the holidays. On the other hand, if she tries to come visit me for 3 months once her K-1 is being processed, even though they will almost guaranteed let her through since she hasn't been to the US since September, they still have question her about entering for so long with a K-1 in process.

Simple question, should we wait until her trip starts to mail in the i-129 to make sure there is no issue spending those first 3 months together to avoid any potential border drama?

Thanks,

A.

[lost_at_sea 995]

First off I know the answer the the basic question, can one visit the intended country once a K-1 is in process, yes. I have read most of those threads. My question is more about opinions.

As mentioned in a previous post, my fiance is Australian so when she visits the US she comes on a VWP (visa wavier program), not an actual tourist visa. On a VWP you can stay in the US for

90 days at a time before having to return home. Once you are home there is "technically" no time limit before you can return. However if you try to enter the US before you have been out longer then you stayed in, they do tend to flag you for the round of scrutiny to prove you are not trying to stay, or jump the gun on your K-1 as the customs officer told me. Ideally we would love to stay together from the time I file until she has to return home for her interview and medical. I had though she could come here for 3 months, go spend a month or so with her family, then return for 3 months but that would be risky as it would be up to the customs officer on duty to determine whether she was planning to return or stay after being out for so long between long trips. As a side note any experience on this would be cool to hear.

This brings me to my more specific question. We were planning to submit our first filing for the i-129 on April 1st as I am waiting on a few more documents from her to arrive by mail. She is planning to visit me in the US for 90 days starting on April 29th. On one hand, we want to get these forms in and working as fast as humanly possibly because we would love a shot at a wedding by the holidays. On the other hand, if she tries to come visit me for 3 months once her K-1 is being processed, even though they will almost guaranteed let her through since she hasn't been to the US since September, they still have question her about entering for so long with a K-1 in process.

Simple question, should we wait until her trip starts to mail in the i-129 to make sure there is no issue spending those first 3 months together to avoid any potential border drama?

Thanks,

A.

Her travel is fine. The immigration guy on the gate doesn't even know about the K1 as it doesn't show up on those systems, so they won't ask her about it. She's welcome to volunteer the information if they wanted to ask her more in depth questions, particularly if they want to know about your relationship. I really don't think you'll have any problems submitting on April 1st.

Since she is going for a long trip, what she should do is make sure she has a return flight booked with a copy of the itinerary for that (that's something they do often ask for, anyway) and any other evidence that she's not moving to the US - like a rental agreement for where she lives, or a letter from her employer or whatever. I don't know how old she is - but I don't suppose they're surprised to see folks coming over in the summer for 3 months during school vacations etc.

[Aps1979 1]

Her travel is fine. The immigration guy on the gate doesn't even know about the K1 as it doesn't show up on those systems, so they won't ask her about it. She's welcome to volunteer the information if they wanted to ask her more in depth questions, particularly if they want to know about your relationship. I really don't think you'll have any problems submitting on April 1st.

Since she is going for a long trip, what she should do is make sure she has a return flight booked with a copy of the itinerary for that (that's something they do often ask for, anyway) and any other evidence that she's not moving to the US - like a rental agreement for where she lives, or a letter from her employer or whatever. I don't know how old she is - but I don't suppose they're surprised to see folks coming over in the summer for 3 months during school vacations etc.

I think that is part of our concern lost_at_sea. She lives with her parents right now to save money so unless they draw up one for her, no rental agreement. She is also resigning her position in retail to make such a long trip. Even though she is certain she can go back when she returns they won't put that in writing for legal reasons. So what we are trying to do is have some basic docs proving she is going to return. Her return ticket, itenary, copies of our K-1 docs, etc. But unless her parents draw up a rental doc, which would have the same last name on it and be understandably questionable, there are not a lot of clear ties to return to Australia other then her word, itenary, and our existing K-1 and probably NOA1. She probs can't clearly prove she has a guaranteed job to return to or a binding lease if they go that far with it. Further thoughts?

[lost_at_sea 995]

I think that is part of our concern lost_at_sea. She lives with her parents right now to save money so unless they draw up one for her, no rental agreement. She is also resigning her position in retail to make such a long trip. Even though she is certain she can go back when she returns they won't put that in writing for legal reasons. So what we are trying to do is have some basic docs proving she is going to return. Her return ticket, itenary, copies of our K-1 docs, etc. But unless her parents draw up a rental doc, which would have the same last name on it and be understandably questionable, there are not a lot of clear ties to return to Australia other then her word, itenary, and our existing K-1 and probably NOA1. She probs can't clearly prove she has a guaranteed job to return to or a binding lease if they go that far with it. Further thoughts?

The thing is - it'll probably be fine. She has a return flight, no history of overstay etc. She'll answer honestly whatever they say. She should be prepared to say what she's doing for 3 months. They could potentially ask her how she's affording it, and what she'll do when she returns

Whether you submit the K1 on the 1st April or later, it won't make any difference to her entry, really. They'll still want to know when she's going home and what she's doing for 3 months - just as all longer stay travel.

[Aps1979 1]

The thing is - it'll probably be fine. She has a return flight, no history of overstay etc. She'll answer honestly whatever they say. She should be prepared to say what she's doing for 3 months. They could potentially ask her how she's affording it, and what she'll do when she returns

Whether you submit the K1 on the 1st April or later, it won't make any difference to her entry, really. They'll still want to know when she's going home and what she's doing for 3 months - just as all longer stay travel.

Cool, thanks. I'm also assuming that our original idea of doing 3 months here, a month in Australia, and back to 3 months here until her interviews is pretty much a no go. I don't think they will let her in for 3 months twice with only one month between. I should probs plan to visit her there to break up the time.

[lost_at_sea 995]

Cool, thanks. I'm also assuming that our original idea of doing 3 months here, a month in Australia, and back to 3 months here until her interviews is pretty much a no go. I don't think they will let her in for 3 months twice with only one month between. I should probs plan to visit her there to break up the time.

Yeah, probably wise. Going the other way - my other half got a "coded landing" coming in to the UK for the last time before he had a work visa, because he was just about to have accidentally been here more than he wasn't on a tourist visa (although it was all fine). So, that's the sort of thing immigration in the US/UK/AUS are very good at keeping track of. You should check the specifics of the tourist visa for Australia - I'm only assuming it's the same as the UK one (which allows stays up to 90 days and I think not more than half the year total in the US).

[Aps1979 1]

Yeah, probably wise. Going the other way - my other half got a "coded landing" coming in to the UK for the last time before he had a work visa, because he was just about to have accidentally been here more than he wasn't on a tourist visa (although it was all fine). So, that's the sort of thing immigration in the US/UK/AUS are very good at keeping track of. You should check the specifics of the tourist visa for Australia - I'm only assuming it's the same as the UK one (which allows stays up to 90 days and I think not more than half the year total in the US).

Yeah its the same to AUS from US and it is from US to AUS. We don't need tourist visas just something called an ETA since we are both part of the visa wavier program, just like the UK. I was just there in Feb for a couple weeks, hadn't seen her since September. While I know many people on this board go through much, much longer times between visits, since we do get visa waviers and have the means we would like to see each other as much as we can during the visa process. We just want to keep playing by the rules and not get any weirdness happen. Though not seeing your SO is hard, thinking you are about to, then getting turned around at the gate after 20 hours in the air and 2k dollars wasted is even worse.

[lost_at_sea 995]

Yeah its the same to AUS from US and it is from US to AUS. We don't need tourist visas just something called an ETA since we are both part of the visa wavier program, just like the UK. I was just there in Feb for a couple weeks, hadn't seen her since September. While I know many people on this board go through much, much longer times between visits, since we do get visa waviers and have the means we would like to see each other as much as we can during the visa process. We just want to keep playing by the rules and not get any weirdness happen. Though not seeing your SO is hard, thinking you are about to, then getting turned around at the gate after 20 hours in the air and 2k dollars wasted is even worse.

Yeah. I agree. I think on the whole, a majority of people travelling are totally fine. As long as you genuinely have no intent to stay in the other country illegally, and you don't do things that might cause flags (like not having a flight home, overstaying, taking your worldly possessions with you etc.), turn backs are rare. I think they will become interested in knowing how you're both able to spend considerable time in the other country (how do you work? where's the money from?), but hopefully you'll get through this process quickly enough that it doesn't become a real cause for concern for you both

The thing with a forum like this is it's easy to get caught up reading other people's experiences, often from other countries who don't have VWPs or have high rates of fraud/illegal visa use etc. or are in fact not playing by the rules at all, and assume the bad experiences are the norm. I'd have a look at this thread: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/67796-yes-you-can-visit/ and maybe go into the Australia section of the forum and see who else there has been doing long stays and how they've found it.

We (he is the USC) were doing trips every 2 weeks for a little while. He'd come here for 2 weeks, 2 week break, then I'd go over for 2 weeks (we even both did 2 night stays over 2 different weekends once - which was mad tiring. 11 hour flight to spend 2 nights abroad!). Then he did two 6 week stays here (one in the summer, another over Christmas). Then he got his work to put him on an ICT visa so he could just live here (which is the time after he got a coded landing). You can get pretty close to the line!

Edited March 13, 2013 by lost_at_sea

[Aps1979 1]

Yeah. I agree. I think on the whole, a majority of people travelling are totally fine. As long as you genuinely have no intent to stay in the other country illegally, and you don't do things that might cause flags (like not having a flight home, overstaying, taking your worldly possessions with you etc.), turn backs are rare. I think they will become interested in knowing how you're both able to spend considerable time in the other country (how do you work? where's the money from?), but hopefully you'll get through this process quickly enough that it doesn't become a real cause for concern for you both

The thing with a forum like this is it's easy to get caught up reading other people's experiences, often from other countries who don't have VWPs or have high rates of fraud/illegal visa use etc. or are in fact not playing by the rules at all, and assume the bad experiences are the norm. I'd have a look at this thread: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/67796-yes-you-can-visit/ and maybe go into the Australia section of the forum and see who else there has been doing long stays and how they've found it.

We (he is the USC) were doing trips every 2 weeks for a little while. He'd come here for 2 weeks, 2 week break, then I'd go over for 2 weeks (we even both did 2 night stays over 2 different weekends once - which was mad tiring. 11 hour flight to spend 2 nights abroad!). Then he did two 6 week stays here (one in the summer, another over Christmas). Then he got his work to put him on an ICT visa so he could just live here (which is the time after he got a coded landing). You can get pretty close to the line!

Well after this post and the replies I decided to contact customs and border patrol myself and ask some questions. I talked to 2 people and some of what they said was pretty grim. One person said that if she could not provide proof of a job to return to or a lease she would probably be turned away. Another person said that due to her age of 28, she would very likely not even be questioned on taking a long summer holiday. The last thing we want is her to get here then get turned around at the border, or even worse a 3 year ban from the US. I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I know most of the stories I've read on this site about visitation have gone well, but I'm still worried she may get turned around if an over zealous officer is working that day.

[lost_at_sea 995]

Well after this post and the replies I decided to contact customs and border patrol myself and ask some questions. I talked to 2 people and some of what they said was pretty grim. One person said that if she could not provide proof of a job to return to or a lease she would probably be turned away. Another person said that due to her age of 28, she would very likely not even be questioned on taking a long summer holiday. The last thing we want is her to get here then get turned around at the border, or even worse a 3 year ban from the US. I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I know most of the stories I've read on this site about visitation have gone well, but I'm still worried she may get turned around if an over zealous officer is working that day.

I still honestly believe it'll be fine, at least the first time. Again, go to the Aussie section and see if any have ever been turned away. They don't make the visa stay limit 90 dyas to just turn everyone away who wants to use the full potential of that.