Can we travel with my tourist visa to the US while CR-1 is in process?

[lucasrk 0]

Hello,

I apologize if this is a repeat. I looked a bit and didn't find an answer to my specific question. Please move this to the appropriate thread if needed.

My husband, who is Mexican, has a tourist visa that is about to expire, though he might have to get another one for work travel in the summer. We were hoping to start his process for the the CR-1 to be able to move in the next year or so.

Our questions are:

1. Will he be able to travel to the US while the CR-1 is in process? Or should we avoid it?

2. Or, would it somehow be a benefit for him to have the tourist visa during this process?

We both live in Mexico, but I am a US citizen and we are planning to move back to my home state of Oregon when this is all complete.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!!! Thank you!

[Ralph and Meghan 19]

He can travel with a tourist visa while waiting for his IR-1/CR-1 petition to be processed and approved. However, he needs to be honest about the fact that the petition has been filed when asked for at customs and immigration. If you aren't truthful about that, not only could he denied entry, it could also impact on the IR-1/CR-1 later on. If he can convince the interviewing officer that he really intends to go for a short visit and return, he can be allowed to enter the US. The fact that he has a wife from the US whom he intends to live with is a complicating factor, so he might very well be turned down, precisely because people do frequently attempt to circumvent the process. So, even though you think it's ridiculous, the officer will have seen other people who have done precisely that. But, as long as he's convinced your husband is different, he can be approved to enter the US.

If not asked don't tell.

[lucasrk 0]

Thank you for your advice. One more thought though... if I live in Mexico right now, and have a job here (and therefor plan on returning), that seems like it would be convincing that he plans on returning. I am thinking, for example, if we travel together in the summer to the States to see my family, yet our lives are still very much based in Mexico. At the moment we don't have plans to travel there, but are more thinking about the fact that the tourist visa lasts 10 years, and depending on how long the CR-1 process takes, it is likely that we will want to travel together while we are both still living in Mexico.

Thoughts?

Edited February 12, 2014 by jreyes