Wife already had Tourist Visa, can she enter while I-130 is processing?

[Christopher F 3]

Hello all,

Thanks to all who help contribute the great info on this site that has helped me a lot so far!

I'm posting this question because all the other threads get filled up with off-topic questions etc.

Question:

My Brazilian wife had a J1 student visa- and currently has a valid us tourist visa. We got our NOA1 about a month and a half ago. Is she free to travel here for a vacation? Any precautions I need to take or anything we need to do?

Does she have any chance at all to get denied at customs when she arrives here? Can her traveling here, in any way, negatively affect our ongoing CR1 visa process?

Thanks in advance to any replies I receive!

Chris

[afortunada 182]

She is free to travel here, but is not guaranteed entry. She should bring documents with that show strong ties to her country and be prepared to explain why she needs to return. Yes, they can deny her. Yes, they will know she has a pending immigrant visa application. No, it will not hurt you if she does get denied at POE.

People travel to the US on visitors visas all the time while they have immigrant appliations pending! But plenty of them get denied, too. There's really no way to know! But you don't lose anything by trying.

EDIT: the only way it could harm you is if she lies to the customs officers. So, don't do that

Edited December 29, 2016 by afortunada

[canadian_wife 1,791]

Does she have any chance at all to get denied at customs when she arrives here?

Yes. There is always a chance. A valid tourist visa does not guarantee entrance into the U.S. When she was granted the tourist visa, was she married to you at the time?

She should bring strong ties to Brazil at the time of travel.

Good luck

[Christopher F 3]

Thanks for the input so far guys!

She was issued the tourist visa a few years ago, before we were married. She's not working now, so I can't really think of any "strong ties" that she has to Brazil. No house payments etc. No real obligations. Could that be a problem? I'd hate to waste $1500 on a plane ticket when I could just as easily go down there.

Any further advice/help is appreciated!

Chris

[kareelina 42]

A year and a half ago when my husband filed the petition for us asked me to apply for a tourist visa to spend the summer with him and he even booked the tickets. Although I had all the evidence of coming back such as business, bank statement, property but I was denied the visa and lost the tickets fees.

Edited December 31, 2016 by Ryan H
Reason for edit: to remove double post.

[afortunada 182]

Thanks for the input so far guys!

She was issued the tourist visa a few years ago, before we were married. She's not working now, so I can't really think of any "strong ties" that she has to Brazil. No house payments etc. No real obligations. Could that be a problem? I'd hate to waste $1500 on a plane ticket when I could just as easily go down there.

Any further advice/help is appreciated!

Chris

I personally wouldn't risk it and would just go down there, but again that is totally up to you. My husband was denied coming to see me in the US, so that comes just from my experience! He had school, work, house, children... Everything to return to in Mexico.

[KierenHby 897]

Primary issue facing i130-pending B2 entrant is convincing CBP in 2 minutes that they won't AOS.

Because.. many B2 entrants do just that.

[bcking 3,157]

On 12/28/2016 at 7:47 PM, Christopher F said:

Thanks for the input so far guys!

She was issued the tourist visa a few years ago, before we were married. She's not working now, so I can't really think of any "strong ties" that she has to Brazil. No house payments etc. No real obligations. Could that be a problem? I'd hate to waste $1500 on a plane ticket when I could just as easily go down there.

Any further advice/help is appreciated!

Chris

My wife applied for an ESTA after we were married (she had an old one but needed a new one because she got a passport with my last name). Her ESTA was approved and then we travelled together through Dublin (pre-flight immigration). We were in "secondary screening" for about an hour and a half. She eventually made it through, but it was touch and go and generally a very bad experience. She hasn't tried again. She, like your wife, didn't have "strong" ties because she had just recently been made redundant, so she moved back in with her parents (Why bother looking for work and paying for an apartment when she was moving to the US soon? Makes sense to us).

The thing that surprised me most about the whole experience actually was how little the immigration officer actually knew. I expected them to key in her passport and have something pop up onto the computer saying she was applying to immigrant. People always say "they will know". The guy at the primary screening asked us no questions, and refused to see any of the paperwork we brought (which included a copy of our NOA2/USCIS completion paperwork saying it was being forwarded to the NVC). He sent us to secondary as soon as he saw she had a UK passport and I had a US passport. The man in secondary took us into separate rooms and started berating me for trying to get her into country the "wrong way". He called us stupid, and told me he worked for 10 years in immigration so can "see through our " (actual words used). It was only after about 20 minutes of verbal abuse that I was able to get a word in edgewise to say that we had applied for her immigration and it had gone through USCIS and was being forwarded to the NVC. He hadn't looked at any of my paperwork before then. He was genuinely surprised, took the paper, left the room and came back 10 minutes later saying we were "lucky" we had that paperwork. Very strange experience. He also was very clear that airline tickets do not prove "intent" to return to your home country. By his argument, nothing actually proves intent. He said "even if she has a job and a house, how can you prove to me she won't just leave it behind and stay in the US?"

Not saying all experiences are like this. I've heard good things from other people, but the harassment just turned us off trying. Unfortunately we've had some unexpected delays so we've only been able to see each other once between August and now which was less than we would have liked and we still have probably 3 months to go before the visa.

[USandMalaysia 6]

I entered US with my B2 visa while my application was still pending for approval at USCIS. I printed my NOA1 but they never ask for it. The CBP officer asked me if i have any intention to immigrate. I told him "yes but not now and that We have applied for IR-1 and currently pending for approval". 

 

Then he asked few other questions - how long we've been married (6yrs), how old is my husband (32). They didnt ask any documents from me.

 

Like all feedbacks i got from others prior to my travelling, just be honest and stay calm.