Frequent travel under WVP through K1 Process

[UKLDNChris 2]

Good evening all.

I'm hoping to draw on the immense collective knowledge of VisaJourney to help tackle a couple of challenges. My (British:London) OH (American:NYC) met online in June and I flew to visit her in July in New York. Since then, she has been to London twice, and I have been to New York twice. The total amount of time spent in each city was about 7 days for each trip, aside from Christmas, whereby she was in London for two and a half weeks.

 

I am visiting on Friday for another 8 days (leave the following Saturday). On this trip, we have decided we are going to file the paperwork to kick off the K1 Visa, with the aim to complete and have me move out to New York around July/August time. This is all straight forward and we're absolutely thrilled to get the ball rolling!

 

The issue lies with my travel to America in that time. Starting this month, my employer has granted permission for me to work one week per month in New York given that I have a number of clients on the East Coast. Through the weeks that I plan to be there over the coming months, I will be staying in New York with my OH, but travelling to Boston/Chicago now and again to visit clients. Although working Monday-Friday from home, these trips will be 8 days trip (Friday - following Saturday evening, as per the trip mentioned above), once a month. Naturally, I am concerned about how this may be perceived by Immigration at JFK.

 

My question is in multiple parts. Is the frequency & duration of my planned monthly trips acceptable? What is the best approach to take when dealing with Immigration (should I mention that I'll be working from home / visiting clients / not mention work at all and say I'm purely visiting?). Is there anything other than the obvious, that I should present at Immigration to ease my case? Finally, is this likely to get trickier once the K1 is filed in January?

 

Thanks very much in advance for any and all advice - what a pleasure it is to have such a helpful and supportive community for a subject area that can only be described as a minefield!

 

Cheers,

Chris

[Transborderwife 4,666]

Never lie to immigration, but I'm unsure of the legality of all of this.

[f f 725]

frequency of the trips should not be a problem. you already have a record of coming and going on time.

 

visiting clients is not a problem. since they are already your clients and you have worked with them before.

 

working from home while in new York may be an issue 

 

good luck

[Scodavvyy 5]

It'll probably depend on the CBP agent who deals with you on each trip. On the first few there probably won't be an issue and they will have no idea that you have filed a K-1 although if they ask Do Not Lie!! As time goes on you might get a curious one asking what you do for work and how you are able to travel so often and again you must be upfront as any perceived deception will be seen as fraud. When I made my second 5 week visit to Florida in the space of 15 weeks the CBP was very curious about how I got so much time off work. 

 

Also the ESTA program is probably not really meant for working while travel even if that is 'working from home' and you are employed by a UK company so it'll depend on how it's viewed by the CBP agent you see.

 

Good luck.

 

[UKLDNChris 2]

Much appreciated folks. I'm considering actually rotating between trips that are business focused (visiting clients), and purely holiday/leisure travel (visiting OH). Not sure if that'll help. I think the summary is that I'm not technically doing anything wrong, I just need to be able to confidently outline intentions to the CBP agent if necessary.

[Limey 551]

I don't think you'll have any problems. Regular short trips are probably much less suspicious than less regular long trips, and more standard for business. Whilst the exact rules on whether you can do work remotely for the UK are unclear, it would be rare for someone on a business trip not to sit at their laptop and do work relating to things back home in between US meetings. Similarly I am co director of a small company so when I travel on vacation (wherever it may be) my laptop comes with me, and I usually end up doing some work, even if its just answering emails and a few skype meetings.

 

You're able to spend up to 50% of your time in the US in theory, though in practice you might get some issues if you were doing that. But the percentage of time you're talking about spending there is much less, is in many shorter trips, and would not be unusual for business travel. If you were trying to live in the US by the back door, you'd be making longer trips.

Edited January 24, 2017 by Limey
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