N-400, question 23

[justwaiting4her 0]

On one visit to the US my wife (fiancee at the time) was rejected at the border and sent back to her home country. I do not know if that counts as detained on question 23 of the n-400?

 

[Texaco5 32]

On 5/30/2017 at 2:18 PM, justwaiting4her said:

On one visit to the US my wife (fiancee at the time) was rejected at the border and sent back to her home country. I do not know if that counts as detained on question 23 of the n-400?

 

I think that this would be considered being refused entry to the US. There are many reasons that the border agents can deny entry:

 

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/757/~/friend%2C-relative%2C-etc.-denied-entry-to-the-u.s.

 

How you answer the question is going to depend on exactly what happened and the reason(s) that she was denied entry. If she was detained and then sent home, presumably she has been able to deal with whatever the concern was the the border official had and has subsequently returned to the US and been allowed entry.

 

To be on the safe side, you should answer Yes and provide the explanation in the box in Question 29 with the details of what happened. Immigration will have a record of this denial of entry in their system so you should answer the question truthfully. Since she was denied entry as opposed to being allowed to enter and then becoming the subject of removal/deportation/exclusion proceedings (questions 33-36) then it is not a significant issue.

 

During the interview, your wife can explain that she wasn't sure if being denied entry was the type of information they are requesting here and whether what happened falls within the scope of that they mean by 'detained' so she provided it anyway.