Vietnamese Wife wants to Visit US

[SusieQQQ 11,584]

20 minutes ago, Stein said:

I meant if we went with the CR1 visa now, got it, got the green card but then didn't stay in the US enough in the first year or two that the US government considers the green card abandoned and they cancel it the possibility exists that when we applied again at a later date it might not be approved again.

No, that wouldn’t happen, you’d still get another one (assuming no criminal record or other inadmissiblilty of course). But it’s a long and costly route that might not even be “necessary”.

[WeGuyGal 1,052]

33 minutes ago, Stein said:

I meant if we went with the CR1 visa now, got it, got the green card but then didn't stay in the US enough in the first year or two that the US government considers the green card abandoned and they cancel it the possibility exists that when we applied again at a later date it might not be approved again.

That future petition would be decided on it's own merit when that bridge comes to be crossed. 

[USS_Voyager 1,971]

40 minutes ago, Stein said:

I meant if we went with the CR1 visa now, got it, got the green card but then didn't stay in the US enough in the first year or two that the US government considers the green card abandoned and they cancel it the possibility exists that when we applied again at a later date it might not be approved again.

What about biting the bullet and stay 4 years or so in the US until the wife get US citizen then she's free to do whatever she wants? 

[Stein 260]

1 hour ago, USS_Voyager said:

What about biting the bullet and stay 4 years or so in the US until the wife get US citizen then she's free to do whatever she wants? 

Mainly it is work related.  I need to be there for several years with my current company and my business.  After I retire from my company and my business is well situated we can be gone for longer stretches.  Plus she really doesn't want to live in the US.  Her parents are older and need help with things.

1 hour ago, WeGuyGal said:

That future petition would be decided on it's own merit when that bridge comes to be crossed. 

Well if that is the case the CR1 has merit.

[Ben & Katy 168]

20 hours ago, Stein said:

I'm a bit ahead of myself here but wondered what the group thought.  We will be married in Vietnam 4/28/19 (marriage will be registered with govt in March).  I live in Vietnam and work for my US-based company in Vietnam only returning to the US a couple of weeks every few months.  I also own a business in Vietnam with a Vietnamese partner.  We plan to stay in Vietnam for several years until I retire.  At that point we plan to spend 6 months in US in the summer and 6 months in Vietnam in the winter.  The problem is I don't want to file for a CR1 visa because we don't intend to immigrate to the US upon approval of the visa.  I don't want to go through the entire process, eventually get the green card for her and then end up losing it in a year or two due to not spending the majority of the time in the US.  Our intent will be to apply for that in a few years when we do plan to make the move.  So that leaves us with the tourist visa.  

 

She did apply for a tourist visa in June and, not surprisingly, was denied.  What I planned to do was to wait a year after marriage and apply again with the hope that I could explain that we really don't intend to immigrate to the US, otherwise we would have applied for the CR1 right away after marriage and that we really do plan to just visit my family and go back home to Vietnam.  What are your thoughts on a married couple (husband US citizen and wife Vietnamese) that own two houses in Vietnam, own my business in Vietnam and leaving behind her daughter with her parents in Vietnam just to visit in the US?  I know Vietnamese tourist visas are extremely difficult to get.  Is it worth the risk waiting a year and trying it?

 

 

It might take you a few tries to get her the tourist visa.  I had a friend in Mexico married to a US Citizen and they lived in Mexico.  They had no intention to go the United States because he had a very successful bar, she worked there, they had properties and he had originally retired from his career in the USA.  What he did was prove that he was maintaining her financially which he was because the bar she was working at it but really helping him more than gaining a salary. He also showed his business ties to Puerto Penasco and presented his mexican immigration documents proving his legal stay in Mexico.  Alot of Americans live illegally in Mexico which is another topic for another day.   She ended up not only getting the tourist visa for herself but also for her two children that she had from a previous marriage (she was a widow).  She got scrutinized at the end of the interview by the officer saying, "don't you even think about going to the United States and squatting there since you have an american husband." She responded to the officer, "don't worry because I have a beautiful home by the beach that I love and would never abandon my country."  

[Ate 180]

4 hours ago, Stein said:

Mainly it is work related.  I need to be there for several years with my current company and my business.  After I retire from my company and my business is well situated we can be gone for longer stretches.  Plus she really doesn't want to live in the US.  Her parents are older and need help with things.

 

Well if that is the case the CR1 has merit.

 

I would still recommend your fiancee try for a tourist visa again after you get married.  I believe she'd have strong ties to Vietnam to back up her application by then.  If she is denied again (while remaining honest about her personal circumstances), it would not affect her future CR1 application.  But applying for CR1 when you don't intend to maintain her LPR status seems like such a waste of time and money unless she's given up on trying for a tourist visa.

 

And while getting a tourist visa may be difficult, it's far from impossible.  For 2018, there were 105,818 B visas issued in Vietnam and the approval rate was 73.8% for Vietnamese applicants.  I'd say those are good odds for someone whose family has long-term business ties to the country.

 

[Stein 260]

Amazing what a year can do.  Just to update this thread I applied for the CR-1 visa July 2019, got stuck in Nebraska Service Center but miraculously my application was approved and sent to NVC last week after only 8 months instead of 12.  So we might be only 4-5 months away from moving back to the US!  Looks like about 165 day average from NOA2 to visa.